The number of people who have experienced a characterized depressive episode (DCE) in the last 12 months has increased from 2017 to 2021, underlines an epidemiological bulletin from Public Health France published on Tuesday. And “the most significant increase was observed among young adults”, that is, between 18 and 24 years of age.
The prevalence of CDS for this age group was only 9.7% in 2005 and 2010, 11.7% in 2017, and rises to 20.8% in 2021. This is “the largest higher increase” observed among all age groups.
“Young adults aged 18 to 24 seem to be the category most affected by a depressive episode during the year with an increase in prevalence observed in the period 2017-2021 of almost 80%”, writes SPF, while in previous editions from this barometer, the increase “was comparable to that of the rest of the population”.
This study was carried out using data from the French Public Health Barometer, by telephone, with people aged 18-85 living in metropolitan France. The survey was carried out by the Ipsos institute, from February 11 to December 15, 2021. A total of 24,514 people were interviewed.
“The stress caused by the Covid-19 disease”
Impossible, of course, to establish in each case a precise link of cause and effect between the Covid crisis and the appearance of depression, especially since the causes of this disease are always due to multiple factors. But, in general, “the stress caused by the Covid-19 disease and the restrictions imposed to control it seems to be one of the main explanatory hypotheses for this increase,” the researchers judge.
Among students, who generally correspond to the age group of 18 to 24 years, the prevalence of EDD “has doubled in the last ten years, going from 10.1% in 2010 to 20.3% in 2021,” SPF emphasizes, adding that “data from the scientific literature shows that students constitute a population vulnerable to mental health problems, even outside the context of an epidemic.”
These results observed in metropolitan France have also been observed in other parts of the world. In a study published by the lancet in October 2021, researchers estimated that the number of cases of depressive disorders increased by 27.6% worldwide in 2020, the number of cases of anxiety disorders by 25.6%.
In 2021, young people, but also “women, people living alone and single-parent families”, as well as people with financial difficulties, and those “who indicated that Covid-19 had had a negative impact on their morale, were at risk of increased CDE,” the researchers from Public Health France also write.
Source: BFM TV
