Between 2008 and 2022, mental health disorders among people aged 10 to 24 in Catalonia have more than doubled, according to a study led by researchers at the Institut d’Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol (IDIAPJGol), published in the academic journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health. The data, taken from more than two million medical records of patients treated by Primary Care, show a notable increase in cases of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with an alarming acceleration during the covid-19 pandemic. This is the first study of its kind to consider the effects of social inequality (sex / gender, socioeconomic status, age and nationality) and the pandemic on mental disorders.
The study highlights that anxiety disorders are the most common, with 2,537 cases per 100,000 young people in 2022. Significant increases were also recorded in depression (471 cases per 100,000), eating disorders (249) and ADHD (306). Cases of anxiety multiplied by 2.33 between 2008 and 2022; cases of depression, by 2.44; eating disorders, by 3.29; and ADHD, by 2.33.
Social inequities
The research team has analysed the effects of sex / gender, age, socio-economic deprivation and nationality, based on the view that individual distress is strongly related to social and structural determinants. The study has observed that mental disorders are more frequent among girls. The results indicate that there are twice as many cases of anxiety and depression among girls compared to boys. As regards eating disorders, the study records almost nine times more cases among girls than among boys. On the contrary, in ADHD, the situation is the opposite, with twice as many cases among boys.
As regards age, in the 19-24 age group more cases of depression and anxiety have been observed, while in the 15-18 age group there are more diagnoses of eating disorders. In the case of ADHD, the group with the highest frequency is that of children between 10 and 14 years old.
The results of the study reveal disparities according to socioeconomic status. In this sense, anxiety and depression disorders are more common among young people living in more disadvantaged areas, while eating disorders and ADHD are more prevalent in areas with fewer deprivations. Finally, mental disorders are more common among people with Spanish nationality, except for anxiety, where an increase has been observed since mid-2015 in adolescents and young people of nationalities mainly from Latin America.
The effect of the pandemic
The research detects a significant increase in diagnoses of mental disorders between 2011 and 2013, which are probably related to the economic crisis that began in 2008, and especially between 2020 and 2022, when the covid-19 pandemic occurred.
The research team has observed a small drop in diagnoses of anxiety, depression and ADHD right at the beginning of this health crisis, which could be attributed to the decrease in the registration of cases due to confinement and restrictions on access to health services that occurred during the first months of the pandemic.
After this one-off decrease, there was a spectacular increase in diagnoses that, according to the article, “reflects the adverse effects of the pandemic, confinement and distancing measures on the mental health of adolescents and young people.” The work also recognizes that the increase in the diagnosis of mental disorders could reflect greater awareness among society and the health system about mental health.
Strengthening mental health resources
The research team stresses that, beyond the increase in cases, these disorders are associated with a profound impact on well-being and social relationships.
The coordinator of the study, Constanza Jacques-Aviñó, a researcher at IDIAPJGol, highlights that the increase in mental disorders among adolescents and young people is “a worrying problem that needs to be addressed through coordinated actions between the health, educational and social spheres.” Dr. Jacques-Aviñó adds that “structural and social factors must be taken into account, as well as the discrimination suffered by some groups due to gender and immigration status.”
Furthermore, the first signatory of the article, Ana Lozano, also a researcher at IDIAPJGol, states that “we cannot forget that taking care of mental health means guaranteeing access to decent living conditions, especially basic resources such as housing.”
Study reference
Lozano-Sánchez A, Aragonès E, López-Jiménez T, Bennett M, Evangelidou S, Francisco E, García M, Malgosa E, Codern-Bové N, Guzmán-Molina C, Jacques-Aviñó C. Temporal trends and social inequities in adolescent and young adult mental health disorders in Catalonia, Spain: a 2008-2022 primary care cohort study. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2024 Dec 18;18(1):159. doi: 10.1186/s13034-024-00849-2. PMID: 39695666; PMCID: PMC11657204.
