An official website of the United States government
QuickStats: Percentage* of Children and Adolescents Aged 5–17 Years Who Took Medication for Their Mental Health or Received Counseling or Therapy from a Mental Health Professional During the Past 12 Months,† by Year — National Health Interview Survey,§ United States, 2019 and 2022
Weekly / October 27, 2023 / 72(43);1171
* With 95% CIs indicated by error bars.
† Based on a positive response to one or both of these questions: “During the past 12 months, did [child’s name] receive counseling or therapy from a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse, or clinical social worker?” and “During the past 12 months, did [child’s name] take any prescription medication to help with [his/her] emotions, concentration, behavior, or mental health?” Children and adolescents could have both taken medication for their mental health and received counseling or therapy.
§ Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
The percentage of children and adolescents aged 5–17 years who took medication for their mental health during the past 12 months did not change significantly from 2019 (8.4%) to 2022 (9.3%). The percentage of children and adolescents who received counseling or therapy during the past 12 months increased from 10.0% in 2019 to 13.8% in 2022. In both 2019 and 2022, the percentage of children and adolescents who received counseling or therapy was higher than the percentage of those who took medication for their mental health.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, 2019 and 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/index.htm
Reported by: Benjamin Zablotsky, PhD, xcw5@cdc.gov; Amanda E. Ng, MPH; Emily P. Terlizzi, MPH.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Children and Adolescents Aged 5–17 Years Who Took Medication for Their Mental Health or Received Counseling or Therapy from a Mental Health Professional During the Past 12 Months, by Year — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2019 and 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:1171. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7243a5.
MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.