Most children are suffering from depression and anxiety

Around 75 percent of adolescents are suffering from chronic depression and anxiety.

Girls are especially at risk, with up to 84 percent aged from 10 to 18 years likely to suffer at least one bout of depression or anxiety, while it affects around 60 percent of boys.  For 64 percent of children, the problem is chronic, with three or more episodes being recorded during the adolescent years.

Educational stress seemed to be the biggest trigger, with cases rising during the transition from primary to secondary education, at exam periods and at the end of compulsory education.

Although Covid-19 lockdowns have also been blamed, most cases during the pandemic involved children who had already suffered one bout of depression or anxiety before social isolation measures were introduced.

Researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia tracked the mental health of 1,239 adolescents in a study that claims to be one of the first to assess children over such a long span of time—and what it has discovered is very worrying.  “This high incidence of common mental health problems suggests that even the most well-resourced country would struggle to provide adequate treatment if every young person sought help,” said Susan Sawyer, one of the researchers.

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