Diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (traditionally associated with war veterans) have more than doubled among college students in just five years, data suggests.
Researchers found that 7.5 percent of students said they had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2022, the latest year available, up from 3.4 percent in 2017.
Most of the increase was recorded during the Covid pandemic, when campuses were closed and many young people were asked to stay home or wear weak masks in class.
The graph above shows how PTSD diagnoses have increased since 2017.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham said part of the increase can be attributed to the loosening of the definition of the condition in 2013.
But they have also suggested that “broader social stressors” such as school shootings and social media may be to blame.
This has prompted warnings from some corners about the “overmedicalisation” of the younger generation, suggesting this rise is similar to the story told about other conditions such as anxiety.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is defined as a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event that leaves patients suffering from persistent, distressing thoughts.
However, in 2013, the definition was expanded to include dysphoria, or a deep feeling of discomfort, and a negative view of the world, which can be confused with depression.
It is not diagnosed by a single test, but rather patients go through a mental evaluation with a doctor before reaching a diagnosis.
The increase was revealed in a research letter published in the journal Open JAMA Network.
PTSD levels are rising among young people, study suggests (file image)
For the research, scientists analyzed data from more than 390,000 college students, including 18,000 who reported a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The data was drawn from the Healthy Minds Study, an annual web-based survey conducted by the University of Michigan with the goal of monitoring mental health in the US.
It was then analyzed to estimate the prevalence of PTSD in college students (or the proportion of the group diagnosed with the condition), and the results were also adjusted for factors such as gender, economic status, and educational level.
The results also showed an increase in levels of a similar condition, acute stress disorder, which increased from 0.2 to 0.7 percent of young people.
“The magnitude of the increase is truly shocking,” said the paper’s lead author and advisor, Yusen Shai, New York Times.
Dr. Shannon Cusack, a Virginia psychologist, added that there was a split in the field over whether to define patients suffering distress due to the Covid pandemic as having post-traumatic stress disorder.
“They are causing symptoms that are consistent with the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder,” Dr. Cusack said.
‘I’m not going to treat them because their stressor doesn’t count as trauma?’
Estimates suggest that five percent of adults in the US suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, related to a stressful event. Among veterans, seven percent are diagnosed with this condition during their career.