CNN
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Nearly 15% of U.S. children will have recently been treated for a mental illness by 2021, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings, released Tuesday by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, suggest that mental health disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and anxiety are common among school-aged children.
For the study, statisticians analyzed data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey to determine the proportion of children who received mental health treatment in the past year. Most treatments were targeted at adolescents aged 12 to 17, and boys were more likely than girls to take prescription drugs for mental health, the report said.
Data show that 14.9% of children aged 5 to 17 will receive mental health treatment in 2021, of which 8.2% will take medication and 11.5% will seek counseling or therapy from a mental health professional. had received
Analyzing the data by age, the researchers found that 18.9% of children aged 12 to 17 received treatment for mental health concerns, compared with 11.3% of children aged 5 to 11. I discovered that
It is also estimated that 9% of boys and 7.3% of girls have taken medication for mental health, but the researchers found a significant proportion of those who had received counseling or therapy. No difference was found (11% for boys and 12.1% for girls). .
Analyzing the data by race, the researchers found that 18.3% of white children received mental health treatment, compared with 12.5% of black children, 10.3% of Hispanic children, and 10.3% of Asian children. found that 4.4% of children received it.
“Caucasian children were most likely to have received psychiatric treatment, and Asian children were least likely,” said researchers Benjamin Zavrodsky and Amanda Ng in their study. .
When the researchers analyzed the data by region, they found that in 2021, the percentage of children who had received some form of mental health treatment in the previous 12 months was higher in rural areas.
Data showed that 19.1% of children in non-metropolitan areas received mental health treatment, compared with 14% in metropolitan areas and 14.9% in small and medium-sized areas.
“The proportion of children taking medication for mental health continued to increase with increasing urbanization, but the proportion of children receiving counseling or therapy did not differ by urbanization level,” the researchers said. writing.
Overall, the new report is “consistent with what we are actually observing. of young people are expected to be more likely to receive mental health treatment, medication, or counseling,” she said. Rebecca Baum, professor of general pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in an email.
There is also concern that many children with mental health disorders, such as anxiety, are still not getting the treatment they need.
“There are many barriers to children and teens getting the mental health care they need. For services, it’s the size of the pediatric mental health workforce,” wrote Bohm, who was not involved in the new study.
“Another barrier to access to services for children and young people is stigma around mental health issues and how different cultures and communities think about mental health,” she wrote. “For example, these results may raise the question whether Asian, Black, or Hispanic families are less likely to receive mental health treatment than white families. , we also need to recognize the disparities that children and young people of color face in accessing mental health services and in seeking continuum of care, which is also reflected in these studies. It may help explain the results.”
Another study published last week Published in pediatric journalsfound that the proportion of U.S. children hospitalized with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder increased significantly from 2006 to 2018. Still, the proportion of visits with any form of treatment decreased, and there was no significant change in overall drug use. The number of children and teens with anxiety has increased, and the number of people receiving treatment has decreased.
