Statistics about adolescent depression
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Suggested Resources
What Is Substance Abuse Treatment? A Booklet for Families
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Answers questions about substance abuse, its symptoms, different types of treatment, and recovery. Addresses concerns of children of parents with substance use/abuse problems.It's Not Your Fault (NACoA) (PDF | 12 KB)
Assures teens with parents who abuse alcohol or drugs that, "It's not your fault!" and that they are not alone. Encourages teens to seek emotional support from other adults, school counselors, and youth support groups such as Alateen, and provides a resource list.After an Attempt: A Guide for Taking Care of Your Family Member After Treatment in the Emergency Department
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Last Updated: 08/30/2022
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs
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Misusing alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs can have both immediate and long-term health effects.The misuse and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and prescription medications affect the health and well-being of millions of Americans. NSDUH estimates allow researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and the general public to better understand and improve the nation’s behavioral health. These reports and detailed tables present estimates from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).
Alcohol
Data:
- Among the 133.1 million current alcohol users aged 12 or older in 2021, 60.0 million people (or 45.1%) were past month binge drinkers. The percentage of people who were past month binge drinkers was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (29.2% or 9.8 million people), followed by adults aged 26 or older (22.4% or 49.3 million people), then by adolescents aged 12 to 17 (3.8% or 995,000 people). (2021 NSDUH)
- Among people aged 12 to 20 in 2021, 15.1% (or 5.9 million people) were past month alcohol users. Estimates of binge alcohol use and heavy alcohol use in the past month among underage people were 8.3% (or 3.2 million people) and 1.6% (or 613,000 people), respectively. (2021 NSDUH)
- In 2020, 50.0% of people aged 12 or older (or 138.5 million people) used alcohol in the past month (i.e., current alcohol users) (2020 NSDUH)
- Among the 138.5 million people who were current alcohol users, 61.6 million people (or 44.
4%) were classified as binge drinkers and 17.7 million people (28.8% of current binge drinkers and 12.8% of current alcohol users) were classified as heavy drinkers (2020 NSDUH) - The percentage of people who were past month binge alcohol users was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (31.4%) compared with 22.9% of adults aged 26 or older and 4.1% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (2020 NSDUH)
- Excessive alcohol use can increase a person’s risk of stroke, liver cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis, cancer, and other serious health conditions
- Excessive alcohol use can also lead to risk-taking behavior, including driving while impaired. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 29 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver daily
Programs/Initiatives:
- STOP Underage Drinking interagency portal - Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking
- Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking
- Talk.
They Hear You. - Underage Drinking: Myths vs. Facts
- Talking with your College-Bound Young Adult About Alcohol
Relevant links:
- National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors
- Department of Transportation Office of Drug & Alcohol Policy & Compliance
- Alcohol Policy Information Systems Database (APIS)
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Tobacco
Data:
- In 2020, 20.7% of people aged 12 or older (or 57.3 million people) used nicotine products (i.e., used tobacco products or vaped nicotine) in the past month (2020 NSDUH)
- Among past month users of nicotine products, nearly two thirds of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (63.1%) vaped nicotine but did not use tobacco products. In contrast, 88.9% of past month nicotine product users aged 26 or older used only tobacco products (2020 NSDUH)
- Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death, often leading to lung cancer, respiratory disorders, heart disease, stroke, and other serious illnesses.
The CDC reports that cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States - The CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health reports that more than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking cigarettes
Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use data:
- In 2021, 13.2 million people aged 12 or older (or 4.7%) used an e-cigarette or other vaping device to vape nicotine in the past month. The percentage of people who vaped nicotine was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (14.1% or 4.7 million people), followed by adolescents aged 12 to 17 (5.2% or 1.4 million people), then by adults aged 26 or older (3.2% or 7.1 million people).
- Among people aged 12 to 20 in 2021, 11.0% (or 4.3 million people) used tobacco products or used an e-cigarette or other vaping device to vape nicotine in the past month. Among people in this age group, 8.1% (or 3.1 million people) vaped nicotine, 5.4% (or 2.1 million people) used tobacco products, and 3.
