Teen Mental Health Declining in the United States

Adolescents in the United States are more likely to suffer from a mental health disorder than ever before, but getting these teens diagnosed and cared for is a challenge that is not being met, a new book warns.
These findings are detailed in Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders: What We Know and What We Don’t Know – A Research Agenda for Improving the Mental Health of Our Youth (Oxford University Press), in which 150 mental health specialists analyze recent research on teen mental health problems.

These experts found while one in five adolescents suffer from a mental health disorder, treating them is not a priority on the nation’s public health agenda, and there is limited knowledge about how to best help them. The result: disorders are frequently undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, or teenagers receive treatment whose effectiveness has been mostly studied in adults.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 29 Jun 2005
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.