Young people are consuming more and more antidepressants since the health crisis

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As a study by Health Insurance shows, in 2023, nearly 936,000 young people will have been reimbursed at least once for a psychotropic medication (antidepressants in particular). An increase of 18% compared to the results obtained in 2019.

A year ago, France Inter already highlighted the notable increase in antidepressants among young people. Between 2014 and 2021, its consumption jumped by 62% according to a report from the High Council for Family, Childhood and Age (HCFEA). At that time, the institution stressed that “children are significantly more exposed than adults to psychological suffering and psychological difficulties”.

Faced with this phenomenon, studies are multiplying in order to monitor its expansion and prevent associated abuses. Among the reasons given, Les Échos point out that a turning point has occurred since the Covid pandemic on 12-25 year-olds. The latter are said to be subject to more mental disorders. Although the largest increase is that of antidepressants, climbing to 60%, other notable increases should be noted. Among them, antipsychotics used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which have jumped by 35%.

A finding that is all the more worrying since this was not the slope undertaken between 2015 and 2020, according to the health system organization. It is from 2021 that a sharp increase occurs, with an increase of 12%. Confinement, you say ?

“The suffering was already there, but the health crisis has amplified it. Young people, who need to plan ahead, have found themselves isolated,” laments Maria Melchior, an epidemiologist at Inserm. According to the specialist, “this can become a vicious circle. When a young person leaves school, it is difficult to return.”

In addition to age, gender also varies widely. In the 12-25 age group, 62% of girls are represented in the dispensing of psychotropic drugs. A growth that the child psychiatrist at Brest University Hospital, Guillaume Bronsard, explains by a concern for internalization from which young girls mainly suffer, leading to the expression of discomfort through self-harm or “suicidal behavior.”

A year ago, the HCFEA denounced a “scissor effect” caused by the increase in the consumption of medications which would be not unrelated to the decline in the provision of care in France. Faced with the waiting times that have become indecent to allow for care adapted to the youngest, varying between 6 and 18 months, it is the general practitioners who take over. According to Sylviane Giampino, child psychologist and president of the HCFEA, “there are many children who are not treated and the waits are long as a result, the impacts on their development, on the aggravation of their difficulties are unacceptable”. Medical desertification is becoming a real health emergency in our country, leading to behaviors that are no longer treated in time and threaten our younger generations, who are more at risk of psychological suffering and difficulties than adults. 

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