One in five young adults experiencing severe distress in England

The number of people reporting feelings of severe distress in England has steadily risen since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL, King's College London and the SPECTRUM Consortium. The research, published in JAMA Network Open , establishes that rising levels of severe distress are being reported in all age groups and population subgroups outside of older adults aged over 65, with young adults aged 18-24 showing the most striking rise. One in five 18 to 24-year-olds were classified as experiencing "severe distress" in the most recent survey in December 2022. Researchers suggest that this provides evidence of a growing mental health crisis in England and underscores an urgent need to address the cause of this and adequately fund mental health services. Between April 2020 and December 2022, 51,861 adults provided data to the Smoking and Alcohol Toolkit study on how often in the last 30 days they had experienced various negative feelings, such as worthlessness or hopelessness. Responses were on a 5-point scale, and classified as "severe" using established cut-offs. When analysing the data, researchers found that the proportion of adults reporting severe distress rose steadily over the course of the study, from 5.7% to 8.