Paris is no longer a party. In the capital as elsewhere, for three years, carefree youth and student parties have given way to distance learning courses, endless lines in front of food aid and depression. This is the observation made by a study by the French public health agencywhich measured the frequency of depressive episodes in the population in 2021.
And among young people, the results are frightening: the number of 18-24 year olds having experienced a depressive episode has almost doubled in ten years. Simple Covid-19 effect or lasting trend? Does this study highlight new facts? 20 Minutes takes stock with Camille Davisse-Paturet, post-doctoral researcher in epidemiology at Inserm specializing in the risk of suicidal thoughts in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
What does this study tell us more than the others?
For more than two years, studies on the impact of the health crisis on different aspects of our lives, including mental health, have certainly multiplied. But “the interest of the health barometer of Public Health France is that the study was in place before the pandemic”, points out Camille Davisse-Paturet. Existing for twenty years, this barometer was not designed around Covid-19 and therefore allows “to provide a vision before and during” the health crisis.
In this case, the barometer “confirms an acceleration in the deterioration of mental health”, which had begun before the pandemic. Moreover, “this deterioration is not uniform: it is mainly regarding depressive states characterized as moderate to severe and this mainly concerns young people”. With 20.8% of people affected by a depressive episode, and 7.4% having had suicidal thoughts, 18-24 year olds have thus “become THE age group most affected” by these ailments, which does not was not the case before, assures the researcher.
Is this a “Covid-19 effect” or can we speak of a generation that has been permanently marked?
“It is becoming difficult” to isolate the part of the pandemic in this spectacular increase in depressive episodes among young people, slice Camille Davissse-Paturet, especially since the underlying trend was already present before. But “even if we have the impression that the health crisis is behind us, there are still consequences that can affect mental health” at work, she warns.
But for young people, the damage to mental health might have longer-term consequences. “What you experience between the ages of 18 and 24 are things that cannot be made up for a priori”, explained to AFP Enguerrand du Roscoat, who co-signed the study, speaking of a “feeling of irreversibility”.
As in the United States, are young women more susceptible to suicidal thoughts?
On Monday, the main federal health agency of the United States warned of the number of high school girls who had seriously considered suicide in 2021 (30%, once morest 19% in 2011). And in France ? The barometer published by Public Health France clearly shows a more marked trend among women at all ages, and in particular among 18-24 year olds, in cases of depressive episodes (26.5% of women aged 18 to 24 once morest 15.2% of men of the same age).
Similarly, the latest report from the National Suicide Observatory notes a “sharp increase in the number of suicidal gestures among young people, especially young women, from the second half of 2020”. “There are more young women admitted to hospital”, explains Camille Davisse-Paturet, and “this is also what emerges from the testimonies of caregivers”. As with depressive episodes, the causes can be varied. For example, a regularly put forward hypothesis is that “in general, women will seek more emotional support from those around them, which may have been upset with the isolation” of confinements.
However, despite “a lot of concerns from the start of the pandemic, we have not seen a clear increase in deaths by suicide”, she reassures. “Obviously the health crisis has deteriorated mental health”, especially among young people, “now we have to work on how best to help them and deal with future crises in this regard”, calls the researcher.