According to the New York Times (12/7, Richtel), on Dec. 7, in a “rare public advisory,” US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, “warned that young people are facing ‘devastating’ mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.” Murthy, “in a 53-page report [PDF],” delineated how “the pandemic intensified mental health issues that were already widespread by the spring of 2020,” citing “significant increases in self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency-room visits for mental health challenges.” For example, in the US, emergency department “visits for suicide attempts rose 51 percent for adolescent girls in early 2021 as compared to the same period in 2019,” while “the figure rose four percent for boys.”
Related Links:
— “The pandemic worsened young people’s mental health crisis. ” Matt Richtel, The New York Times, December 7, 2021