Antidepressant Prescriptions Increase 130% for Teenage Girls

October 4, 2025 / SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

The increasing rate of mental health disorders among children and adolescents is a concerning trend that has been observed for several decades, with survey studies revealing dramatic increases in anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.¹ In the United States, suicide ranks as the second leading cause of death for those aged 10 to 19 years and the third leading cause of death for those aged 15 to 24 years.² Antidepressant Prescriptions and Mental Health – https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/153/3/e2023064677/196661/Antidepressant-Prescriptions-and-Mental-Health

Between January 2016 and December 2022, the monthly antidepressant dispensing rate increased 66.3%, from 2575.9 to 4284.8. Before March 2020, this rate increased by 17.0 per month (95% confidence interval: 15.2 to 18.8). The COVID-19 outbreak was not associated with a level change but was associated with a slope increase of 10.8 per month (95% confidence interval: 4.9 to 16.7). The monthly antidepressant dispensing rate increased 63.5% faster from March 2020 onwards compared with beforehand. In subgroup analyses, this rate increased 129.6% and 56.5% faster from March 2020 onwards compared with beforehand among females aged 12 to 17 years and 18 to 25 years, respectively. In contrast, the outbreak was associated with a level decrease among males aged 12 to 17 years and was not associated with a level or slope change among males aged 18 to 25 years. Antidepressant Dispensing to US Adolescents and Young Adults: 2016–2022 – https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/153/3/e2023064245/196655/Antidepressant-Dispensing-to-US-Adolescents-and?autologincheck=redirected

Between 2020 and 2022, antidepressant prescriptions for girls aged 12-17 skyrocketed by 130%. Antidepressants Increase 130% for Teen Girls, Drop 7% For Boys – https://brownstone.org/articles/antidepressants-increase-130-for-teen-girls-drop-7-for-boys/

Yikes.

Couples Share More Than We Realize

September 8, 2025 / SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

The latest study, published in Nature Human Behaviour today, used data from more than 14.8 million people in Taiwan, Denmark and Sweden. It examined the proportion of people in those couples who had one of nine psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), substance-use disorder and anorexia nervosa…

The team found that when one partner was diagnosed with one of the nine conditions, the other was significantly more likely to be diagnosed with the same or another psychiatric condition. Spouses were more likely to have the same conditions than to have different ones, says co-author Chun Chieh Fan, a population and genetics researcher at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Spouses tend to share psychiatric disorders – https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02772-8

Yikes.

I’m Taking Your Phone Away (and you didn’t do anything wrong)

June 20, 2025 / SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

The study found that those who had high and increasing addiction to mobile phones and social media platforms were at a higher risk of suicidal behaviors and thoughts. At year four, almost 18% of kids reported having suicidal thoughts, and 5% said they had suicidal behaviors. Teens with ‘addictive’ phone use more likely to be suicidal: Study – https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5360042-teens-addiction-social-media-phones-suicidal-thoughts/

Here’s the link to the JAMA article https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2835481/

Yikes!

Baby Boomers Are Aging Into the Group Most Affected by Hoarding Disorder

March 6, 2025 / SupremeCmdr / 4 Comments

Studies have estimated that hoarding disorder affects around 2.5% of the general population — a higher rate than schizophrenia. The mental illness was previously considered a sub-type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but in 2013 it was given its own diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5.

For Seniors With Hoarding Disorder, a Support Group Helps Confront Stigma and Isolation – https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/hoarding-disorder-support-groups-pennsylvania-baby-boomers/

Yikes.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

March 1, 2025 / SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

An analysis of hospital data by the Royal College of Psychiatrists showed that hospital admissions for eating disorders had increased by 84% in the past five years, reaching a total of 24 268 admissions. Some 11 049 more admissions were recorded in 2020-21 than in 2015-16. The number of young people with eating disorders rose by 90% in the five year period analyzed, from 3541 to 6713 episodes, with a 35% increase in the past year alone. Boys and young men showed a 128% rise in hospital admissions, from 280 in 2015-16 to 637 in 2020-21.

One in five deaths of people with anorexia nervosa is due to suicide, and all eating disorders see high rates of self-harm and depression. Eating disorders: Guidance is issued to doctors after 84% rise in past five years – BMJ 2022; 377 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o1256 (Published 19 May 2022)

Need help? https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help/

Smartphones, Ultra-Processed Foods, Diminished Family Bonds and Mental Wellness

December 29, 2024 / SupremeCmdr / Leave a comment

As mental well-being has remained largely static across the world since 2021, so too have the rankings of countries. At the top of the rankings are many Latin American and African countries while much of the core Anglosphere ranks in the bottom quartile. With national wealth indicators such as per capita GDP negatively correlated with average mental well-being scores (see our 2021 report), this year we have made substantial progress in our understanding of why this is so. Two key findings published in Rapid Reports in 2023 show that younger age of first smartphone ownership and ultra-processed food consumption are two major contributors to our mental health challenges. In wealthier countries, the age of first smartphone ownership is much younger and ultra-processed food consumption much higher. Other contributing factors are the relatively diminished family relationships in wealthier countries that are highlighted in our 2022 annual report. The Mental State of the World in 2023 – https://mentalstateoftheworld.report/2023_read/

Another Sunday morning, just reading and connecting the dots.

I’ve downloaded several of these reports and plan to do a deep dive later.

Read these reports and think about it.

Now do something about it.

A Perspective on Mental Health Issues

October 18, 2023 / SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

I am profoundly, profoundly concerned about the psychological health of both children and adults in this country.

A culture overemphasizing emotional safety has robbed people of their opportunities for growth. Many people experience these opportunities as a threat, remaining…
— Kevin Bass PhD MS (@kevinnbass) October 15, 2023

Here’s the full post so you don’t have to go to X.

I am profoundly, profoundly concerned about the psychological health of both children and adults in this country. A culture overemphasizing emotional safety has robbed people of their opportunities for growth. Many people experience these opportunities as a threat, remaining permanently infantile, afraid, and unable and unwilling to cope with adversity as a result. Indeed the culture itself rather than encouraging resilience, persuades people that even minor inconveniences are personal affronts and even signs of systemic injustice visited upon them. As people begin experiencing everything that falls outside of their narrow box of predictable experience as a form of threat to be neutralized, not only are they personally deprived of growth opportunities, but they create a culture of mistrust, rigidity, and sterility, which in turn reduces in society as a whole availability of the kinds of messy experiences that are critically important for self-discovery, personal growth, and psychological resilience. The outcome is a society of the over-socialized, of the outraged, of the rule-abiding, of the sterile, and ultimately of the psychologically unwell, of the poorly adapted with scant psychological reserve for problems, crises, or even just interesting experiences that fall outside the norm but which in just days or weeks can provide the equivalent of years of life experience. By protecting everyone, we have destroyed the normal maturation process that is a central to creating psychologically well-functioning adults. The fruits of this are, well, that many young adults are now thoroughly psycho-pathological and unable to deal healthily with the normal stresses of life. I cannot be the only one to observe this and it disturbs me beyond words.
Kevin Bass PhD MS – posted on X 10.15.23