4% (or 1.3 million people) smoked cigarettes in the past month. (2021 NSDUH) - Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Among both middle and high school students, current use of e-cigarettes declined from 2019 to 2020, reversing previous trends and returning current e-cigarette use to levels similar to those observed in 2018
- E-cigarettes are not safe for youth, young adults, or pregnant women, especially because they contain nicotine and other chemicals
Resources:
- Tips for Teens: Tobacco
- Tips for Teens: E-cigarettes
- Implementing Tobacco Cessation Programs in Substance Use Disorder Treatment Settings
- Synar Amendment Program
Links:
- Truth Initiative
- FDA Center for Tobacco Products
- CDC Office on Smoking and Health
- National Institute on Drug Abuse: Tobacco, Nicotine, and E-Cigarettes
- National Institute on Drug Abuse: E-Cigarettes
Opioids
Data:
- Among people aged 12 or older in 2021, 3.
3% (or 9.2 million people) misused opioids (heroin or prescription pain relievers) in the past year. Among the 9.2 million people who misused opioids in the past year, 8.7 million people misused prescription pain relievers compared with 1.1 million people who used heroin. These numbers include 574,000 people who both misused prescription pain relievers and used heroin in the past year. (2021 NSDUH) - Among people aged 12 or older in 2020, 3.4% (or 9.5 million people) misused opioids in the past year. Among the 9.5 million people who misused opioids in the past year, 9.3 million people misused prescription pain relievers and 902,000 people used heroin (2020 NSDUH)
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Understanding the Epidemic, an average of 128 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose
Resources:
- Medications for Substance Use Disorders
- Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit
- TIP 63: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Use of Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Criminal Justice Settings
- Opioid Use Disorder and Pregnancy
- Clinical Guidance for Treating Pregnant and Parenting Women With Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants
- The Facts about Buprenorphine for Treatment of Opioid Addiction
- Pregnancy Planning for Women Being Treated for Opioid Use Disorder
- Tips for Teens: Opioids
- Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Grants
- Tribal Opioid Response Grants
- Provider’s Clinical Support System - Medication Assisted Treatment Grant Program
Links:
- National Institute on Drug Abuse: Opioids
- National Institute on Drug Abuse: Heroin
- HHS Prevent Opioid Abuse
- Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America
- Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network
- Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network
Marijuana
Data:
- In 2021, marijuana was the most commonly used illicit drug, with 18.
7% of people aged 12 or older (or 52.5 million people) using it in the past year. The percentage was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (35.4% or 11.8 million people), followed by adults aged 26 or older (17.2% or 37.9 million people), then by adolescents aged 12 to 17 (10.5% or 2.7 million people). - The percentage of people who used marijuana in the past year was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (34.5%) compared with 16.3% of adults aged 26 or older and 10.1% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (2020 NSDUH)
- Marijuana can impair judgment and distort perception in the short term and can lead to memory impairment in the long term
- Marijuana can have significant health effects on youth and pregnant women.
Resources:
- Know the Risks of Marijuana
- Marijuana and Pregnancy
- Tips for Teens: Marijuana
Relevant links:
- National Institute on Drug Abuse: Marijuana
- Addiction Technology Transfer Centers on Marijuana
- CDC Marijuana and Public Health
Emerging Trends in Substance Misuse:
- Methamphetamine—In 2019, NSDUH data show that approximately 2 million people used methamphetamine in the past year.
Approximately 1 million people had a methamphetamine use disorder, which was higher than the percentage in 2016, but similar to the percentages in 2015 and 2018. The National Institute on Drug Abuse Data shows that overdose death rates involving methamphetamine have quadrupled from 2011 to 2017. Frequent meth use is associated with mood disturbances, hallucinations, and paranoia. - Cocaine—In 2019, NSDUH data show an estimated 5.5 million people aged 12 or older were past users of cocaine, including about 778,000 users of crack. The CDC reports that overdose deaths involving have increased by one-third from 2016 to 2017. In the short term, cocaine use can result in increased blood pressure, restlessness, and irritability. In the long term, severe medical complications of cocaine use include heart attacks, seizures, and abdominal pain.
- Kratom—In 2019, NSDUH data show that about 825,000 people had used Kratom in the past month. Kratom is a tropical plant that grows naturally in Southeast Asia with leaves that can have psychotropic effects by affecting opioid brain receptors.
It is currently unregulated and has risk of abuse and dependence. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that health effects of Kratom can include nausea, itching, seizures, and hallucinations.
