NHS talking therapies for depression and anxiety appear to be less effective for young adults, according to new analysis.
Younger people may find it “harder to navigate services set up for adults” – with attendance to therapy sessions hampered by stressful life events in the late teens and early 20s, experts suggest.
Researchers warned there is an “urgent need” to ensure the best possible mental healthcare for people aged 16-25 amid rising rates of mental health conditions.
NHS talking therapy for conditions like anxiety and depression can include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling, and guided self-help using workbooks or online courses.
To explore ways in which services could be tailored to younger people, experts from University College London (UCL) analysed data from 1.5 million people who had attended NHS talking therapies in England between 2015 and 2019, including more than 309,758 people aged between 16 and 24.
Using self-reported scores from questionnaires taken before and after treatment, researchers found younger adults were 25 per cent less likely to meet the threshold for reliable recovery after having talking therapy.
They were also 17 per cent less likely to meet criteria for reliable improvement when compared to those aged 25-65.
Professor Argyris Stringaris, of UCL psychiatry, suggested people aged 16-24 may find it harder to regularly attend therapy sessions.
He said: “Young people may find it harder to navigate services which have been set up for adults, and are more likely to miss sessions or stop attending altogether.
“Additionally, the late teens and early 20s are a point of transition for many people, which can involve plenty of stressful life events and changes that may make it more difficult to consistently attend.
“Working together with young people should help optimise the content of treatment and the ways in which it is delivered.
“Finally, young people may suffer from depression and anxiety problems that may differ somehow in their causes from those affecting adults; early onset depression could have different causes and may require different approaches to treatment. This is an area that requires a lot of new basic and clinical research.”
Researchers said the findings, published in Lancet Psychiatry, suggest future studies should consider tailoring mental health services to young people.
Dr Rob Saunders, of UCL psychology and language sciences, said: “Talking therapy is an effective treatment for depression and anxiety disorders, and particularly tends to be preferred to pharmacological treatment by younger adults.
“Our analysis shows that talking therapies offered by the NHS are effective for younger adults, but as they are more effective for working-age adults, we believe there is work to be done to improve services for young adults.
“Rates of depression and anxiety in young adults are rising, so there is an urgent need to ensure we are offering them the best possible mental health care.”
The latest Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, published in June, found more than a quarter of people aged 16-24 reported having so-called “common mental health conditions”, which include generalised anxiety disorder, depressive episodes, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and panic disorder.
The figure was up from 17.5 per cent in 2007.
An NHS spokesperson said: “This study finds talking therapy is still helpful for young people and so we would urge them to come forward for care with our world-leading talking therapies service which provides evidence-based mental health support to more than a million people a year, with nine in 10 patients receiving support within six weeks.”
Olly Parker, head of external affairs and research at the charity YoungMinds, said: “Growing up today is incredibly tough.
“Many young people are experiencing multiple pressures which impact their mental health, including poverty, inequality, intense academic pressure, and the online world. It’s no wonder so many are struggling.
“We know many young people face long waits for mental health support and become more unwell while waiting, which can lead to needing more urgent care. We need to take an evidence-led approach to getting support right, ensuring young people are involved in choosing the treatments that work best for them.
“These findings must serve as another wake-up call to Government that urgent action is needed to reverse the decline in young people’s mental health. This looks like a cross-government response that asks why so many young people are struggling, with radical solutions to address these root causes of poor mental health.”