The director of the country’s leading female mental health research institute has spoken out on the “pointlessness” of suicide prevention, saying that methods for tackling mental illness must change.
Kathryn Abel, director of the Manchester Centre for Women’s Mental Health, has said that while suicide is at the highest rate in women in a decade, she is seeking to make the Government realise that “there’s really no point in trying to prevent suicide – it’s a numbers thing”. Professor Abel said that suicide is rare, as statistics are measured per 100,000 of the population. This view is controversial, as suicide is often said to be the biggest cause of death among men aged 16-24.
However, she noted that having suicidal thoughts is much more common. “Suicidal ideation is a public health problem that affects the quality of life in young women daily,” she said. Life expectancy is reduced by up to 30 years for those with serious mental health issues.
Professor Abel, who has been working in psychology for 35 years, issued a warning on the “epidemic” of mental illness in young women. She addressed those she calls her “stakeholders” – the girls who come to see her – at a London Gurls Talk event hosted by model Adwoa Aboah this weekend. Professor Abel said that more than a quarter of females in the UK aged 16-24 suffer from a mental illness.
She also warned against the increase in the prescription of antidepressants, particularly in six to 17-year-olds, at a stage when the brain is developing. Females are twice as likely to end up taking the medication, and women aged 15 to 17 account for most of the rise. She added, “I am not anti-medicine, I am a doctor,” but strongly believes that they should only be prescribed when truly necessary. She compared the over-prescription of the medication to the antibiotic crisis, saying: “GPs feel a need to do something so they get the pad out.” Due to waiting lists of around two to three months for talking therapies, which Professor Abel noted work just as well for the majority of sufferers, but often only provide six sessions, the medical profession has been pushed into this situation.
She said, “Women are more in danger of not having their needs met,” as most mental health information is derived from studies of men; it wasn’t until the Nineties that key samples included women. She highlighted the worldwide crisis facing females, saying, “There is a loss of women in society – the genocides we don’t hear about. There are hundreds of millions of missing women,” based on the ratio of men to women from birth cohort studies. This “missing women” phenomenon is often blamed on inadequate female healthcare.
Professor Abel also discussed worrying statistics revealed by the national Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, carried out over a 30-year period. From 2000, the number of men checking symptoms of common mental disorders was stable, but it increased from 18 to 22 per cent for women. Three times more women than men develop PTSD after a traumatic event, and 12 per cent of young women have PTSD symptoms, while 20 per cent self-harm. Eating disorders also affect vast numbers of young women; she said some of those carrying out the survey feel that in many ways there is no point in even asking about the problem, as the figures never change.
But the reasons behind this female mental health crisis are not simplistic. Professor Abel said: “If I hear another white middle-class person of my generation say ‘It’s all the internet’…,” noting that the problem is longstanding, even before the prevalence of technology. Precursors include poverty, being a carer (90 per cent of carers are women), abuse, violence and trauma. There are half a million sexual assaults in the UK every year – and this is likely a huge underestimate. Thirty per cent of victims of sexual violence, the majority of whom are women, develop depression in a lifetime, as opposed to ten per cent of non-victims. A study by Sir Michael Marmot also found that more women than men have ended up in high-strain jobs, doing difficult labour for poor wages, over the last 30 years, which has an adverse effect on mental health.
Originally published: PA Diploma News
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