College Campuses See Rise in Cases of Severe Mental Illness
Bloomberg Businessweek – August 12, 2010
Summary: A new U.S. study shows that more cases of severe mental illness are being reported among college students than a decade ago and the use of prescription medication by students to treat psychiatric illness has also risen significantly. The author of the study, John C. Guthman, director of student counseling at Hofstra University, analyzed diagnostic records concerning 3,300 undergraduate and graduate students who had sought college counseling at some point between 1997 and 2009. “If we look at the average college student and their level of psychological and emotional functioning and distress, on the whole they are not necessarily worse off than they were 10 years ago,” explained Guthman. “However, there are some students who are outliers and they have some difficulty in some areas. And these relatively few students that present in significant distress seem to have increased to a greater percentage than they were a decade ago.” Some of the theories offered to explain these changes are: more people are going for a college degree, colleges are seen as more supportive environments than before, improved medications are now available, and accessing support elsewhere is more difficult in the current health care environment.