Is an epidemic of mental illness overtaking sa国际传媒鈥檚 children? It might appear so. A recent investigation by the Canadian Institute for Health Information produced some alarming numbers.
Among kids age 10 to 17, the number who visited a hospital emergency ward with a mental disorder is up 53 per cent since 2006. The number who were admitted as in-patients (meaning at least one overnight stay) rose 74 per cent. sa国际传媒鈥檚 scores were higher than the national average.
One in five kids in Ontario has seen a physician for a mental-health condition. In western sa国际传媒, one child in 12 is taking a consciousness-altering drug.
And most troubling of all, reported incidents of self-harm have soared. In just the past four years, the number of 10- to 17-year-olds admitted to hospital for harming themselves rose 85 per cent. Among this group, girls outnumbered boys four to one.
Historically, most of the kids who harmed themselves did so with a drug overdose. But today, a growing number employ knives or razor blades 鈥� 鈥渃utting,鈥� as it鈥檚 called.
But here is the jaw-dropper behind all these numbers. There is no real evidence that mental illness, in its several forms, has increased among sa国际传媒鈥檚 youth.
The prevalence of serious conditions, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disease, hasn鈥檛 greatly changed over the past decade. Neither has the incidence of depression or mood disorders.
Every two years, Statistics sa国际传媒 publishes a report on the well-being of children and youth. These reports depict a generally stable situation.
How can this be? It鈥檚 tempting to believe that somebody鈥檚 numbers are wrong. And that is a possibility.
Reporting systems in the mental-health field are inadequate. To a considerable extent, we simply do not know what is going on. That is a disgrace.
Yet there are some ways to reconcile these numbers, and the contradictory pictures they paint. The stigma that was once associated with mental illness has largely disappeared.
It could be that kids are now more comfortable speaking openly about disorders of this kind. In other words, the prevalence of mental illness hasn鈥檛 grown, but our willingness to talk about it has.
However, there鈥檚 a more disconcerting possibility. It appears the number of kids on medication has risen, in part because of physician prescribing practices.
The study found a large increase in the use of Seroquel. That in itself is alarming, because Seroquel is a powerful antipsychotic that should only be employed to treat serious disorders such as schizophrenia. But we know the incidence of schizophrenia is unchanged, both in children and in adults
What might be happening is that some doctors are using this drug as a sleep aid for troubled kids. That鈥檚 a problem, because the drug has not been approved for this use, and, like any of the antipsychotics, could produce serious side-effects.
So why are physicians giving this medication to kids? Pressure from anxious parents plays a role. So does a growing tolerance for medicating children.
It has become acceptable to prescribe drugs for symptoms that, a generation ago, would not have been treated at all, or at most would have been handled with a lighter touch.
Of course, it can be argued we should have intervened more forcefully in days gone by. No doubt there were children who truly would have benefited from medication.
And here we come to the heart of the matter. There is simply not enough reliable information to guide us.
As a result, the treatment of childhood mental illness relies far too heavily on guesswork.
The message, in short, is this: Let鈥檚 gather hard evidence about what works, and stop flying by the seat of our pants.
