Science Summary A recap of research worth noting. By Dana Humphrey
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The Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State released its annual report on college students seeking mental health treatment, which examines the utilization of more than 400 college and university counseling centers. The findings show that lifetime prevalence of “threat-to-self” characteristics, such as non-suicidal self-injury and serious suicidal ideation, increased for the sixth year. Counseling centers are providing more “rapid-access” services, including crisis appointments, walk-ins, and triage/screening services, and fewer routine services, like scheduled individual counseling appointments. Over the past six years, counseling centers have provided 28 percent more “rapid-access” services per student, and 7.6 percent fewer “routine” service hours per student. As demand for counseling services increases, especially for urgent issues, such as students who pose a threat to themselves, and funding remains static, routine treatment capacity may be impacted.
Counseling Centers Provide More Rapid-Access Services
The annual study also showed that anxiety and depression continue to be the most common concern for students and that rates of both have continued to rise slowly. In contrast, reports of academic distress, eating concerns, substance abuse and family distress have remained stable or have decreased. Rates of reported distress related to alcohol use have also decreased, as have binge drinking frequency. However, over the last four years of the annual survey, the rate of self-reported marijuana use has increased.
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Nonmedical use of prescription Nonmedical Use of Prescription stimulants (NPS) is steadily rising Stimulants and Academic Effects among college students. Acknowledging that college students often use prescription stimulants for an academic benefit, the Center for Young Adult Health and Development at University of Maryland recently conducted a study examining the relationship between NPS and grade point average. The researchers studied 898 students without an ADHD diagnosis, finding no significant difference in GPA change between the groups that used nonprescription stimulants and those that did not. Furthermore, within the group of drug abstainers, GPA rose significantly. The study concluded that users of nonprescription stimulants showed no increase in GPA, and gained no advantage over their peers.
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