Resources:
- Tips for Teens: Methamphetamine
- Tips for Teens: Cocaine
- National Institute on Drug Abuse
More SAMHSA publications on substance use prevention and treatment.
Last Updated: 03/22/2023
Why teen depression is dangerous and how to prevent it
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Why teen depression is dangerous and how to prevent it
07/22/2020
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Depression is a dangerous psychological illness that can develop in a child as they grow up. At this point, it is very important to notice the first signs: if treatment is not started on time, the disease can develop into a chronic form and manifest itself already in adulthood with more severe consequences.
Why parents should be more attentive to the psychological state of the child and how to prevent teenage depression, employees ANO "CISM" told the psychologist and advisory member of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League Elena Pavlova .
- By what signs can one understand that a child has depression?
- The first sign of depression in adolescents is lethargy, apathy, refusal of any entertainment and a decrease in school performance. Often, in response to a child's loss of interest in school, parents begin to put pressure on him and criticize him, trying to force him to study. This is not true, because here you need to try to find out the reason why this happens. There is also the opposite effect: some children use study as a way to “escape” from themselves and their problems, on the contrary, academic performance increases, and parents do not take this into account, rejoicing at the success of the child.
When any problems arise, a person always starts to behave differently than before.
Accordingly, with depression, for example, you want to lie down all day, doing nothing. Adults interpret this as a sign of relaxation and begin to swear. Also, one of the signs of depression is insomnia, in adolescents it most often takes certain forms: the child does not sleep, spends the whole night at the computer or on a smartphone. Such a downed regime is perceived by parents as sabotage.
The next sign is a violation of appetite and eating habits. This is also worth paying attention to. Another marker is the loss of interest in the usual activities, in communication with peers. And, of course, the most inconspicuous symptoms that only the child himself feels are depressive thoughts, a feeling of longing, a constant state of anxiety and fear, a negative perception of himself and others. Parents can notice this only when a teenager begins to ask some unusual questions for him, for example, about life and death. Here you don’t need to dismiss it and call it “nonsense”, you need to try to find out why the child became interested in this topic, why he had such thoughts and what they are connected with.
- Why do teenagers get depressed? Which children are at risk?
- According to WHO statistics, in Russia about 11% of boys and girls under the age of 18 suffer from depression. That is, this is every tenth teenager, but the statistics include only those cases that have been registered, respectively, this figure can be much higher. Unfortunately, most often depression during puberty is left without the attention of others: parents often ignore the symptoms that are obvious to specialists, or take them for whims or age-related changes in character, so the only thing they resort to to combat this state of a teenager is moralizing or even punishment. .
Crises during adolescence are inevitable, as physical changes and a hormonal explosion occur in the body of children, which gives rise to emotional instability. During this period, the child begins to overestimate life attitudes, his character and ways of social interaction with others change. At this stage, parents should in no case show pressure, the teenager needs to be supported, shown love and understanding.
After all, in addition to the internal processes that concern him, pressure is also increasing from the outside: from teachers at school, from friends; first experience of relationships with the opposite sex. In addition to everything, self-doubt can become. All of these factors can lead a child into a state of depression if he does not feel supported by the family.
In addition, depression can also be hereditary. But more often the reason is the environment in which the teenager is located: what kind of relationship he has with his parents, how much he is accepted and loved, how comfortable he feels in the family, how successful he is in this or that activity.
- Today's youth are more likely to suffer from depression than past generations. Is this true? Why is there such a trend?
– Today's teenagers suffer from depression much more often than their predecessors. This is due to the fact that now an unlimited flow of information is directed at children, they receive it from a huge number of sources, and it is far from always positive.
Adolescents are very suspicious during the period of growing up, and are often ready to believe everything they write and say on social networks. In addition, teenage self-doubt gives rise to a desire to compare their lives with the “beautiful” life dictated by social networks. The addition is the constant communication on the Internet, which makes children feel lonely in real life. That is why modern youth is more susceptible to the development of severe psychological conditions. And parents need to teach the child to interact with the world from childhood, try to build trusting relationships with him so that he is not afraid to tell mom and dad about his problems and experiences.
- How to help a teenager get rid of depression? What are the consequences if therapy is not started on time?
