ArticleScientific reports2023
Psychiatric medication prescriptions increasing for college students above and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of a mild inflammatory challenge on cytokines and sickness behavior: A randomized controlled trial using the influenza vaccine.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Trial
- Antidepressant prescribing trends for adult patients in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic: systematic review.BJPsych open · 2026Review
- Immune Dysregulation in Depression and Anxiety: A Review of the Immune Response in Disease and Treatment.Cells · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Psychiatric medication prescriptions for college students have been rising since 2007, with approximately 17% of college students prescribed medication for a mental health issue. This increase mirrors overall increases in both mental health diagnoses and treatment of university students. As psychiatric medication prescriptions for college students were increasing prior to pandemic, the goal of this study was to compare these prescriptions over the years, while accounting for the added stressor of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study utilized cross-sectional, retrospective data from a cohort of college students receiving care from the university's health service. We examined prescriptions for mental healthcare from 2015 to 2021. There was a significant increase in the percentage of psychiatric medication prescriptions in 2020 (baseline 15.8%; threshold 3.5%) and 2021 (baseline 41.3%; threshold 26.3%) compared to the historical baseline average for the whole sample and as well as for female students (2020 baseline 21.3% and threshold 4.6%; 2021 baseline 55.1% and threshold 33.7%). Within these years, we found higher trends for prescriptions in April-May as well as September-December. Overall, we found that psychiatric medication prescriptions have continued to rise through the years, with a large increase occurring during the pandemic. In addition, we found that these increases reflect the academic year, which is important for university health centers to consider when they are planning to staff clinics and plan the best way to treat college students with mental health difficulties in the future.
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