ArticleBMJ mental health2025
Common mental disorders in young adults: temporal trends in primary care episodes and self-reported symptoms.
Article in BMJ mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prevalence and competing risk of psychiatric comorbidities in chronic low back pain by age group.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Barriers and facilitators to implementing social prescribing in child and adolescent mental health services: a qualitative analysis using the consolidated framework for implementation research.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- The Influence of Pre-Existing Psychiatric Conditions on the Incidence and Mortality of Severe Burn Injuries.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Modeling Mental Health Case-Mix for Quality Improvement-A Comparison of Statistical and AI Models.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRates of common mental disorders (CMDs) including anxiety, depression and stress, treated in primary care have increased among young adults, but it is unclear if this reflects more help-seeking and/or an increase in symptoms, and if there are differences across sociodemographic groups.
objectiveThis study examined trends in primary care-recorded CMD and self-reported psychological distress symptoms in young adults over time.
methodsWe used data from participants born between 1980 and 2003 in two datasets: UK primary care records and longitudinal cohort data. Participants were followed from age 16 to age 39 (maximum) or the end of the follow-up (2019-2020). Annual incidence rates of recorded CMD overall and by sociodemographic group were calculated for 2009-2019, using incidence rate ratios to explore changes. We calculated annual self-reported psychological distress symptoms from cohort data, calculating ratios to explore changes over time.
findingsBetween 2009 and 2019, recorded CMD increased by 9.90%, while average psychological distress symptoms rose by 19.33%. The sharpest increases for both recorded CMD and average psychological distress symptoms were observed in older adolescents (ages 16-19) and those born after 1995. Recorded CMD increased more in males (20.61%) than in females (7.65%), despite similar symptom increases. Recorded CMD increased the most in the least deprived areas (16.34%) compared with the most deprived areas (3.55%), despite comparable rises in psychological distress symptoms.
conclusionsBoth recorded CMD and psychological distress symptoms in young adults increased between 2009 and 2019, which may indicate that the rising primary care-recorded CMD reflects increased symptom burden. IMPLICATIONS: Differences between recorded CMD and psychological distress symptoms across sociodemographic groups highlight potential misalignment in mental healthcare with underlying population need, indicating that the most affected groups may not be those receiving the most care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.