Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Apr;15(2):151-4.
doi: 10.7861/clinmedicine.15-2-151.

Mental health in young adults and adolescents - supporting general physicians to provide holistic care

Izabela Jurewicz  1
Affiliations
Review

Mental health in young adults and adolescents - supporting general physicians to provide holistic care

Izabela Jurewicz. Clin Med (Lond). 2015 Apr.

Abstract

In the era of an ageing population, young adults on medical wards are quite rare, as only 12% of young adults report a long-term illness or disability. However, mental health problems remain prevalent in the younger population. In a recent report, mental health and obesity were listed as the most common problems in young adults. Teams set up specifically for the needs of younger adults, such as early intervention in psychosis services are shown to work better than traditional care and have also proven to be cost effective. On the medical wards, younger patients may elicit strong emotions in staff, who often feel protective and may identify strongly with the young patient's suffering. In order to provide holistic care for young adults, general physicians need to recognise common presentations of mental illness in young adults such as depression, deliberate self-harm, eating disorders and substance misuse. Apart from treating illness, health promotion is particularly important for young adults.

Keywords: Young adults; adolescents; mental health; parity of esteem.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Office for National Statistics Measuring national well-being – exploring the wellbeing of young people in the UK, 2014. Newport: ONS, 2014.
    1. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, et al. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM IV disorders in the National Co-morbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2005;62:595–602. - PubMed
    1. Hoffman RP. Adolescent adherence in type 1 diabetes. Compr Ther 2002;28:128–33. - PubMed
    1. Murray CJL, Richards MA, Newton JN, et al. UK health performance: findings of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 2013;381:997–1020. - PubMed
    1. Bailey S. Why ‘parity of esteem’ for mental health is every hospital doctor's concern. Br J Hosp Med (Lond) 2014;75:277–80. - PubMed