ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2023
Anxious, Depressed, and Suicidal: Crisis Narratives in University Student Mental Health and the Need for a Balanced Approach to Student Wellness.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Canine-assisted therapy in reducing stress and anxiety levels of university students: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Pooled it
- Influence of mental health conditions and symptoms on contraceptive use among adolescent girls and young women: a scoping review.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2025Pooled it
- Overcoming mental health challenges in higher education: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Effect of finger millet diet on mental health and meta cognitive skills in young adult athletes and non-athletes.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A 14-week structured breathing program: an investigation into its impact on psychological health parameters in university students.BMC public health · 2025Trial
- Distressed or De-stressed? Crafting "Mental Health" in University Peer Education and Health Promotion.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2026Article
- High Prevalences of Current Mental Disorder Diagnoses Among University Students in Sweden: A Cross-Sectional Study With Implications for Student Mental Health Services.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2026Article
- Unsuspectingly Vulnerable: A Rapid Evidence Assessment on the vulnerability of University Students to Criminal Exploitation.International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology · 2026Review
- Establishment, Implementation, and Impacts of the Observatory on Student Mental Health in Higher Education in Quebec, Canada: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Research Program.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- What Crisis? Competing Narratives of Mental Health in US Higher Education.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2026Article
- Exploring mental health literacy and barriers to seeking counselling among university students in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Adopting the principles and practices of learning health systems in universities and colleges: recommendations for delivering actionable data to improve student mental health.Cogent mental health · 2024Article
- Health Policy Perspectives-Realizing the Potential of Occupational Therapy in Supporting Postsecondary Student Mental Health and Success.The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy AssociationArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is growing global awareness of the poor mental health of university students, as well as the need to improve students' access to services and expand the range of available evidence-based interventions. However, a crisis narrative is emerging, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, that runs the risk of positioning all students as potential patients in need of formal psychiatric interventions. Our aim in this commentary is to critically present the evidence that supports increased attention to student mental health, while also raising a concern that the crisis narrative may itself have unintended harmful consequences. We highlight some of the potential dangers of overtly medicalizing and thus pathologizing students' experiences of everyday distress, inadequacies of formal diagnostic categories, limitations of focusing narrowly on psychotherapeutic and psychiatric interventions, and the short-sightedness of downplaying key social determinants of students' distress. We argue for an integrative and balanced public health approach that draws on the rigor of psychiatric epidemiology and the advances that have been made to identify evidence-based interventions for students, while simultaneously being mindful of the shortcomings and potential dangers of working narrowly within the paradigm of diagnostic labels and psychotherapeutic interventions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.