HEALTHWATCH
Nearly a third of adolescents getting mental health treatment, federal survey finds
healthwatch
By Alexander Tin
Edited By Paula Cohen
July 30, 2024 / 11:55 AM EDT / CBS News
Close to 1 in 3 adolescents in the U.S. received mental health treatment in 2023, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported Tuesday, which works out to around 8.3 million young people between the ages of 12 and 17 getting counseling, medication or another treatment.
The result is among the findings now released from SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2023. The federal agency's sweeping annual poll is closely tracked by mental health and addiction experts.It includes a broad range of questions asked to Americans ages 12 and older living in the community, not in care facilities.
The most common type of mental health treatment was meeting with a provider in an outpatient setting, like at an office of a therapist or school counseling center.
Among adolescents, the biggest increase from 2022 was in the number getting medication for mental health treatment. SAMHSA estimates that 13.9% of those age 12 to 17 received such a prescription in 2023. That is up from 12.8% the year before, though the agency said that the increase was not statistically significant.
The share of adults receiving mental health treatment has also climbed, from 21.8% in the 2022 survey to 23% in 2023. Among adults, 16.3% got prescription medication for mental health treatment, compared to 15.2% in 2022.
SAMHSA officials said they saw the increase as a positive development, citing efforts to normalize and destigmatize seeking out mental health treatment.
"We think it's a good thing that more people are accessing and connecting with mental health treatment. Certainly that has been a focus of the Biden Harris administration to make treatment more accessible, to help people know that treatment and services and supports are available," Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Miriam Delphin-Rittmon told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.
Rates of adolescents getting mental health treatment has increased virtually every year since 2009 in SAMHSA's survey results, though the agency has cautioned against directly comparing against results from before 2021 due to changes in how the survey was done.
In 2022, the survey estimated that 7.7 million ages 12 to 17 years old had received mental health treatment of some kind, or 29.8%. The increase amounts to more than 500,000 additional adolescents getting treatment in 2023, SAMHSA said.
The rate of adolescents reporting having a major depressive episode has remained roughly flat since 2021, at 18.1% of those 12 to 17 years old, or 4.5 million.
Psychiatrists classify a major depressive episode as a period of feeling depressed for at least two weeks, to the point where the person has problems with daily tasks like sleeping and eating or thoughts of death or suicide.
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