Study: Teen visits to doctors for mental health issues were spiking before pandemic

More than one in six doctors visits by adolescents and young adults involved mental health diagnoses in 2019, nearly double the rate from 2006, according to a new study (Source: “When Teens Visit Doctors, Increasingly the Subject is Mental Health,” New York Times, March 7).
 
The study, published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, found that 17% of outpatient doctor visits for patients ages 13 to 24 in the United States in 2019 involved a behavioral or mental health condition, including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm or other issues. That figure rose sharply from 2006, when just 9% of doctor’s visits involved psychiatric illnesses.
 
Researchers also found a sharp increase in the proportion of visits involving psychiatric medications. In 2019, 22.4% of outpatient visits by the 13-24 age group involved the prescription of at least one psychiatric drug, up from 13% in 2006.
 
The study does not posit a reason for the shift. But the pandemic alone was not to blame, it noted. “These findings suggest the increase in mental health conditions seen among youth during the pandemic occurred in the setting of already increasing rates of psychiatric illness,” wrote the authors, a pediatrician and psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. “Treatment and prevention strategies will need to account for factors beyond the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic.”