Quarter of older teenage girls have a mental illness and nearly half have self-harmed, study shows

Health reporter(wp/es):

One in eight children in England has a mental disorder — with the illness found in almost a quarter of older teenage girls, a shock report revealed today.

The most detailed NHS analysis in almost 15 years of mental ill health in children also detected problems in those as young as two.

Girls aged 17 to 19 were twice as likely as boys of the same age to have a mental disorder, with 23.9 per cent found to have a condition.

Within the same age group, which was the most troubled and had the highest rates of self-harm, emotional disorder was found in 22.4 per cent of girls — more than three times the incidence in boys.

A quarter of 11 to 16-year-olds with a mental disorder had self-harmed or attempted suicide. This rose to 46 per cent of those in the 17 to 19 age group.

Today’s study, published by NHS Digital, is the first looking at prevalence of mental ill health in children since 2004.

It did not explain what was driving the rise in mental ill health, although children were asked about the impact of social media and cyber bullying. 

Tom Foley, of NHS Digital, said: “These figures reflect the suffering and some of the difficulties a proportion of children and young people have to cope with.”

It collated information from 9,117 children and young people or their parents or teachers. For the first time, those aged two to four were included.

There was a slight increase in incidence in the five to 15 age group from 10.1 per cent in 2004 to 11.2 per cent last year. This rose to 12.8 per cent when 15 to 19 year olds were included but there was no direct comparison with previous years. 

Disorders were grouped into four categories — emotional, behavioural, hyperactivity and less common disorders. One in 18 (5.5 per cent) pre-school children — those aged two to four — were found to have at least one mental disorder. Behavioural disorders were found in one in 40 pre-schoolers.

One in 20 older teenage girls had body dystrophic disorder, an anxiety disorder characterised by the obsessive idea that some aspect of their body or appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix.

The figures came as the Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, revealed that of the 338,000 children referred to mental health services, only 31 per cent received help within a year. She called for an NHS-funded counsellor in every school.