B4075 - Anxiety and depression in young people who do they affect who seeks treatment and who responds to treatment - 30/05/2022

B number: 
B4075
Principal applicant name: 
Alexandra Pike | University of York (United Kingdom)
Co-applicants: 
Ritwik Niyogi, Toby Wise, Lei Zhang
Title of project: 
Anxiety and depression in young people: who do they affect, who seeks treatment, and who responds to treatment?
Proposal summary: 

Anxiety and depression are common mental health conditions, and represent a major cause of distress and disability in young people. We do not yet understand a) which factors predict vulnerability in young people, b) what predicts who seeks treatment, or c) what characterises young people who respond to treatments compared to those who do not. We need to understand risk factors to allow us to target preventative efforts more effectively. Furthermore, understanding what determines who seeks treatment might allow greater outreach and support to be given to underserved populations, and understanding the factors determining treatment response may allow future research into novel treatments to be targeted, and greater clinical monitoring of those at risk of non-response. Performing this research in young people specifically is important: not only are young people at a critical point in life where they are forming relationships and making decisions about education and careers, but successful treatment access and response might also determine their future mental health. We propose to analyse data from the ALSPAC study, among others, to understand the factors affecting all these parts of young people’s mental health pathways. We also aim to produce an online, interactive, browser-based application that a) researchers, educators, clinicians and policy-makers can use to understand who to target prevention efforts towards, and b) so that young people and their families can have access to the same knowledge as those involved in treating them.

Impact of research: 
We aim to create a digital tool that young people, their families, clinicians, policymakers and researchers can use to understand how to minimise anxiety and depression in young people. We aim to address key unanswered questions that currently limit how effectively we can improve young people’s mental health. In particular, understand the relevant risk factors will allow for greater targeting of preventative efforts, ensuring that we can encourage treatment seeking in underserved populations, and understanding who might need closer clinical monitoring will allow us to use the treatments we already have to better effect, and will hopefully point us in the direction of future treatments.
Date proposal received: 
Thursday, 26 May, 2022
Date proposal approved: 
Monday, 30 May, 2022
Keywords: 
Mental health - Psychology, Psychiatry, Cognition, Addiction - e.g. alcohol, illicit drugs, smoking, gambling, etc., Behaviour - e.g. antisocial behaviour, risk behaviour, etc., Chronic fatigue, Cognitive impairment, Eating disorders - anorexia, bulimia, Mental health, Computer simulations/modelling/algorithms, Statistical methods, Methods - e.g. cross cohort analysis, data mining, mendelian randomisation, etc., Psychology - personality