MENTAL CASES UP IN COLLEGE.Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer Campus mental health clinics are treating a record number of college students who are grappling with everything from midterm anxiety to severe depression. As students head back to class this month, they will cope with pressure- cooker academics, developmental angst and, for many, the fallout from broken homes that leaves them ill-prepared to cope with the emotional rigors of university life. And a growing number are coming to campus with more serious ailments that are treatable with a new class of drugs that allows the mentally ill to live relatively normal lives. ``We're seeing students who, 20 years ago, would not have shown up on a college campus,'' said Harold Pruett, director of UCLA's Student Psychological Services. ``The current crop of medications - anti-depressants as well as anti-psychotics - are better, with fewer side-effects.'' As a result, demand for mental health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract has soared at the region's four-year campuses. At California State University, Northridge CSUN offers a variety of programs leading to bachelor's degrees in 61 fields and master's degrees in 42 fields. The university has over 150,000 alumni. It's also home to a summer musical theater/theater program known as TADW (TeenAge Drama Workshop) that leads teenagers through an , visits to the campus health clinic have jumped 59 percent during the past five years; emergency visits, alone, have risen by 62 percent. Therapists at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. , and the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission report treating more students, as well. USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. saw a 29 percent increase in student visits from 2000-01 to 2001-02, a spike partly attributed to stress and anxiety from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , counseling visits increased by just 6 percent from 1997-98 to 2000-01, but emergency visits skyrocketed by 68 percent - 297 to 500 visits - during the same period. The local statistics mirror a national trend, said Robert P. Gallagher, a psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh, who conducts surveys of college counseling centers for the International Association of Counseling Services. ``Directors have been noticing that they are having more and more students with fairly serious problems, that take a lot more time to handle,'' Gallagher said. In 1988, 56 percent of the centers he surveyed saw an increase in serious disorders; by 2001, it was up to 85 percent. While they make up just a fraction of the cases handled by campus clinics, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and other serious mental illnesses are becoming increasingly common. According to the National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is part of the federal government of the United States and the largest research organization in the world specializing in mental illness. , an estimated 22.1 percent of all Americans age 18 and older - about 1 in 5 adults - suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year, including major depressive disorder Major depressive disorder A mood disorder characterized by profound feelings of sadness or despair. Mentioned in: Conduct Disorder major depressive disorder , bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. For most students, mild forms of depression and anxiety top the list of complaints. Most come in saying they're lonely and depressed, often over a failed romance, said Bradford D. King, director of USC's student counseling services. Eating disorders and substance abuse problems also are common. The early 20s, too, are a time when students experience normal developmental struggles, such as determining their values, establishing autonomy and making career choices. ``Most have the normal, developmental kinds of problems: a lot of relationship problems,'' Gallagher said. ``Sometimes the homesickness problem can be devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. and such a surprise to the student. They don't think they're going to hurt so badly.'' College students are also experiencing more anxiety and stress in general, said Linda Sax, a UCLA education professor and director of a 2001 survey of college freshmen and their emotional health. The Higher Education Research Institute The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) serves as an interdisciplinary center for research, evaluation, information, policy studies, and research training in postsecondary education. survey found that a record number of college students believe there was a ``very good chance'' they would seek personal counseling while attending college - 6.6 percent compared with only 3.5 percent in 1989. Students' self-rated emotional health also hit record lows, with only 53.4 percent of freshmen rating their emotional health as above average or in the highest 10 percent, compared with 63.6 percent in 1985. CAPTION(S): chart Chart: IS THE DOCTOR IN? SOURCE: CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge University Counseling Services |
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