Psychological distress has worsened specifically in young Australian men over an 8-year period, highlighting a subgroup requiring priority mental health action.
May warrant clinical vigilance in young men; leaves open causal drivers and intervention needs.
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether psychological distress has changed in the Australian population. METHOD: Data were obtained from national household surveys of 1964 Australian adults in 1995 and 3507 in 2003-2004. Psychological distress was measured using the 4-NS, which asks about symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability and nervousness in the past month. The data were analysed by gender and by age group, from 20-24 years to 70-74 years. RESULTS: Psychological distress was found to have increased in men aged 20-29 years. This change was observed even when the same cohorts were compared. No change was found in women or in other male age groups. CONCLUSIONS: These data show the need for routine population monitoring of mental health to determine subgroups requiring priority action.
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Jorm et al. (2005) studied this question.
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