- A teenager in depression is initially worse than an adult, because he has not yet developed the usual ways to protect his psyche and is not able to ignore what is happening to him, he still lacks the skills of emotional self-regulation.
Very often, teenagers feel shame and guilt for their condition, this can manifest itself through aggression. They are hurt, but ashamed to cry and complain, and they express it as best they can. Therefore, most often an aggressive teenager is an unhappy teenager. These children need help first and foremost, not education. And if it is not provided in time, during puberty, over time, depression will manifest itself in a more severe form. Therefore, early intervention directly affects the course of the disease in the future.
- How to convince a teenager to visit a psychotherapist or psychologist?
- If parents have found symptoms of depression in a child, there is no need to rush, you need to work carefully and start small. First of all, try to restore lost trust, show support, interest, offer help. At this point, you need to be completely on the side of the child. If depression has already taken a clinical form, then here you need to seek help from specialists.
And as experience shows, the most effective tool in the fight against teenage depression is conversational practice, combined with the right drugs.
I must say right away that it is best for a parent to go to an appointment with a teenager. Only in this way the psychologist can properly consider the current situation. When you voice the idea to a child to go to a psychologist for a consultation, in order to convince him of the need for such a visit, you need to act according to a certain algorithm. First, in no case should you take a “must” position, speak with the child on an equal footing, as with an adult. Try to explain to him that right now you may not understand each other, but in spite of everything you love him and want to help. The second is to convey to the teenager that someone else is needed to resolve the current situation and offer to choose a specialist together. Thirdly, a parent can try to say that he himself wants to go to a psychologist in order to sort out the existing problems between him and the child, but explain that if he goes alone, the psychologist will not have the opportunity to hear two points of view.
If in the end these methods did not help convince a teenager, you can simply offer to go to the first appointment and say that if you don’t like it, you will no longer return to this topic. But in no case should you pressure, force, blackmail, threaten or make any excessive promises. It's taboo.
- What role do social networks and the Internet play in the formation of depression?
“According to researchers from the University of Montreal, social networks and TV programs have caused a decrease in self-esteem in adolescents and, as a result, a trigger for depression. In their opinion, television and social networks include content that presents the lives of other young people in a very positive way, forms an idea of an ideal life. Adolescents unwittingly begin to compare themselves with those they see on social networks, turn out to be dissatisfied with the result, and this dissatisfaction becomes the cause of the development of a depressive state.
Thus, the more time a child spends on social networks, the higher the risk of developing depression.
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Psychologists: The reasons for adolescence depression are hidden in the family and school
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16.06 .2016 01:00
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The causes of teenage depression lie in the family and school
Tatyana Bateneva
From time to time we are shocked by reports of teenagers committing suicide. The shock of this unthinkable unnatural information makes us look for the guilty - bad companies, destructive sects, mind-boggling sites... But experts - physiologists, psychologists, doctors - say that it's not so simple, and the reasons must be sought in us adults.
Risk factors
Tough talk on the topic "Influence of information technologies on children's health" took place recently at a meeting of the coordinating council of the Russian Academy of Education (RAE) and the Department of Medical Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Here it was frankly and directly said that today several common factors influence the psyche of children.
- First of all, this is the state of health of parents, - emphasized the director of the Institute of Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education, Academician Maryana Bezrukikh. - A child whose mother or father is depressed cannot be prosperous, and today this condition is very common.
The second factor is the extremely high study load, which in middle and high school is not less than 10-13 hours: 8 hours of lessons at school plus the obligatory 2 hours of extracurricular activities. Plus 3 or even more hours spent doing homework. Not every adult can cope with such a load.
Finally, the third, and perhaps the most important factor is the unpreparedness and gross mistakes of the teacher in working with children. And it's not about whether he likes or doesn't like children. And the fact that he does not know how to do it, says Maryana Bezrukikh.
Developmental physiology has been removed from the curriculum of pedagogical universities, the course of developmental psychology has been drastically reduced - as a result, we are preparing unqualified employees who do not understand children and do not know how to communicate with them, and how not.
Words can kill
Verbal aggression is the most common way of communicating with children not only among many parents, but also among many teachers. But the teenager's brain does not respond to negative reinforcement due to the specifics of age. And positive reinforcement - approval, praise, encouragement - many children do not hear at all.
