Among College Students, Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment Up, Stigma Down.

Mental health diagnoses and treatment of college students increased substantially between 2007 and 2017, and more than one-third of students reported a diagnosed condition in 2016-2017, according to a study led by a School of Public Health researcher.

Published in Psychiatric Services, it is the largest study of its kind to date.

“This study provides empirical evidence to support a trend that many, particularly mental health practitioners on campus, have been observing anecdotally for years: that more and more college students are seeking help for their mental health,” says lead study author Sarah Lipson, assistant professor of health law, policy & management.

The comprehensive nationwide study drew on 10 years of data from the Healthy Minds Study, an annual web-based survey involving more than 150,000 students from 196 campuses across the US.

The authors found that from 2007 to 2017, mental health diagnoses increased from 22 percent to 36 percent, and that treatment increased from 19 percent to 34 percent, with similar patterns for both therapy/counseling and medication use. Suicidal ideation increased from 6 percent to 11 percent.

The researchers also found that rates of both perceived and personal stigma decreased over time from 64 percent to 46 percent and from 11 percent to 6 percent, respectively. Perceived stigma was measured by agreement with the statement “most people think less of a person who has received mental health treatment,” and personal stigma was measured by agreement with “I would think less of a person who has received mental health treatment.” While the authors note the decreasing stigma and increasing mental health problems contribute to increased service use, they did not address the reasons behind those changes.

The most common location for receiving services was on campus. Nearly 12 percent of students reported using services of their campus counseling center in 2016-2017, about 9 percent used other mental health services, and about 1 percent accessed emergency psychiatric services.

“The trends revealed in this study have strained counseling centers across the country, as many are under-resourced and operate at full capacity with waitlists for much of the year,” the authors wrote. They suggest that in addition to expanding capacity, increasing use of “preventive and digital mental health services, such as those delivered via mobile apps,” could help address the need.

The study was co-authored by Emily Lattie of Northwestern University and Daniel Eisenberg of the University of Michigan.