Adequacy of depression treatment among college students in the United States
Abstract
Objective There is no published evidence on the adequacy of depression care among college students and how this varies by subpopulations and provider types. We estimated the prevalence of minimally adequate treatment among students with significant past-year depressive symptoms.Method Data were collected via a confidential online survey of a random sample of 8488 students from 15 colleges and universities in the 2009 Healthy Minds Study. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-2, adapted to a past-year time frame. Students with probable depression were coded as having received minimally adequate depression care based on the criteria from Wang and colleagues (2005).Results Minimally adequate treatment was received by only 22% of depressed students. The likelihood of minimally adequate treatment was similarly low for both psychiatric medication and psychotherapy. Minimally adequate care was lower for students prescribed medication by a primary care provider as compared to a psychiatrist (P<.01). Racial/ethnic minority students were less likely to receive depression care (P<.01).Conclusions Adequacy of depression care is a significant problem in the college population. Solutions will likely require greater availability of psychiatry care, better coordination between specialty and primary care using collaborative care models, and increased efforts to retain students in psychotherapy.
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There is a large unmet need for mental health care among both high school and college students.
“As a result, there is a large unmet need for mental health care among both high school and college students [38,54,55].”
From Long-term effects of mental disorders on educational attainment in the National Comorbidity Survey ten-year follow-up (2015) · cites this paper as [38]
Much of the past research on the impact of mental disorders on educational attainment has focused on depression.
“Much of the past research on the impact of mental disorders on educational attainment has focused on depression [38,22,7,8,21]”
From Long-term effects of mental disorders on educational attainment in the National Comorbidity Survey ten-year follow-up (2015) · cites this paper as [38]
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- Authors
- Eisenberg, D., & Chung, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Eisenberg, Daniel
- Venue
- General Hospital Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-05
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 213-220
- ISSN
- 0163-8343 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2005324325
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 4.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- General Hospital Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Keywords
- depression, university students, treatment adequacy, access to mental health care, psychiatric medication, psychotherapy, primary care providers, psychiatrists, racial and ethnic minorities, collaborative care, Healthy Minds Study
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Students, United States, Universities, Treatment Outcome, Health Care Surveys, Young Adult
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