Controversial research claims mental illness is ‘contagious’… amid new data showing 1 in 9 children now diagnosed with ADHD

Mental illness isn’t caused by transmissible viruses like the flu, but a new study suggests the disease could still be spreading among teens.

The research by University of Helsinki psychologists found that people who shared a ninth-grade classroom with someone diagnosed with a mental illness were nine percent more likely to develop the same condition at some point in the future.

Furthermore, if someone had multiple classmates with a mental illness, he or she was 18 percent more likely to develop a condition themselves than those without mentally ill classmates.

But many other experts say mental illness is not contagious. Instead, they blame the increase on things like the prevalence of social media and a greater emphasis on academic achievement.

“These increases are significant, especially as there is a notable shortage of mental health services worldwide,” Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt, a professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa who was not involved in the study, told DailyMail.com .

The researchers caution that their findings only show that there may be a link between these variables – and that it does not prove that mental illness can spread among teenagers.

The study is just a controversial topic in psychology known as social contagion.

Social contagion is the idea that people are more likely to develop medical conditions – or see their friends dealing with them – a concept that is especially powerful among teens.

In a country where rates of depression among adolescents are skyrocketing, some are pointing to this phenomenon as the cause.

The Pew Research Center It’s estimated that between 2007 and 2017, there was a 59 percent increase in the number of teens experiencing depression.

About 5 million teens had a depressive episode in 2021, representing about 20 percent of all 12- to 17-year-olds in the country. the NIH reported. According to a recent CDC report, approximately one in nine children has been diagnosed with ADHD.

The psychological theory came into the spotlight in 2021, when girls around the world claimed they developed symptoms of Tourette syndrome after watching TikTok creators have the neurological condition that causes people to make involuntary movements or sounds to make.

Many were quick to blame social contagion.

Anti-trans activists also often use this idea to disempower young trans adults.

But this has been powerfully debunked by multiple articles, the most recent of which was published by Stanford psychiatrists in 2023.

Research on social contagion is often flawed, Dr. Ezra Golberstein, a professor of health policy at the University of Minnesota, wrote in a review of the subject while at the University of Michigan.

This is because the studies usually cannot rule out the influence that teenagers’ environment and decision-making have on their mental health.

For example, someone with depression may be more likely to befriend someone with depression simply because he or she has similar tendencies. In that case, it might appear as if the couple were influencing each other, as they would both develop the condition regardless of the scenario they were placed in.

“People choose where they live and work, and who they interact with, and they may share characteristics with others in their social network that lead to similar outcomes,” Dr. Golberstein wrote.

Taking these shortcomings into account when reviewing previous studies, Dr. Golberstein and colleagues concluded that there was evidence that mental health could be “moderately contagious.”

But it’s probably less common and less impactful than people think, he wrote.

This new study, led by scientists from the University of Helsinki, attempted to address some of these shortcomings.

Instead of studying groups of friends, they looked at the effect that classmates – with whom young people are randomly assigned to spend a lot of time – on each other’s mental health.

The study, which was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatrylooked at 713,800 Finns born between 1985 and 1987.

Even after taking into account factors like income, parental mental health issues and location, the researchers found a correlation that could indicate that mental illness could be spreading among peers.

This was especially true for conditions such as anxiety and depression, but was not as clear for other mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

Co-rumination is a psychological term that describes the common practice of repeating and complaining about your problems over and over again.

Multiple studies have shown that people who co-ruminate with their friends, even when taking other factors into account, are likely to feel more depressed. Studies have concluded that this can spread.

Co-rumination, “may serve as a mechanism in the dramatic increase in depression observed during adolescence, especially among adolescent girls,” wrote Dr. Lindsay B Stone, a psychologist from Georgia Southern University, in one study into the phenomenon.

Another reason teens may be vulnerable to infection is because increased education about mental illness could encourage impressionable children to view everyday stressors through a medical lens, the authors wrote.

Dr. Vaillancourt said the study was “well done” and supports the idea she, and many have long maintained, that social diffusion could contribute to the rise of teens with mental health problems.

Psychologists who treat conditions that have long been seen as potentially “contagious,” such as eating disorders, take this concept into account when treating teens, Dr. Vaillancourt said.

However, it may be important that doctors treating minors for other conditions also take into account, she told this website: ‘It will be important to carefully examine how increased mental health awareness affects the extent and presentation of mental disorders.’

One way to combat this problem is to ensure that mental health awareness campaigns are clear about what is a medical condition and what is a normal response to stress, said study author Christian Hakulinen, a psychologist at the University of Helsinki. told New Scientist.

“We have to be careful not to overtreat and think that normal responses are somehow abnormal behavior,” he said.