Mohan Isaac, Professor of Psychiatry, the University of Western Australia, Perth, has sought programmes for early identification of mental health problems among the adolescent population.
He was delivering a lecture on the social aspects of adolescent mental health at an event held in memory of P. Krishnakumar, founder director, Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Kozhikode, on Saturday (January 24).
Dr. Isaac pointed out that early identification and proper intervention were important because “more than 50% of all adult mental health problems start by the age of 15” and “75% of all mental health problems in adulthood would have started by the age of 18”.
Quoting American psychologist Granville Stanley Hall, who famously said that “adolescence is a period of stress and strain, strife and storm”, he said that a lot of changes occur in the body when one grows from childhood to adulthood. “Voices change. Males and females have different types of secondary sexual characteristics. If we are not prepared for these changes and do not have an appropriate environment for growing up, we will always have problems.” Dr. Isaac said that issues such as mood changes that some people face may have their origin in this transitional phase. Earlier, there were social norms, such as family, but they are being broken down today. “Even communication at home is through the mobile phone,” he said.
Dr. Isaac said that the recent report of an expert commission set up by The Lancet Psychiatry journal on youth and adolescent mental health said that the number of adolescents in the world stood at 1.7 billion or so, which was the maximum anytime in history. “Those in the 12-19 age group will form about 16% of the world population. Another important factor is that 80% of the adolescent population in the world is living in low-and middle-income countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Nepal,” he said.
Pointing out that mental health problems in the world population had doubled in the last 10-15 years, the commission said that issues such as anxiety, depression, obsessions, insomnia and consequent behavioural problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were common. “They are getting aggravated also because of the digital revolution and the use of mobile phones. Limited attention is becoming less and less… However, the treatment gap is increasing and is causing more problems,” he said.
At present, the child and adolescent services department in some of the developed countries caters to those aged till 18. Dr. Isaac said that the Lancet commission has recommended focussing on those in the 12-24 age group and developing special mental health services for the youth. He referred to the ‘Headspace’ programme in Australia as a model project where counselling, meditation, and skills training are provided to the youth.
Published – January 24, 2026 09:31 pm IST
