Why has the mental health of young people deteriorated with the epidemic?

• The Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, warns this Wednesday on the state of mental health of young people, undermined by the health crisis.

• Anxiety, depression, social phobia, addictions… His report points to an increase in depressive disorders among young people and denounces insufficient psychiatric care.

• The Defender of Rights made 29 recommendations.

  Among them: improving childcare arrangements, developing “parenting support”, or even opening “adolescent centers” in each department.

Anxiety disorders, attention deficit, depression, feelings of abandonment, social phobia, addictions….

A report by the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, published this Wednesday, warns of the deterioration of the mental health of young people, affected by the health crisis.

According to this study, carried out on the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child, on November 20, the first confinement led in particular to a doubling of depressive syndromes in 15-24 year olds - 10% of them had a depressive syndrome in 2019, compared to more than 20% in 2020 -.

But why has the epidemic damaged their mental health so much?

Attention disorders

Confinements, distance lessons, elimination of sporting and cultural activities for several months, impossibility of seeing one's grandparents, absence of social relations, travel restrictions… The health crisis has caused

"Loss of reference points", considers the Defender of rights in this report.

An observation shared by Mathilde Muneaux, neuropsychologist and doctor in psychology in the Alpes de Haute-Provence.

This specialist has observed, since March 2020, "a net increase in consultations with young people for anxiety disorders and depression".

“There was a very clear change from before the confinement,” she explains to

.

This is particularly the case with attentional disorder, for which the specialist receives more and more young patients. "It is especially visible in children and adolescents," says Mathilde Muneaux, who attributes it, in some cases, to wearing a mask. "For some, not seeing the teacher's mouth has had a real impact on concentration, they drop out more easily."

For Gilles-Marie Valet, child psychiatrist, head of a medico-psychological center in the Paris region and author of

(ed. Larrousse, 2020), who also notes an increase in attention disorder, there are many factors.

"The anxiety-provoking atmosphere has come to interfere with attention spans," explains the specialist, who also cites overexposure to screens.

“One of the characteristics of screens is the intensity of the stimulation linked to the message, a certain speed and intensity.

But a video course is slower;

attention is more difficult to keep, it does not necessarily capture their concentration, ”he analyzes.

New profiles

For Mathilde Muneaux, confinement, and the isolation that resulted from it, also generated problems of social relations, even social phobias in some. “Whether among schoolchildren, adolescents or students, everything that made it possible to make a link - such as cafeterias, sports clubs, cultural centers… - has been closed. This created problems in the social relations between them, but also depressive states and anxiety disorders ”. And the mask, there too, has its share of responsibility: “The period of adolescence is very important for the construction of identity. With the mask, teens are deprived of all the information that allows the decryption of the other, sometimes leading to misunderstandings or a feeling of mistrust, ”adds the neuropsychologist.

According to the Defender of Rights report, the closure of schools and distance education have increased "the risk of addiction" - we come back to it - to screens. “We tell the youngster 'don't spend too much time in front', but in fact, we ask him to take lessons in front of a screen. These are contradictory and complicated things for children, ”commented Claire Hédon. An idea shared by Gilles-Marie Valet. “There was overexposure to screens, which spread to smaller ones. As the parents were working, it was necessary to occupy the children… often with a screen, ”continues the child psychiatrist.

If some young people were already subject to anxiety long before confinement, new profiles presented themselves for consultation. “I had young people that I should never have seen in normal times: children, teenagers or students who usually managed very well to compensate for their troubles, but who no longer succeeded with the difficulties of containment and the epidemic, ”Mathilde Muneaux analyzes. “These young people, who had no particular problems, were suddenly plunged into an anxiety-provoking climate. It promoted anxiety, sleep disorders ... ”adds Gilles-Marie Valet. Mathilde Muneaux also points to the responsibility placed on young people: “They felt destabilized, they were asked to protect the elderly. But normally, it's up to adults to protect children.The roles have been reversed. We put too much weight on young people ”.

A "public priority"

In her report, the Defender of Rights denounces the lack of psychiatric care for young people and warns against "the devastating risks" of this delay.

"The requests for consultations in child psychiatry have increased, the delays have increased (...) We cannot have six months or a year of waiting time to have an appointment with a shrink", she declared on Wednesday on France Inter, believing that the mental health of young people should become a "public priority".

“Child psychiatry is the poor relation of medicine.

What the health system is experiencing is even more deleterious at the level of child psychiatry, ”deplores Gilles-Marie Valet.

The government has certainly taken various measures in recent months, such as reimbursement on medical prescription, from 2022, sessions of psychologists from 3 years up to 30 euros. But for specialists, the account is not there. “These sessions are limited to 30 minutes, it has no interest. No psychologist does his job in such a short time, even more with a child or a teenager, ”deplores Mathilde Muneaux, who pleads for more funding for medico-psychological centers (CMP) and psychopedagogical medical centers (CMPP). “Why finance the private sector when we could finance the public hospital? She asks herself.

In her report, the Defender of Rights makes 29 more general recommendations, in particular the fact of improving childcare arrangements, developing “support for parenthood” and opening “adolescent centers” in each school. department.

Some structures have already taken the lead.

This is the case of the University of Lyon, which launched an information campaign on mental health for its students at the start of the school year.

Health

With its "ventilated" confinement, does the government want to avoid a collective burnout at all costs?

Society

What impact of the coronavirus on the mental health of students?

• Teenager

• Student

• Child

• Coronavirus

• Covid 19

• Health

• Confinement

• Psychology

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