Moreover, a speech attack, humiliation of dignity can be realized in the most calm, seemingly benevolent tone. Academician Bezrukikh gave an example: a teacher repeated several times to a fourth-grader who was not given a foreign language: "I don't see you in the 5th grade." The girl was terribly afraid of her lessons, as a result, the child developed a severe neurosis.
Insults against children, rude language, abuse, including obscene language - all this can be heard literally at every step. Here is a father with a five-year-old son waiting for his mother at the store. The boy is bored, he jumps off the porch over and over again. Dad, throwing a cigarette, yells: "Stay where you are, to whom they say! I'll pour it right now!" Here a young mother is talking on the phone, and her daughter is pulling her sleeve, wanting to say something. "Get off, infection, got it!" - Mom hisses, rudely tearing the child away from her and never ceasing to smile at the invisible interlocutor ...
What are we doing, dear mothers and fathers? Ready for a happy old age?
The iceberg is almost invisible
- We note a sharp increase in borderline mental disorders in children, - said Professor Vladimir Chubarovsky, Leading Researcher at the Research Institute for Hygiene and Health Protection of Children and Adolescents of the Scientific Center for Children's Health.
- Trouble in basic mental functions is manifested in behavioral anomalies.
For a number of forms, the "iceberg" of mental disorders is 100%. That is, experts simply do not see them, but they notice a sharp increase in aggressive behavior, they see a trend towards extended suicidal forms that are not found anywhere else in the world.
For example, "hooking" - riding train or subway cars. Or extreme "selfies" in dangerous places for life and health. The early onset of sexual activity also speaks of psychological distress. If earlier they were exclusively girls with developmental disabilities, now they are the most common, without a diagnosis.
Society's attention, as a rule, is attracted only by the suicides of children and adolescents. Their statistics vary among different experts: Russia is listed either in 3rd place in the world, or in first. But few people know that for one realized case there are 100 attempts, that is, unrealized suicides. And this makes the statistics of teenage suicide completely different.
Information Poison
A few years ago, our experts began to express cautious optimism: the statistics of chemical addictions among children and adolescents began to decline. But it is successfully replaced by information dependence, notes Vladimir Chubarovskoy.
In particular, it provokes the development of adolescent schizophrenia, which has tripled in recent years.
Growth of dysmorphophobia is also associated with informational pressure - a self-perception disorder when a teenager hates his own body and face, is ready to inflict pain, injury and even mutilation on himself. Hence the craving for tattoos, piercings, disfiguring scars, etc.
- Today a child lives in two worlds at the same time, - says Professor Galina Soldatova, Director of the Internet Development Fund. - One of them is real, the second is online. It can be said that many children have a digital childhood, which leads to a change in higher mental functions and accepted modes of action.
New risks await children on the Internet - cyberbullying (harassment, humiliation, insults), sexting and grooming (obscene messages), meeting strangers who can be dangerous.
- Children who receive such messages suffer greatly because of this, especially at the age of 11-12, warns Galina Soldatova. - Most of them do not tell anyone - neither friends nor parents, this is their age feature.
But surveys show that, for example, every fifth child is a victim of bullying. It is even more striking that one in four is involved in the bullying of other children.
At the mirror of truth
- Children go to destructive sites or sects, to Internet communication, whom we ourselves - parents, school, society - pushed there, - Mariana Bezrukikh summed up the discussion. - We do not know how to interact with the child, and we do not know how. And if today we do not take his side, tomorrow the problems of society can be very serious.
Almost every participant of the meeting spoke about the phenomenon of the iceberg - the invisible problems of children.
And also about the fact that their study rests on the separate funding of departments and research centers: everyone sees only one, narrow part of the overall picture.
Interdisciplinary population studies have not been conducted in the country for more than 50 years. Everyone understands that modern children are different, but what "others" - there is no answer. But without such research it is impossible to solve any serious problem of modern childhood. And from time to time, shocking stories about suicides or crimes of youngsters only take them aside - in search of villains who are guilty of everything. Maybe it's time to look in the mirror?
By the way
13% of Russians consider child suicide one of the most serious problems of modern teenagers.
35% have no doubt that drugs and alcohol are pushing children to take a desperate step.
25% blame computer games for everything, and 21% blame conflicts in the family.
17% are sure that loneliness and unrequited love can push a teenager to commit suicide.
