The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students
Psychological problems like procrastination, perfectionism, low self-esteem, test anxiety and stress are common among college students. There are evidence-based interventions available for these problems that not only have direct effects on these problems, but also indirect effects on mental disorde...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-09-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.573637/full |
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language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Pim Cuijpers Filip Smit Filip Smit Pauline Aalten Neeltje Batelaan Anke Klein Elske Salemink Philip Spinhoven Sascha Struijs Sascha Struijs Peter Vonk Reinout W. Wiers Leonore de Wit Claudio Gentili David Daniel Ebert Ronny Bruffaerts Ronald C. Kessler Eirini Karyotaki |
spellingShingle |
Pim Cuijpers Filip Smit Filip Smit Pauline Aalten Neeltje Batelaan Anke Klein Elske Salemink Philip Spinhoven Sascha Struijs Sascha Struijs Peter Vonk Reinout W. Wiers Leonore de Wit Claudio Gentili David Daniel Ebert Ronny Bruffaerts Ronald C. Kessler Eirini Karyotaki The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students Frontiers in Psychiatry college students mental disorders psychological problems depression generalized anxiety disorder bipolar disorder |
author_facet |
Pim Cuijpers Filip Smit Filip Smit Pauline Aalten Neeltje Batelaan Anke Klein Elske Salemink Philip Spinhoven Sascha Struijs Sascha Struijs Peter Vonk Reinout W. Wiers Leonore de Wit Claudio Gentili David Daniel Ebert Ronny Bruffaerts Ronald C. Kessler Eirini Karyotaki |
author_sort |
Pim Cuijpers |
title |
The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students |
title_short |
The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students |
title_full |
The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students |
title_fullStr |
The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College Students |
title_sort |
associations of common psychological problems with mental disorders among college students |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychiatry |
issn |
1664-0640 |
publishDate |
2021-09-01 |
description |
Psychological problems like procrastination, perfectionism, low self-esteem, test anxiety and stress are common among college students. There are evidence-based interventions available for these problems that not only have direct effects on these problems, but also indirect effects on mental disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders. Targeting these psychological problems may offer new opportunities to prevent and treat mental disorders in a way that is less stigmatizing to students. In this study we examined the association of five psychological problems with five common mental disorders (panic, generalized anxiety, bipolar, major depressive, and substance use disorder) in a sample of 2,449 students from two Dutch universities. Psychological problems were measured with one item for each problem and mental disorders were measured with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Screening Scales. Associations were examined with Poisson regression models as relative risks (RR) of the disorders as a function of the psychological problems. The population attributable fraction (PAF) indicates by what percentage the prevalence of the mental disorder would be reduced if the psychological problem was addressed successfully by an intervention. Especially generalized anxiety disorder was strongly associated with psychological problems (strong associations with stress and low self-esteem and moderately with test anxiety). The group with three or more psychological problems had a strongly increased risk for generalized anxiety (RR = 11.25; 95% CI: 7.51–16.85), and a moderately increase risk for major depression (RR = 3.22; 95% CI: 2.63–3.95), panic disorder (RR = 3.19; 95% CI: 1.96–5.20) and bipolar disorder (RR = 3.66; 95% CI: 2.40–5.58). The PAFs for having any of the psychological problems (one or more) were considerable, especially for generalized anxiety (60.8%), but also for panic disorder (35.1%), bipolar disorder (30.6%) and major depression (34.0%). We conclude that common psychological problems are associated with mental disorders and with each other. After adjustment, psychological problems are associated with different patterns of mental disorders. If the impact of the psychological problems could be taken away, the prevalence of several mental disorders would be reduced considerably. The psychological problems may provide a promising target to indirectly prevent and intervene in psychopathology in hard to reach college students with mental disorders. |
topic |
college students mental disorders psychological problems depression generalized anxiety disorder bipolar disorder |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.573637/full |
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doaj-b7eeb731769242c9ac1bf2ceacc5a53d2021-09-27T04:46:46ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402021-09-011210.3389/fpsyt.2021.573637573637The Associations of Common Psychological Problems With Mental Disorders Among College StudentsPim Cuijpers0Filip Smit1Filip Smit2Pauline Aalten3Neeltje Batelaan4Anke Klein5Elske Salemink6Philip Spinhoven7Sascha Struijs8Sascha Struijs9Peter Vonk10Reinout W. Wiers11Leonore de Wit12Claudio Gentili13David Daniel Ebert14Ronny Bruffaerts15Ronald C. Kessler16Eirini Karyotaki17Department of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsTrimbos Institute (Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction), Utrecht, NetherlandsUM Student Desk, Student Services Center, Maastricht University, Maastricht, NetherlandsDepartment of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC Location VUmc, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsDepartment of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, NetherlandsDepartment of Research, Development and Prevention, Student Health Service, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, ItalyDepartment of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands0Public Health Psychiatry, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium1Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesDepartment of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NetherlandsPsychological problems like procrastination, perfectionism, low self-esteem, test anxiety and stress are common among college students. There are evidence-based interventions available for these problems that not only have direct effects on these problems, but also indirect effects on mental disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders. Targeting these psychological problems may offer new opportunities to prevent and treat mental disorders in a way that is less stigmatizing to students. In this study we examined the association of five psychological problems with five common mental disorders (panic, generalized anxiety, bipolar, major depressive, and substance use disorder) in a sample of 2,449 students from two Dutch universities. Psychological problems were measured with one item for each problem and mental disorders were measured with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Screening Scales. Associations were examined with Poisson regression models as relative risks (RR) of the disorders as a function of the psychological problems. The population attributable fraction (PAF) indicates by what percentage the prevalence of the mental disorder would be reduced if the psychological problem was addressed successfully by an intervention. Especially generalized anxiety disorder was strongly associated with psychological problems (strong associations with stress and low self-esteem and moderately with test anxiety). The group with three or more psychological problems had a strongly increased risk for generalized anxiety (RR = 11.25; 95% CI: 7.51–16.85), and a moderately increase risk for major depression (RR = 3.22; 95% CI: 2.63–3.95), panic disorder (RR = 3.19; 95% CI: 1.96–5.20) and bipolar disorder (RR = 3.66; 95% CI: 2.40–5.58). The PAFs for having any of the psychological problems (one or more) were considerable, especially for generalized anxiety (60.8%), but also for panic disorder (35.1%), bipolar disorder (30.6%) and major depression (34.0%). We conclude that common psychological problems are associated with mental disorders and with each other. After adjustment, psychological problems are associated with different patterns of mental disorders. If the impact of the psychological problems could be taken away, the prevalence of several mental disorders would be reduced considerably. The psychological problems may provide a promising target to indirectly prevent and intervene in psychopathology in hard to reach college students with mental disorders.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.573637/fullcollege studentsmental disorderspsychological problemsdepressiongeneralized anxiety disorderbipolar disorder |