Mental Health Problems Among College-Aged

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 Archieves 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.