Birth – 18 years.
Mental health admissions to acute medical wards rose 65% for young people in England (2012-2022), with eating disorder admissions up 515% and anxiety admissions doubling in 10 years. Self-harm admissions accounted for more than half of the total. Adolescent girls by far the biggest group affected.
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This twin study of nearly 14,000 UK adolescents found that body dissatisfaction at age 16 was linked to eating disorder symptoms at 21 and depression at 26. Comparing twins helped researchers show these were likely causal relationships, not just correlations, though genetics also played a substantial role.
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PTSD in young people is common, complex, and often entangled with depression, anxiety, and multiple traumatic experiences. A major new UK trial (DECRYPT) tested whether a structured form of trauma-focused cognitive therapy (CT-PTSD) can work in real CAMHS settings for those with the most severe difficulties.
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A new study claims hobbies reduce substance misuse in adolescents, but are we mistaking correlation for causation? Before we start fiddling with interventions, this blog explores the risks of jumping to conclusions.
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Do preschoolers who struggle with tolerating uncertainty get more anxious as they grow older? This longitudinal study followed preschool children across three timepoints, and found that the two are strongly related, but the rest of the picture is not as clear cut.
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Self-harm is common among adolescents and a strong predictor of suicide risk. A major new cohort study in the British Journal of Psychiatry explores how genetic risk and brain differences might explain who’s most at risk, and why.
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Not all childhood trauma has the same biological impact. A new study finds that adversity in late childhood is most strongly linked to immune dysregulation at age 24.
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Is teenage depression more likely to come back later in life? A new population study challenges assumptions and finds similar recurrence risks in both adolescents and adults.
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Nervousness, irritability, excessive worry, uncontrollable worry… not all anxiety symptoms weigh the same at different ages. This new Chineses study shows how anxiety networks tighten as young people grow older, and where the best intervention targets may lie.
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Why do people who were maltreated as children face higher risks of both mental and physical illness? A new Mendelian randomisation study suggests that metabolic markers — like triglycerides and blood sugar — may be part of the chain connecting adversity to later multimorbidity.
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