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Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:20 pm
by justdrew
I'd have guess it was bad, but not this bad...

Half of US teens meet criteria for mental disorder

WASHINGTON — Around half of US teens meet the criteria for a mental disorder and nearly one in four report having a mood, behavior or anxiety disorder that interferes with daily life, American researchers say.

Fifty-one percent of boys and 49 percent of girls aged 13-19 have a mood, behavior, anxiety or substance use disorder, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

In 22.2 percent of teens, the disorder was so severe it impaired their daily activities and caused great distress, says the study led by Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH).

"The prevalence of severe emotional and behavior disorders is even higher than the most frequent major physical conditions in adolescence, including asthma or diabetes," the study says.

Mental problems do not get the same attention from public health authorities even though they cost US families around a quarter of a trillion dollars a year, according to the study.

Around nine percent of all US children have asthma and less than a quarter of one percent of all people under the age of 20 have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Merikangas and a team of researchers analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Study-Adolescent Supplement, which surveyed more than 10,000 US teens.

The study is the first to track the prevalence of a broad range of mental disorders in a nationally representative sample of US teens.

They found that nearly a third of the teens met the criteria for the most common mental disorder among US youth, anxiety disorders, which include social phobia and panic "attacks".

This class of disorder also had the earliest median onset age, occurring in children as young as six years old.

Behavior disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, were the next most common condition (19.1 percent), followed by mood disorders (14.3 percent) such as depression.

Eleven percent of teens with a mood disorder, 10 percent with behavior disorders and eight percent who had anxiety disorders, especially social phobics, met the criteria for severe impairment, meaning their condition affected their day-to-day life and caused them great distress.

Teen mental disorder rates mirror those seen in adults, suggesting that most adults develop a mental disorder before adulthood, say the researchers, calling for earlier intervention and prevention, and more research to determine what the risk factors are for mental disorders in youth.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:36 pm
by Nordic
:roll:

This tells me there's nothing unusual about teenagers right now, it does tell me there's something seriously wrong with how these "experts" define "mental disorder".

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:43 pm
by Montag
Nordic wrote::roll:

This tells me there's nothing unusual about teenagers right now, it does tell me there's something seriously wrong with how these "experts" define "mental disorder".


It tells me doctors as the front men (and women) for pharmaceutical companies will be looking at some healthy Christmas bonuses...

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:03 pm
by §ê¢rꆧ
It tells me American society is very unwell. Teenagers are more sensitive to all the fucked up things I think, and, as they try and find their place in the world, the realities of today are driving them mentally ill. We as adults are numbed to it: think of our teens like the proverbial canary in the coalmine. :grumpy

I guess what I am trying to say is even if they are mentally ill, I don't blame them. I blame the world they have inherited. Not that there has to be blame... but you know what I mean...

Maybe I'm just sensitive to this, today is my neice's bday. Sweet 16 oh my here we go. She tells me half her friends are pregnant - 12 year olds and 14 year olds. So sad.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:30 pm
by Simulist
Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

Ex-wives of Psychiatrists Say More Than Half of All Shrinks "Meet Criteria for Mental Disorder"

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 10:45 pm
by justdrew
well, you all have good points, I think the thing has some validity though, I mean it stands to reason things would be going "not so well" for many teens.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:19 pm
by Wilbur Whatley
The irony is that those teenagers with "mental disorder" are likely to be the ones who are starting to think critically, who are experimenting with drugs, who are resistant to authority, who are determined to take an independent path.

While those who are "normal" are the ones who are going to go on to be Teabaggers, Republicans, Nazis, and the like.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 11:37 pm
by justdrew
Wilbur Whatley wrote:The irony is that those teenagers with "mental disorder" are likely to be the ones who are starting to think critically, who are experimenting with drugs, who are resistant to authority, who are determined to take an independent path.

While those who are "normal" are the ones who are going to go on to be Teabaggers, Republicans, Nazis, and the like.


yeah, the toxic environment is a defense mechanism for the psychopathic society, effecting those who might resist disproportionately.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:49 am
by JackRiddler
Well, at least it isn't two-thirds, like among everyone over 20.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 12:58 am
by justdrew
JackRiddler wrote:Well, at least it isn't two-thirds, like among everyone over 20.


:coolshades you may be right...


but the NIMH folks seem to say it's more like 25%

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 1:01 am
by Nordic
I used to go to a dentist who always found something wrong with my teeth, something that needed to be done .... ya know?

It took me a while, but I finally caught on.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:51 am
by Twyla LaSarc
One of the things I have taken away from my fucked up and painful American Teenagerhood is that there was really nothing wrong with me given that, as much as I was reassured every thing was A-OK and/or I was accused of hating my parents, it turns out that I had a somewhat realistic inkling of just how fucked up the world really was and it scared the shit outta me.

I pretend to ignore it now, but the evidence of the underlying shit comes through everytime they try to take my blood pressure...

I can't imagine what it must be like nowadays. they gave me fuckin' tricyclics back when (which I didn't take because they made me somnabulent, One of my best friends weathered the haldol/halcyon years we both compared notes, minor exposures caused problems like aphasia which plague us to this day)...its all shit and I pity the kids who have been forced to take this shit. I also say this as the mother of an 'aspberger's' 'ADD' kid who is in his third year of college; I raised him without those drugs and he neither wants nor needs them. However, I have always allowed him to draw his own conclusions about the state of humanity, which he seems pretty well aware of.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:14 am
by undead
Remember that the very first thing the Obama FDA did was to lower the age that they could give antipsychotics to. This is the primary measure of liberal fascism. All of the fake social services are an excuse to poison you with drugs, and the mandatory private health insurance is the big one. Soon it will be mandatory to drug your kids. If you don't, you will be considered a negligent parent. This is already a reality for some people.
Image

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 8:18 am
by Hammer of Los
Only half?

They need to get inventing those new mental illnesses a bit quicker.

We can't have anyone going around unmedicated, now can we? I mean, that's a whole untapped revenue stream.

Re: Half of US teens 'meet criteria for mental disorder'

PostPosted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:03 am
by NeonLX
I worry most about those who are considered "sane" in this greedy, violent, narcissistic "society".