Monday, September 13, 2004

Problems soaring among teenagers (UK)
Evening Standard story - "Teenagers are now far more likely to suffer behavioural problems and depression than 25 years ago, a disturbing new report has found. The mental health of young people has declined sharply and the rate of emotional problems such as anxiety and depression has increased by 70 per cent among adolescents. According to the biggest study of its kind conducted in Britain, the chances that 15-year-olds will have behavioural problems such as lying, stealing and being disobedient have more than doubled. The study, Time Trends in Adolescent Mental Health, found boys are more likely to suffer behavioural problems and girls more likely to experience emotional problems. However, the study, to be published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in November, found no increase in fighting, bullying or other aggressive behaviour..."  
  

A time for treatment (UK)
Editorial in the Guardian on the recently proposed new mental health legislation (see last Thursday's posting here), asking "...why this week was there so much opposition from the lobby to the newly redrafted bill? Simple. The main driver behind the bill is not the needs of the mentally ill but a desire to appease a media-misinspired public concern with the risks that mental patients pose. Statistically you are 20 times more likely to be killed by a sane person than an insane one. By far the biggest threat posed by mentally ill patients is to themselves, with more than 1,000 committing suicide every year." See also Clear as Mud (also in the Guardian) and Mental health tsar attacks draft Bill's 'hysterical' critics and (the Independent).