Many young people have reported having poor mental health during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Their experiences are affirmed by a new study finding that the rate of prescribing antidepressants to this group also spiked during the same period.
The number of young people between the ages 12 and 25 receiving antidepressants was already growing before the pandemic. But since the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States in March 2020, the dispensing rate rose nearly 64% faster than normal, according to the study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Dr. Kao-Ping Chua spoke with CNN about the study’s findings.