Psychosis Diagnoses Have Risen Among Young Canadians, Data Shows
- A study in Ontario found a 60% increase in new diagnoses of psychotic disorders among 14 to 20-year-olds from 1997 to 2023, while rates for older ages remained stable or declined.
- Individuals born in the early 2000s were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder by age 20 compared to those born in the late 1970s.
- The research involved 12 million people born between 1960 and 2009, with 0.9% diagnosed with psychotic disorders during the study period.
- While the study did not establish causes, potential factors include increased substance use among teens, older paternal age, migration stress, neonatal issues, and better early detection programs.
A new analysis of birth cohorts in the Canadian province of Ontario has found a striking rise in the incidence of psychotic disorders among young people, a finding that its authors said could reflect teens’ increasing use of substances like cannabis, stimulants and hallucinogens.
The study, published on Monday in The Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that the rate of new diagnoses of psychotic disorders among people ages 14 to 20 increased by 60 percent between 1997 and 2023, while new diagnoses at older ages plateaued or declined.
Compared with people born in the late 1970s, those born in the early 2000s were about twice as likely to have been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder by age 20. The researchers included 12 million people born in Ontario between 1960 and 2009, of which 0.9 percent were diagnosed with a psychotic disorder during the study period.
The study was epidemiological and did not try to identify a cause for the rising prevalence. There are a number of possible explanations, among them older paternal age, the stress of migration, neonatal health problems and early intervention programs that now regularly identify the disorders at younger ages, the authors note.
But Dr. Daniel Myran, one of the study’s authors, said he undertook the study, in part, to follow up on concerns that the legalization of cannabis might increase population-level rates of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
“I was expecting to see some increases in these younger folks, but I was quite surprised by the scale,” said Dr. Myran, a family physician and research chair at North York General Hospital.
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