We now live in a country where adolescents are more
depressed, anxious, and weigh more than ever.
Following the recent 2012 presidential
election, most people are better able to understand why insurance costs and
health care is a growing problem.
If politicians, parents, and
working professionals are worried about the rising health care costs, where do
the adolescents fit into this?
Children typically do not pay for their own
insurance, health care related costs or even have a faint clue as to what this
means, but what is their involvement in the rising health care concern?
For
instance, 25% percent of adolescents develop anxiety disorders
(Merikangas, 2010), obesity prevalence rates have almost tripled since 1980
(Ogden, Carroll, Kit & Flagel, 2012), approximately 1/3 of
adolescents are overweight or obese (Ogden, Carroll, Kit & Flagel, 2012)
and almost 1 out of 10 children are diagnosed with depression (Luby, 2009).
I believe the REAL question to ask here is...
Do
children in this country even stand a chance to develop into confident,
motivated, and happy adults?
WE NEED A SHIFT IN MINDSET
Without a major shift of focus on adolescent
preventative health care in response to the rising rates of children diagnosed
with anxiety/depression disorders and obesity, we have a very costly problem
when treating these adolescents in adulthood with fully developed chronic
lifestyle diseases and disorders.
In order to minimize the number of
adolescents that develop more severe disorders into adulthood and those that
cultivate lifestyle diseases (Type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension,
and hyper-lipidemia), the mental and physical health of adolescents NEEDS to
become our health care focus and predominant priority.
Many people are willing to acknowledge that children's and adolescent's minds are very impressionable and capable of retaining vast amounts of information, including events and interactions that could lead to anxiety. Although Doctors claim there is no one factor that leads to an adolescent developing an anxiety disorder, they do predict that environmental factors play a large role (Beesdo, Knappe, & Pine, 2009).
Children spend much of their time in school (with teachers, at home (with parents), and with friends. This may give light to how those environments contribute to the rising prevalence of childhood anxiety and depression.
Children are born with the ability to sense fear, but what causes
the development of a pathological problem? With 25% of
adolescents developing anxiety disorders in the United States and a prevalence
rate of 18% of adults with anxiety disorders, there are a massive
number of individuals trying to treat this growing problem (Kessler, Berglund,
Demler, Jim, & Walters, 2005).
While
the numbers of anxiety disorders are increasing, so do the prescriptions for
SSRI's and the utilization of the health care system. This all comes at a huge
cost. From 1991-2005 we witnessed an increase in anti-depressant prescriptions
from 6.82 million to 32.72 million (Chen et al., 2008). With this wave of newly
diagnosed individuals, came along an increased expenditure on the
anti-depressant medications from $159 million in 1991 to $2.26 billion in 2004
(Chen et al. 2008).
Imagine a world where we treat children for their
underlying problem rather than simply and
solely placing them on medication. Proven to have significant benefits,
cognitive behavioral therapy is the treatment of choice for anxiety and
depression in adolescents (Compton et al., 2004). An increased adherence to
psychotherapy for adolescence could have a drastic impact on the outcome and
future development of the individual's anxiety disorder into adulthood.
The
leading cause of death in America is heart disease. According to the Center for
Disease Control (2011), an estimated cost of treating heart disease is a
staggering $444 billion and is responsible for $1 of every $6 spent in the
health care system.
"The Last Heart Attack" with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta
A major risk factor for developing heart disease is obesity,
which is tightly correlated to an individual's diet and physical activity level
(diet and physical activity just so happen to be risk factors as well). Obesity
rates in adolescents have tripled since 1980, mainly due to poor diet and lack
of physical activity (Ogden et al. 2012).
If we are exposing adolescents to
multiple risk factors for heart disease, why are we surprised to see them
develop the illness in adulthood?
Our children are the next generation of heart
attacks,
unless parenting, school systems, and the media change their messages
to youth. The priority for future health care needs to have a focus on
adolescent mental health and physical well-being.
If some of the chronic
illness' that cost our country billions of dollars are treated before they
occur and in some cases prevented, the bill for treating heart disease and
anti-depression medication prescriptions will be drastically reduced.
Our shift
in mindset must begin with creating prevention plans rather than treating
symptoms while fully supporting adolescents with the counseling, mentoring, and
positive modeling necessary to develop a strong self-image, motivation, and
coping skills to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression disorders.
*Reference list supplied upon request