Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchService Utilization for Lifetime Mental Disorders in U.S. Adolescents: Results of the National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A)
Section snippets
Sample and Procedure
The NCS-A is a nationally representative face-to-face survey of 10,148 adolescents 13 to 18 years of age in the continental United States.5, 27 The survey was administered by the professional interview staff of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The background, measurements, design, and clinical validity of the NCS-A have been described by Merikangas et al.27 and Kessler et al.28, 29 Briefly, the NCS-A sample was based on a nationally representative household
Lifetime Disorder-Specific Service Utilization by DSM-IV Disorder
Table 1 lists the rates of disorder-specific service use in adolescents with DSM-IV mental disorders by sex and age group. Approximately one third (36.2%) of adolescents with any mental disorder received treatment for a particular lifetime disorder. Adolescents with behavior disorders had the highest rates of disorder-specific treatment, with 59.8% of adolescents with ADHD and 45.4% with ODD or CD receiving treatment for their respective disorders in their lifetime. Of adolescents with mood
Discussion
Results of the present study show that most youth with mental disorders do not receive mental health treatment for their symptoms. The treatment gap is especially pronounced for anxiety5, 8, 21 and substance use disorders. Of adolescents with mood disorders, Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks were much less likely than Whites to report having received mental health treatment, and a similar pattern was observed for Hispanic youth with anxiety disorders. Although psychiatric comorbidity and
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An interview with the author is available by podcast at www.jaacap.org.
This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of any of the sponsoring organizations, agencies, or U.S. Government.
The National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A) and the larger program of related National Comorbidity Surveys are supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (U01-MH60220) and the National Institute of Drug Abuse (R01 DA016558) with supplemental support from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (044708), and the John W. Alden Trust. The NCS-A was carried out in conjunction with the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative.
The authors dedicate this article to their friend and colleague, Srirangam S. Shreeram, M.D., a devoted and exemplary child psychiatrist, whose tragic death they still mourn.
Disclosure: Dr. Olfson has received research support to Columbia University from Eli Lilly and Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Drs. Merikangas, Burstein, Swendsen, Avenevoli, Case, Georgiades, and Heaton, and Ms. He, and Ms. Swanson report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.