Mental Health Problems Among College-Aged

[David Baxter PhD]

Mental Health Problems Among College-Aged
by Hoosier RT
Monday, December 01, 2008

I just ran across an interesting article titled Mental Health of College Students and Their Non?College-Attending Peers: Results From the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions, published this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 65, No. 12, pp. 1429 - 1437.

Researchers for the study were Carlos Blanco, MD, PhD; Mayumi Okuda, MD; Crystal Wright, BS; Deborah S. Hasin, PhD; Bridget F. Grant, PhD, PhD; Shang-Min Liu, MS; Mark Olfson, MD, MPH.

Results: Results from the survey research study revealed that approximately one-half of college-aged individuals had a psychiatric disorder during the prior year. The overall rate of psychiatric disorders was not different between college-attending individuals and their non?college-attending peers. The rate of alcohol use disorders was significantly greater for college students than for their non?college-attending peers.

Conclusions: Among the conclusions of the study were that psychiatric disorders (particularly alcohol use disorders) are common in the college-aged population and fewer than 25% of individuals with a mental disorder sought treatment in the year prior to the survey. These findings underscore the importance of treatment and prevention interventions among college-aged individuals.

These findings were a surprise to me. First, I had no idea that such a large percentage of individuals of college-age had psychiatric disorders...and that so few received treatment.

The study and treatment of college students with mental health problems would seem to be a obvious area of research for university RT faculty because potential participants (i.e., college students) are so close at hand. Also intervention studies with college students might be done -- with RT students helping to conduct the interventions.

About the Author
Name: Hoosier RT
Location: Indiana, United States

I became a Professor Emeritus after serving 29 years as a recreational therapy faculty member at Indiana University. I'm a long-time Hoosier, having grown up in Hanover, Indiana. My RT practitioner work was in psych/mental health. After completing my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, my first faculty position was at the University of North Texas. RT has been a wonderful profession for me as I have had the opportunity to serve as an author and national leader.

 

[cinderella]

As a new university student, I am not at all surprised by these findings. Once I began talking to my new friends about my anxiety, I discovered many of them were suffering from psychiatric disorders--a number of them are on the same medication as me, either for anxiety or depression. As for alcohol-related problems, it's a known fact that a lot of university students make it a habit of getting drunk regularly, often multiple times per week. Yet, I never expected to see what I have witnessed since my arrival. One guy sits in his room every night and drowns an entire bottle of whiskey. And, he's definitely not the only one. It's really sad.

And, it really makes me question the health system. Why is there not more awareness of these problems? These are some of the country's brightest youth, and so many of them are plagued with quite terrible conditions.

 

[Shifter]

I agree with Cinderella. I am also a new university student (just started this past September) and I am noticing the same things. Lots of people drinking in their rooms, 19 or not (Ontario). I'm not 19 and I don't drink and I never will, but that's just me. There are a lot of 18 year olds who drink illegally. I am thinking it is self-medication or some kind of buffer to counteract the stress of constant tests, exams, assignments, etc. (please excuse the chemistry nerd stress/buffer reference). I don't know for sure. But I agree that it is indeed a problem, and a big one at that, and something should be done about it. I agree with Cinderella that it should start with the student health services of the universities themselves. My student health service is so incompetent that they can't manage to give everyone a simple flu shot! How could they deal with problems like these that are apparently so prevalent in college-aged people.

 

[cinderella]

Thanks, Shifter! That is exactly what I am witnessing here.

I mean, it's okay to drink a bit now and then, but getting completely drunk multiple times a week clearly is a problem. A lot of people seem to drink as a type of "self-medication", but many others just seem so excited at the possibility of drinking that they go way overboard.

I believe student health services need more resources to be able to cope with the influx of students with mental health issues.

 

[Shifter]

I agree with absolutely everything you said! And you'd think that student health services would be better equipped to deal with problems that are so prevalent in the student body -_-

 

[cinderella]

Absolutely. Unfortunately, there seems to be a general awareness problem. I didn't realise how prevalent mental health issues are in college environments until I got here. And, even then, I only found out because I openly talked about my issues to my friends, who then told me about theirs. If the health system admitted how big a problem this is, then it would be much easier to instate the proper resources.