Children's Mental Health and the Life Course Model: A Virtual Workshop Series Proceedings of a Workshop (2020) / Chapter Skim
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2 Overview and Trends in Children's Mental Health
2 Overview and Trends in Children's Mental Health
Pages 5-12
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From page 5... ...
The second webinar, featuring Stephen Buka, professor of epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health, complemented the initial discussion with perspectives on changing epidemiology in the field. This chapter summarizes sections of both discussions, focusing on the drivers of change behind the shift in the epidemiology, the reasons behind the increasing numbers of mental health disorders among children and youth, and the important developmental implications these disorders represent for our society.
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From page 6... ...
Three-quarters of mental health disorders begin to exhibit themselves by age 24, making the first few decades of life an important strategic target for mental illness prevention and mental health promotion. Additionally, Halfon demonstrated that the significant increases in mental health disorders for children and adolescents reflected in several national studies and data sets result in increasing rates of suicide, self-harm, anxiety disorders, and depression among young people.
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Unfortunately, there is no dedicated surveillance system for mental health in children in the United States, he said, so it is difficult to provide an overall estimate of prevalence for all childhood mental disorders. He suggested there is some evidence that this prevalence is increasing.
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Hispanic students similarly experienced higher rates compared to white or black non-Hispanic students. In summarizing 21st-century mental health research trends, Buka pointed out that even without a singular surveillance system, the aggregate testimony of published literature, insurance claims, and ED visits paint a picture of increasing rates of mental disorders in children.
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The immediate burden is important, but there is also a need to examine the consequences that will continue later in life and to understand the etiology of these diseases, especially if we want to develop, implement, and fund increasingly effective prevention and mental health promotion interventions. Mental Health Costs While health care costs in the United States have grown massively in recent years due to several factors, Buka cautioned that there should be a great amount of economic concern related to these increases in mental illness.
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Genetic and Environmental Roles in Mental Health While some mental illness has always been understood to have a genetic component, the rise in rates and newer technological abilities to conduct genetic research has led to studies that better highlight the critical interface between environmental factors and manner in which these exacerbate the genetic risk for certain diseases. Buka described a 2014 study exploring biological insights from schizophrenia-associated loci that examined nearly 37,000 cases (Ripke et al., 2014)
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Leveraging Research to Optimize Development Buka shared the strategic plan for the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the mission of both is to address serious mental illnesses and emotional disturbances, improve data collection, optimize outcomes, and test interventions for effectiveness in community settings. Commenting on the potential environmental influences, Buka said that even with schizophrenia, a mental illness with a strong genetic component, we now know that the genetic risk can remain low with a healthy pregnancy.
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