• A study published in Paediatrics showed that antidepressant use has steeply risen among youth in the USA post-COVID, especially among females.

• The study compared data post-March 2020 with that from 2016-2019.

• The increase was by 130% in female adolescents 12-17 years old and about 60% in female young adults 18-25 years old.

• This increase parallels the rise in rates of anxiety and depression during the pandemic.

• Interestingly, before the pandemic, prescriptions for male teenagers were rising by 8.7% per month, but there was a decrease in prescriptions during and after the pandemic.

• The researchers hypothesized that this difference could be due to how social norms condition girls to internalize anxiety and depression and boys to externalize antisocial behavior and substance abuse when emotionally distressed.

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