The Grim Reality of College: Suicide, Depression
This story appeared in The Washington Post on May 21, 2006.
Title: For College Deans, Crisis at Any Second Subtitle: Pressures Greater on Today's Students
Parents ought to factor this in to their decision to spend $35,000 a year on a prestigious private university.
They don't.
"The number one medication in college is antidepressants," said Richard Kadison of Harvard University, whose book about the growing mental health crisis at colleges was published last year. "It's surpassed birth control pills." ...Most schools are reporting increasing numbers of students seeking counseling, and more freshmen arrive already taking psychiatric medications ... .
In the past 25 years or so, Kadison said, the likelihood of suffering depression on campus has doubled, serious thoughts about committing suicide have tripled and sexual assaults have quadrupled.
Now, one in 10 students seriously considers suicide in college. Nearly half get so depressed that they can't function, according to the American College Health Association, and every year, about 1,400 college students die from injuries related to drinking alcohol.
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