Researchers warn that a “growing mental health crisis” in England is disproportionately affecting young adults, with levels of severe distress steadily increasing since the start of the pandemic.
The researchers attribute this concerning trend to a range of factors, including the cost of living and healthcare crises and the direct impact of the pandemic. They emphasize the urgent need to address these causes and improve funding for mental health services.
Dr. Leonie Brose, a mental health researcher at King’s College London and the senior author of the study, states, “The last three years have seen society undergo a unique series of stressors that could be negatively impacting mental health. Ensuring that basic needs such as financial security, stable housing, and access to healthcare are met may help alleviate the pressure people are feeling.”
The team conducted a monthly survey from April 2020 to December 2022, gathering responses from over 51,000 adults. While the proportion of adults reporting any psychological distress remained relatively stable at around one-third, the percentage experiencing severe distress increased in all age groups except those aged 65 and over. Among individuals aged 18 to 64, severe distress rose from 5.7% to 8.3% during the study period.
The sharpest increase in severe distress was observed among young adults in the second half of the survey, where reports from 18 to 24-year-olds rose from 13.6% to 20.2%.
To assess distress levels, the researchers employed the Kessler psychological distress scale, a widely-used measure that ranked participants’ responses to monthly survey questions. Volunteers were asked how frequently they experienced various negative feelings in the past 30 days, with scores above a particular threshold indicating “severe distress”.
In their publication in Jama Network Open, the authors also note that individuals from low-income backgrounds reported a significant increase in severe distress. This raises concerns that the cost of living crisis has forced people in more deprived areas to prioritize essentials and reduce spending on food and other necessities.
The researchers state, “These findings provide evidence of a growing mental health crisis in England and underscore an urgent need to address its cause and to adequately fund mental health services.”
Sir Simon Wessely, a regius professor of psychiatry at King’s College London, who was not involved in the study, expresses particular concern regarding the rise in severe distress among young people. However, he advises against labeling the trend as a mental health crisis, cautioning that knee-jerk reactions without a proper understanding of the problem and tested solutions may be counterproductive.
He concludes, “Something is not going well around the mental health of children and young people, and that has been the case for some time. I am acutely aware that we are the poor relations when it comes to funding, but unless and until that changes, we might bear in mind the possibly apocryphal words of the physicist Lord Rutherford: ‘We have no more money, so we need to think’.”