Common mental disorders, suicidality and use of health care services during late adolescence in Finland

Abstract

To the Editor; Mental disorders and suicidal ideation are relatively common among adolescents and young adults presenting to general practioners (1). Nevertheless, little is known about the prevalence of, and the factors associated with, the risk of mental disorders and suicidality during late adolescence in general populations. Moreover, it is not known what proportions of adolescents visit health care services concomitantly when they have mental symptoms or are suicidal. Thusfar we conducted this pilot study on a nationwide sample of the Finnish general population (n = 7911) collected in the middle of the 1990s by Statistics Finland. All respondents between 18 to 22 years of age were included (256 females and 223 males). Mental disorders were screened by means of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) which is also a valid instrument for case detecting in adolescence (2). On the basis of previous GHQ-12 literature a score of three or more constituted a common mental disorder indicating clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression. The respondents were asked also whether they had thought about or attempted suicide at least once during the previous 12 months, and/or had used primary care or mental health services. Data were analyzed with Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The following possible risk factors for poor mental health were included in multivariate analyses: age, gender, living alone, inadequate family and social support, economic hardship, being unemployed or being a student, having a medical disorder, being on regular medication, and having abused alcohol.