Ottawa, September 24 (Prensa Latina) More than five million Canadians experienced some type of mental health disorder in 2022, according to a new study from Statistics Canada available today.
According to the source, the proportion of people aged 15 and over who suffer from generalized anxiety has doubled in a decade, increasing from 2.6 percent in 2012 to 5.2 percent in 2022.
The study also found a similar increase in people reporting a major depressive episode in the past 12 months, from 4.7 percent in 2012 to 7.6 percent in 2022; and bipolar disorder, which rose from 1.5 percent to 2.1 percent last year.
The biggest increases were seen in women aged 15 to 24: the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder tripled and episodes of major depression doubled, StatCan revealed.
Although some of these increases can be attributed to stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, “the overall deterioration in young people’s mental health was observed well before 2020,” the analysis says.
The results also showed that despite an increased number of alcohol-related deaths and accidental poisonings, including drug overdoses, the percentage of Canadians aged 15 and older who met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder increased last year per 100,000 U.S. Dollar fell 2.2 percent in 2022 compared to 3.2 percent in 2012.
To conduct the study, titled “Mental Disorders and Access to Mental Health Care,” the government agency used data from the “Mental Health and Access to Health Care” survey.
According to official sources, Canada’s population is 40 million.
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