The burden of young people’s mental health conditions in Europe: no cause for complacency

Abstract

Mental health conditions in young people represent a great public health burden worldwide,1 yet regional-specific estimates are most informative for public health policy.2 In the high-income continent of Europe, mental disorders contribute a greater percentage to overall burden, despite evidence-based interventions and comparatively greater financial capacity to address these issues.3 Castelpietra and colleagues harnesses data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study to provide estimates of the burden of mental health conditions in the 85 million young people aged 10-24 years living in 31 European countries.4 Epidemiological data pooled from 528 unique data sources draws attention to key areas of mental health burden in young people across Europe.