The number of college students with a serious mental illness is rising, according to study presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, which is meeting this week in San Diego. The finding comes from an analysis of 3,265 college students who used campus counseling services at a mid-sized private university between September 1997 and August 2009. In 1998, 93 percent of the students seeking counseling were diagnosed with one mental disorder, compared to 96 percent of students in 2009. The percentage of students with moderate to severe depression rose from 34 percent to 41 percent, while the number of students on psychiatric medications increased from 11 percent to 24 percent.
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13 Responses to Number of College Students With Severe Mental Illness on the Rise
deborahsullivan - August 13, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Interesting and good for us with CARE now! D
interested_reader3 - August 13, 2010 at 4:30 pm
It’s almost criminal to have a blurb like this which is alarmist, yet gives so little information on a wide variety of fronts. First, statistics- what percent of students are using counseling services? Based on the number using counseling services, are the differences in percent from 1998 to 2009 statistically significant? (93% to 96% seems particularly suspect). Next, as the major article mentions, “since the findings are based only on one college campus, more research is needed to find out whether the results represent a more general trend.” And, we also need to unpack the issue of age and societal trends. I believe the trend towards increased acknowledgment and treatment of depression and more utilization of medication is not limited to this age group. At the same time, some major psychiatric illnesses appear first during the age of traditional college students. We don’t actually know the age of the students from this article (undergrads/grads?), and how this and other demographic factors that have a relationship to psych. illness might have changed over time (e.g., if numbers of students of traditional ug age have increased over older students, if international students who might have issues of seeking help might have decreased, male/female changes, race/ethnic changes- whatever trends are known about population and its connection to mental illness and seeking help. I could go on and on. The bottom line is that 1) this might not be a very thorough academic study, and 2) reporting it in this way is alarmist.
velvis - August 13, 2010 at 4:42 pm
I think my favorite part is the SEVERE mental illness and being diagnosed with one disorder — I would call SEVERE at least 3 or more disorders — maybe one chemical and a couple of personality issues. But really talking about depression when we could be talking about hallucinations or multiple personalities or Foreign Accent Syndrome I didn’t take it as alarmist though – rather as being hopeful. They are in college but are able to deal with really serious issues which could otherwise be debilitating.
victorl - August 13, 2010 at 5:01 pm
This note in CHE and the linked study summary (from “Science Codex”) offer a number of intriguing avenues that, as often seems the case, go unexplored.First, what is the connection between the increase in psychiatric medicine and the rise in multiple mental illness diagnoses? Is there one? Beyond just a correlation?Also, I have read elsewhere that there is a greater prevelance to overdiagnose mental illness at colleges and universities, what with the frequencies of incoming students to open fire with large-caliber automatic weapons. That was said sarcastically. We think that because of the justified sensational cases of the Columbines, Virginia Tech, etc., all schools are equally at risk.The story here is more likely centered on counseling staff, and why they overdiagnose mental illness (pathologize normal emotional responses). It’s been documented elsewhere. “Comfortably Numb” by Charles Barber (Pantheon, 2008), “Happy Pills in America” by David Hertzberg (Hopkins, 2009), “The Medicalization of Everyday Life,” by Thomas Szasz (Syracuse, 2007), “Medication Madness,” by Peter Breggin (St. Martin’s, 2008), “The Myth of the Chemical Cure” by Joanna Moncrieff (Macmillan 2008), “The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder” by Allen Horwitz & Jerome Wakefield (Oxford, 2007), etc., etc.It’s all very depressing. We all confront sadness and depressing situations in our lives. The unfortunate fact is that many who have drugs inflicted on them never learn how to deal with these very natural episodes in a healthy manner.
jupiter125 - August 13, 2010 at 11:13 pm
What colleges fear much more than a student opening fire is a student committing suicide. Parents blame the college, and may threaten litigation if the risk wasn’t recognized or if something proactive wasn’t done by a counselor. And colleges occasionally get rashes of copy-cat suicides (as recently at NYU and Cornell, both with tempting jump-off spots). I believe it doesn’t take much evidence of “depression” for medication to be prescribed, on the better-safe-than-sorry theory.
markstoneman - August 14, 2010 at 4:38 pm
It seems to me that numbers as alarming as these should only be reported with some context, whether that by means of a longer article or simply with links to further explanation and considerations elsewhere. Otherwise I don’t know what this information actually means.
eapretto - August 16, 2010 at 10:25 am
I believe someone should take a look at the prevalence of drug abuse, in particular Marijuana and amphetamines, in this patient population. It is well known that Amphetamines and also, believe or not, Cannabis (the active ingredient in Marijuana) can increase the risk of mental illness. The risk does not fade even after many years after cessation. It appears not to be related only to heavy use. Some individuals may have a predisposition to suffer pyschosis and other mental health problems, even after single use. In the midst of this current controversy over legalization of Marijuana and the increasing use of so-called medical marijuana, I dont know understand why we (the public and media) are ignoring the clear evidence concerning the adverse mental health effects of Marijuana.
dank48 - August 16, 2010 at 11:18 am
Eapretto: you’re not taking your medication, are you?Cannabis is not the active “ingredient” in marijuana. Tetrahydrocannabinot, THC, is the chemical you’re referring to, but it’s not an ingredient, because marijuana, aka cannabis, is a plant, not something made with a recipe. The rest of the comment is on about the same level. See a doctor. Do what the doctor says. Don’t adjust the amount of medication. Please.
dank48 - August 16, 2010 at 11:18 am
Tetrahydrocannabinol. Sorry.
saasaa - August 16, 2010 at 11:40 am
dank48. Bless you. *with tears streaming down my face in laughter*
drj50 - August 16, 2010 at 12:18 pm
If I understand the reported data correctly, the data cited do not support the conclusion that “number of college students with a serious mental illness is rising,” but only that the percentage (not number) of “students who used campus counseling services” at one mid-sized public university rose. Maybe this university counseling service has done a much better job of outreach, so that more students who have a mental disorder, suffer from depression, or use psychiatric medications now seek help from the service. I hope that the actual study either has stronger data or draws more cautious conclusions.
headmin - August 16, 2010 at 2:57 pm
What may be of even more interest is the reduction of the number of counseling staff on college campuses when there appears to be a rise in students with mental health issues. With the exception of a couple, our state system has seen a wholesale reduction of counseling staff. The same could also be said for high school counselors. High student demand with low staffing levels.
pdadosky - August 17, 2010 at 4:18 pm
It is not surprising to find that a higher percentage of students suffer from depression. Contributing factors, in my view, include poor economic conditions, a student’s struggle to find their own identity (poor self-image), an increase in the number of students from broken homes and dysfunctional families, and a student’s uncertainty about what degree and field of work he/she wants to pursue. Another contributing factor, in my view, can nevertheless be looked upon as positive – the increase in the number of students who feel comfortable enough to seek help.