Epidemiology of Childhood Mental Illness: A Review of U.S. Surveillance Data and the Literature

Background: Childhood mental illness is a major factor of overall lifespan of children continuing into adulthood. Population based surveys and public health surveillance provide the much needed evidence to understand mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment of mental illness in children in the United States. Objective: To review available current national survey data regarding mental illness in children over the past decade and to review the global implications of childhood mental illness. Results: Altogether, 13% - 20% of children experienced a mental health disorder from 1994 to 2011. The prevalence of depression among children of 3 - 17 years old was 3% and the prevalence of lifetime and past year major depressive episode were 12.8% and 8.1% respectively among adolescents of 12 - 17 years old, with a prevalence of depression in the preceding 2 weeks of 6.7%. 7.1% of children of 12 - 17 years old ever had a diagnosis of depression, 3.5% had current depression and 5.1% had a diagnosis of depression in the past year. Overall, 28.5% of high school students of 14 - 18 years old reported feeling so sad or hopeless every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing usual activities, higher among girls (35.9%) than boys (21.5%), and greater in Hispanic students (32.6%) than white non-Hispanic (27.2%) or black non-Hispanic students (24.7%). The overall rate of suicide in children in 2010 was 4.5 per 100,000. Conclusions: Mental illness presents serious departures from the expected cognitive, social, and emotional development in children, and an important area for prevention in the U.S. and globally. Mental illness will be managed effectively when there is adequate access to treatment services to reduce its associated morbidity and mortality.