By Eric Martin
Depression and anxiety, feeling safe in your own home and being exposed to physical violence are just some of the topics addressed in the results of the Commissioner for Children and Young People’s survey of some 5000 WA schoolchildren across Years 4 to 12.
And those results are, according to the Commissioner, a worrying snapshot of young people’s mental health.
Writing in The West Australian on Thursday, 20 February, Commissioner for Children and Young People, Colin Pettit, stated he was “particularly concerned about the number of children with mental health and safety concerns”.
More than 50 per cent of girls and more than 20 per cent of boys surveyed reported that their mental health and wellbeing was a source of stress, with 60 per cent of girls and 50 per cent of boys feeling sad or depressed for two consecutive weeks.
In Australia, researchers estimate that up to 25 per cent of all patients seen by a GP suffer from anxiety or a depression-related disorder, with some 90 per cent of individuals with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) also suffering from depression.
About 85 per cent of people with depression also experience significant symptoms of anxiety, with half of the older Australians with a history of GAD meeting the criteria for a major depressive disorder.
To put this into perspective, only some seven per cent of people without GAD meet this criterion: anxiety and depression are clearly linked, even though the hormones that govern the disorders are regulated differently by
the body.
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, John Tiller MD, in his study, Depression and its comorbidities: The Medical Journal of Australia, writes that the first episode of depression in a person’s life follows a psychosocial stressor, and that after three or more episodes, it becomes increasingly likely that subsequent episodes are spontaneous rather than following an external event.
In other words, after three experiences of depression caused by something that happened in life, that person is much more likely to experience being depressed for no apparent reason.
Prof Tiller explains that most instances of depression and anxiety are explained by a genetic vulnerability but neuro-inflammatory, oxidative and nitrosative pathways have also been found to have a causative effect.
What is more worrying, is that the research also shows that 40 per cent of Australians with anxiety or depression did not seek treatment in the previous year, “and of those who did, only 45 per cent were offered a treatment that could be beneficial”.
He states that, “despite the high prevalence of depression and anxiety, and notwithstanding Australia’s universal health insurance scheme, service utilisation in this country is low”.
From pages 22 to 23 of Issue 24: Soul: ‘Nurturing the Spiritual Principle in Us’ of The Record Magazine