Pandemic, young people and mental distress: there is a real mental health crisis underway, especially among the very young, and the pandemic is the triggering cause. The alarm comes from National Congress from the Italian Society of NeuroPsychoPharmacology (Sinpf).
The incidence of depression and anxiety among adolescents has doubled compared to before the pandemic and a large meta-analysis just published on JAMA Pediatrics, which included 29 studies of more than 80,000 young people, showed that today one in 4 adolescents, in Italy and around the world, has clinical symptoms of depression and one in 5 signs of an anxiety disorder. This widespread mental distress risks putting a serious threat on the future health of children.
The probability of mental disorders is particularly high among older children, more than children, they explain
psychiatrists, have felt the effects of the restrictions. All this is also confirmed by a second study on 1,500 children
teenagers, published on Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. A situation that can
unfortunately have negative consequences in the long term: it has in fact been shown that suffering from depression during
childhood and adolescence is associated as adults with worse health, mental and beyond, and greater difficulties in relationships. It is therefore necessary, in the context of the pandemic, young people and mental distress, to "intercept the distress in young people and intervene with the most appropriate tools".
"All the research agrees: with the pandemic an alarming percentage of very young people are showing signs of a mental distress - explains Claudio Mencacci, co-president of Sinpf and emeritus director of neurosciences and mental health at the ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco in Milan - The rates of depression and anxiety that are recorded are directly related to
restrictions: that is, they increase when sociality is prevented, when we have to return to distance learning,
when relationships with peers cannot be cultivated. Those who pay the highest price are the children of upper secondary school, an essential phase for new experiences and for the first goals: not living in normality 'milestones' such as the final exam or the first loves for the psyche of a very young person it is similar to bereavement and as such can be a trigger for anxiety and depression. Many may have symptoms of mental distress that then resolve, but many are showing that they cannot get out of it. Not to mention those who were already fragile before Covid, for whom the pandemic was even more difficult to deal with. Everyone must be intercepted and helped."
And when psychotherapeutic treatment alone is not enough, drugs can also help. "The debate on the prescription of antidepressants in childhood and adolescence is still open: some are approved for use in this group, others are still used off label" - say Mencacci and Matteo Balestrieri, co-president of Sinpf - Antidepressants can and should be administered to an adolescent if it is appropriate, but careful monitoring and a treatment path that takes into account the emotional and cognitive situation is always necessary".
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