Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses among college students more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, climbing most sharply as the coronavirus pandemic shut down campuses and upended young adults’ lives, according to new research published on Thursday.
The prevalence of PTSD rose to 7.5 percent from 3.4 percent during that period, according to the findings.
Researchers analyzed responses from more than 390,000 participants in the Healthy Minds Study, an annual web-based survey.
“The magnitude of this rise is indeed shocking,” said Yusen Zhai, the paper’s lead author, who heads the community counseling clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Zhai, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Studies, attributed the rise to “broader societal stressors” on college students, such as campus shootings, social unrest and the sudden loss of loved ones from the coronavirus.
Persons:
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Organizations:
University of Alabama, Department of Human
Locations:
Birmingham