TOH edition: Tuesday, 22 September 2026 · Health & Medicine
For a Decade the Teenage Mental Health Numbers Only Went One Way. The CDC Has Just Recorded Its Largest Measured Fall in Despair.
Reported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Publisher date:
CDC's 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published on 21 September, records improvement across its mental health and suicide-risk indicators: persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness down from 40% to 33% in two years, poor mental health down from 29% to 23%, and seriously considering suicide down from 20% to 14%.
The teenage mental health emergency is one of the issues parents, schools and governments are following most closely. The federal survey that defined the crisis has now measured it easing.
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