Citation

Bruffaerts R, Mortier P, Auerbach RP, Alonso J, Hermosillo De la Torre AE, Cuijpers P, Demyttenaere K, Ebert DD, Green JG, Hasking P, Stein DJ, Ennis E, Nock MK, Pinder-Amaker S, Sampson NA, Vilagut G, Zaslavsky AM, Kessler RC, WHO WMH-ICS Collaborators. Int. J. Methods Psychiatr. Res. 2019; 28(2): e1764.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/mpr.1764

PMID

30663193

PMCID

PMC6877191

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Mental disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) are common and burdensome among college students. Although available evidence suggests that only a small proportion of the students with these conditions receive treatment, broad-based data on patterns of treatment are lacking. The aim of this study is to examine the receipt of mental health treatment among college students cross-nationally.
METHODS: Web-based self-report surveys were obtained from 13,984 first year students from 19 colleges in eight countries across the world as part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health-International College Student Initiative. The survey assessed lifetime and 12-month common mental disorders/STB and treatment of these conditions.
RESULTS: Lifetime and 12-month treatment rates were very low, with estimates of 25.3-36.3% for mental disorders and 29.5-36.1% for STB. Treatment was positively associated with STB severity. However, even among severe cases, lifetime and 12-month treatment rates were never higher than 60.0% and 45.1%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: High unmet need for treatment of mental disorders and STB exists among college students. In order to resolve the problem of high unmet need, a reallocation of resources may focus on innovative, low-threshold, inexpensive, and scalable interventions.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Risk Factors; Female; Male; Universities; Students; suicide; Young Adult; Prevalence; Suicidal Ideation; Surveys and Questionnaires; anxiety; college students; affective disorders; health service; Mental Disorders; Health Services Needs and Demand