Depression among teens soars by 50% in a decade

TEENAGERS today drink less and take fewer drugs than their elders of a decade before, a study found yesterday.

But instead ‘Generation Sensible’ are more likely to suffer from depression, obesity or engage in self-harm.

Researchers from University College London and Liverpool University compared 5,600 children born in the Bristol area in 1991 and 1992, tracked in the Bristol Children of the Nineties survey, and 11,000 children born across the country in 2000 and 2001, followed in the Millennium Cohort Study.

Data showed that 52 per cent of the first group had tried alcohol by the time they were 14, but just 44 per cent of the second group.

But 9 per cent of those born in the 1990s suffered depression by 14, against 15 per cent for those born at the millennium.

Rates of self-harm went up from 12 to 14 per cent between the two groups, with girls more likely than boys to be depressed or harm themselves. Four per cent of the older group were obese, against 7 per cent of the younger group.

Dr Praveetha Patalay, of UCL, said trends of obesity and negative body image ‘might explain rising mental health difficulties experienced by young people’.