Mental Disorder Treatment Rates Low Globally for Children, Teens

Treatment rates found to be particularly low for depressive, anxiety disorders

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Oct. 23, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Globally, treatment rates for mental disorders among children and adolescents are low, with variance noted by demographics, according to a review published online Oct. 18 in JAMA Network Open.

Sifan Wang, from the School of Public Health at Kunming Medical University in China, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to estimate combined treatment rates for several common psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents.

Based on 40 included studies (310,584 individuals), the researchers found that the pooled treatment rate was 38 percent for any mental disorder, 36 percent for depressive disorders, 31 percent for anxiety disorders, 58 percent for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and 49 percent for behavior disorders. There were significant associations seen between age, income level, and region and the combined treatment rates of mental disorders in children and adolescents. For depressive disorders, the treatment rate was higher among adolescents than children (36 versus 11 percent), while the treatment rate for anxiety disorders was higher among children than adolescents (64 versus 20 percent). Treatment rates for depressive disorders were higher in the Americas (40 percent) than in Europe (28 percent) and the Western Pacific region (6 percent).

“Targeted intervention policies and effective measures should be designed and implemented to improve treatment rates of psychiatric disorders among youths,” the authors write.