A heavy burden on young minds: the global burden of mental and substance use disorders in children and youth
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Mental and substance use disorders are common and often persistent, with many emerging in early life. Compared to adult mental and substance use disorders, the global burden attributable to these disorders in children and youth has received relatively little attention. METHOD: Data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 was used to investigate the burden of mental and substance disorders in children and youth aged 0-24 years. Burden was estimated in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), derived from the sum of years lived with disability (YLDs) and years of life lost (YLLs). RESULTS: Globally, mental and substance use disorders are the leading cause of disability in children and youth, accounting for a quarter of all YLDs (54.2 million). In terms of DALYs, they ranked 6th with 55.5 million DALYs (5.7%) and rose to 5th when mortality burden of suicide was reattributed. While mental and substance use disorders were the leading cause of DALYs in high-income countries (HICs), they ranked 7th in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to mortality attributable to infectious diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Mental and substance use disorders are significant contributors to disease burden in children and youth across the globe. As reproductive health and the management of infectious diseases improves in LMICs, the proportion of disease burden in children and youth attributable to mental and substance use disorders will increase, necessitating a realignment of health services in these countries.
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Globally, mental disorders are among the leading causes of disability among people aged 10-24 years.
“Globally, mental disorders are among the leading causes of disability among this age group.”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
The Results report that mental and substance use disorders were the leading cause of global disability among people aged 0–24. This supports the claim's broad point, but the reported finding combines mental with substance use disorders and covers ages 0–24, rather than establishing the ranking for mental disorders alone among ages 10–24. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDepression and anxiety are leading causes of reduced quality of life among children and adolescents.
“In particular, depression and anxiety are leading causes of reduced quality of life among children and adolescents [4–8].”
From Psychological impacts of “screen time” and “green time” for children and adolescents: A systematic scoping review (2020) · cites this paper as [4]
Substance use is a major problem among youth in Africa and has significant negative implications.
“Substance use is a major problem among youth in Africa (Olawole-Isaac et al., 2018) and has significant negative implications (Erskine et al., 2015; Heradstveit et al., 2017).”
From Adapting a substance use screening and brief intervention for peer-delivery and for youth in Kenya (2023) · cites this paper as Erskine et al., 2015
Both anxiety and addiction have an early onset, typically by early adolescence.
“A key feature of both anxiety and addiction is their developmental profile; both disorders have an early onset, typically by early adolescence (Erskine et al, 2014;Kessler et al, 2005a).”
From The human BNST: functional role in anxiety and addiction (2016) · cites this paper as Erskine et al, 2014
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References 72 · Cited by 688
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Ertem I & World Health Organisation 2012 Developmental Difficulties in Early Childhood: Prevention, Early Identi fication, Assessment and Intervention in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: a Review World Health Organisation Geneva
- Authors
- Erskine, H. E., Moffitt, T. E., Copeland, W. E., Costello, E. J., Ferrari, A. J., Patton, G., Degenhardt, L., Vos, T., Whiteford, H. A., & Scott, J. G.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Duke University (US)
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Erskine, H. E.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2014-12-23
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1551-1563
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC5922255
- OpenAlex
- W2164756827
- Cited by
- 688
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 52 · 2025: 93 · 2024: 83 · 2023: 91 · 2022: 93 · 2021: 96 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 6
- FWCI
- 19.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Medical Research Council (MR/K00381X/1)
- National Institute on Aging (P30AG034424)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA036523)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
- Keywords
- mental illness, substance use disorders, children and young people, global burden of disease, disability-adjusted life years, years lived with disability, years of life lost, suicide mortality, low- and middle-income countries, high-income countries
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Child, Child, Preschool, Persons with Disabilities, Humans, Infant, Global Health, Cost of Illness, Substance-Related Disorders, Young Adult
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