135 percent increase in the number of students suffering from depression

 BOSTON: The number of college students suffering from depression has more than doubled in the past eight years, a new study has found.

Boston University researchers found in a study that the number of students suffering from depression increased by 135 percent from 2013 to 2021. Along with this, a 110 percent increase in anxiety cases was also observed during the same period.

Lockdowns, school closures and disruptions to daily life due to Covid-19 are some of the reasons for this situation, but experts warn that the problems are deeper than that.

The experts added that the years a person attends college are coincidentally the same years a person is more likely to develop lifelong mental health problems.

Boston University assistant professor Dr. Sarah Lipson said in a statement that college is a prime time to develop these problems. This age is when lifelong mental problems begin to develop. 75% of lifelong mental health problems begin by age 24.

In a study published in the journal Affective Disorders, researchers used data from 350,000 students from 300 US schools.

The researchers observed a year-over-year increase in mental health problems, even before the Covid-19 pandemic.