The mental health of young people: wanna talk about it?
When he presented his government in September 2024, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier stated his intention to make mental health the ‘Great National Cause’ of 2025.This announcement reflects the alarming fact that mental illness and psychological disorders affect almost 1/5 of the French population, i.e. 13 million people(1).Let's take a closer look at children and teenagers...
The French and depression
First things first: the French are the biggest consumers of psychotropic drugs in the world. More than a quarter of them take anxiolytics, antidepressants, sleeping pills and other psychotropic drugs(2). These drugs are mainly used to treat depression, one of the most widespread disorders, affecting around 15-20% of the general population over a lifetime(3).
If we look at the younger population now, the findings are just as worrying: suicide is now the leading cause of death between the ages of 15 and 35, and a quarter of secondary school students say they have had suicidal thoughts in the last twelve months, according to the latest barometer published by Santé Publique France.
Are young people particularly vulnerable to mental health problems?
The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a pivotal period that concentrates a large number of risk factors for mental health. Many changes take place in young people's lives during this period, including their empowerment, the arrival of new sources of stress, learning to live at a different pace, etc. The same applies to their development and the construction of their identity. Everything around them and within them is changing, and all these factors represent potential points of fragility and anxiety. A phenomenon that affects all socio-economic classes.
Appropriate care at Crosne, France
Care for adolescents and young adults must be adapted to their needs and to situations that can change very quickly. This is the approach adopted by the teenage centre at the Crosne clinic (France). The care pathways give adolescents their rightful place, so that they can be heard and listened to as individuals in their own right. At the same time, the separation from parents is managed, although they remain involved in the process. Another important aspect of the programme is the extensive work on socialising young people, to help them develop their relationships with their peers.
Three types of treatment are offered, depending on needs:
- Full inpatient hospitalisation, which is more appropriate for occasional crises requiring extensive treatment.
- Day hospital care, for follow-up over a longer period of time.
- Therapeutic flats, designed more as shared living spaces.
Click here to find out more about treatment and care at the Crosne Adolescent Centre.
To find out more about young people's mental health
TV series and young people's mental health
While the teenage crisis has always been part of the storytelling of sitcoms on the small screen, it was only in the 2000s that series began to appear that told a more realistic and well-documented story of the problems faced by teenagers and young adults. They include Euphoria, Skins, Sex Education and 13 Reasons Why, all already cult series that deal extensively with drugs, suicide, harassment and identity crises. Dr Frédéric Kochman, a paedophysiatrist at the Lautréamont clinic in Lille (Northern France), analysed these series in an interview that you can find here.
What treatments for tomorrow?
A victim of many prejudices and relegated to the background of medical research, psychiatry is nonetheless undergoing a revolution. The stakes are high, starting with the diagnostic phase, a decisive stage in treatment, with “precision psychiatry”. Marion Leboyer, Professor of Psychiatry at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Medical Director of the Fédération Hospitalo-Universitaire de la psychiatrie de précision and Executive Director of the FondaMental Foundation, takes a look into the future of psychiatry.
Extract:
"Today, the treatments available are very general and often remain similar from one pathology to another. The aim is therefore to use all the tools of modern research - genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, immunology, brain imaging, electrophysiology, artificial intelligence, etc. - to isolate these homogeneous sub-groups, sometimes even common to several categorical entities from current classifications. - to isolate these homogeneous sub-groups, sometimes even common to several categorical entities derived from current classifications, and better understand their mechanisms. By targeting our treatments in this way, we could tailor care more effectively and individually."
(1) Source : WHO
(2) Source : EPI-PHARE
(3) Source : Inserm