(NEW YORK) — An advisory committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted in favor of drugmaker Pfizer’s application for a new RSV vaccine for pregnant people Thursday, two weeks after the federal agency approved the first RSV vaccine for older adults.
The move is part of a multi-step regulatory process involving both the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA would need to make an approval decision next, which is expected in late August. Pfizer is hoping for an approval by early August, but after the FDA approves a vaccine, the CDC would also need its advisers to weigh in before the agency makes its final decision too.
Vaccine approval is being closely watched ahead of the winter RSV season, which typically surges between December and February.
A new study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown encouraging data that supports the case for an RSV vaccine during pregnancy. The study data was gathered from a phase three clinical trial with pregnant participants in over 18 countries and showed that when the RSV vaccine is given between 24 and 36 weeks gestation, it appeared immunity passed to the fetus through the placenta. The results also showed the vaccine was effective at preventing severe lower respiratory tract infection and reducing hospitalization.
If approved, the RSV vaccine could be given to those who are pregnant, much like other vaccines available now, including those for Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), the flu and COVID-19.
According to the CDC, infants and young children, like older adults, are at high risk for RSV, which sends approximately 58,000 to 80,000 children in the U.S. to the hospital each year.
An RSV vaccine for children is also currently in the works.
(NEW YORK) — An additional person has died in an outbreak linked to contaminated eye drops and more people are reporting they’ve lost their vision.
The number of deaths has risen to four, according to an update issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday and first reported by ABC News.
At least one of the deaths occurred in Washington state, but the CDC did not provide any information on the other victims.
Additionally, at least 14 people have gone blind, up from eight reported during the last update in March. Four people have had their eyeballs surgically removed but that number has not risen.
Patients reported using at least 10 different brands of artificial tears but most cases have been linked to EzriCare and Delsam Pharma eye drops, made by India-based Global Pharma Healthcare.
The eye drops were contaminated with an antibiotic-resistant form of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an aggressive bacterium, according to the CDC.
Pseudomonas are a type of bacteria found in the environment, with P. aeruginosa being the most common to cause infections in humans.
The infection is common in health care settings and spreads from improper hygiene either due to unclean hands or medical equipment and surfaces not being properly cleaned.
P. aeruginosa is resistant to multiple types of antibiotics and has caused about 32,600 infections among U.S. hospitalized patients and an estimated 2,700 deaths, according to the CDC.
The strain that has been linked to the outbreak, however, had never been reported in the United States before, the CDC stated in its update.
As of May 15, 81 people across 18 states have been infected with P. aeruginosa, an increase of 13 patients since the last update.
Symptoms of their infections include yellow, green, or clear discharge from the eye; eye pain or discomfort; red eyes or eyelids; feeling of something in the eye; increased sensitivity to light; and blurry vision.
In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning, backed by the CDC, urging clinicians and the public not to buy EzriCare Artificial Tears or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears due to potential bacterial contamination.
After the warning, Global Pharma Healthcare issued a voluntary recall of both products, notifying distributors and advising wholesalers, retailers and customers who have the products to stop usage. Global Health Pharma has also issued a recall of Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Ointment.
The CDC and the FDA are warning that anybody who still has these brands immediately stop use and discard. None of the products appear to be able to be bought online.
Among the 13 new cases that were reported to the CDC, six had specimens collected prior to the February recall.
“These cases were confirmed after the recall date due to the time it takes for testing to confirm the outbreak strain and because of retrospective reporting of infections,” the CDC wrote in its update.
Of the seven patients with specimens collected after the recall, they either were living in long-term care facilities with other known cases or were using a recalled brand of artificial tears.
(NEW YORK) — An Illinois mom is opening up about how she advocated for her teenage daughter to get the correct diagnosis and treatment she needed after she started experiencing life-changing symptoms over a year ago.
Lindsey Sutherland told Good Morning America her daughter Ayli started having unusual symptoms, such as a stiff hand, trouble walking and hallucinations, after she underwent jaw surgery.
“She did not know us. She was seeing things,” Sutherland recalled.
The symptoms were aggressive, according to Sutherland, and kept getting worse, leading to seizures, tics and parts of her 14-year-old daughter’s body freezing in place.
For months, doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
At times, Sutherland said her daughter’s behavior was psychotic.
“This was not my child anymore. It was like she wasn’t even in there,” Sutherland said.
Eventually, a friend of Sutherland’s told her Ayli’s symptoms reminded them of a movie called Brain on Fire, which recounts the true story of a young woman with psychotic episodes and seizures who was diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis, a condition where the immune system attacks the brain.
“It was that story almost to a T. And so I thought, ‘OK, what do I have to lose? I’m calling those doctors from that movie,'” Sutherland said. “I begged and I said, ‘Please just see my child.'”
Doctors eventually diagnosed Ayli with both autoimmune encephalitis and stiff person syndrome, another rare debilitating disorder that iconic singer Celine Dion revealed she had last December. They think stress from Ayli’s jaw surgery may have set off her autoimmune encephalitis.
At Northwell Health’s Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, pediatric neurologist Dr. Juliann Paolicchi started treating Ayli with a couple medications, including steroids.
“The effect was miraculous,” Paolicchi told GMA.
“Our child was starting to come back to us. She could walk down the hall by herself,” Sutherland added.
Paolicchi said the right treatment for Ayli was like night and day.
“It was so striking that it was almost challenging to believe from a medical perspective,” Paolicchi said.
Although there is currently no cure for either autoimmune encephalitis or stiff person syndrome, Ayli’s symptoms are now under better control with the appropriate medications.
Ayli has now also returned to school and is looking ahead to her future.
“I’ve always wanted to work in the medical field but I think now, I’m leaning more towards helping patients that have this,” the 14-year-old said, referring to her conditions.
Sutherland said she encourages other parents to fight for and advocate for their kids’ care.
“If something’s not right in your gut, keep fighting,” Sutherland said. “Don’t stop.”
(NEW YORK) — As medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro used by some for weight loss experience a surge in popularity, they remain out of reach for many people.
The reason is the medications’ cost, which can run more than $1,000 a month without insurance coverage.
“Patients may not have [insurance] coverage, and so, if they elect to use them, they often are paying out-of-pocket,” Dr. Veronica Johnson, an obesity medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine, told ABC News. “And the costs can be anywhere between $1,000 to $1,500 a month.”
Both Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe them “off-label” for weight loss. Wegovy is FDA-approved for weight loss for people with obesity or who are overweight.
Insurance coverage for the medications varies, depending on everything from a person’s medical diagnosis to where they live and their insurance plan.
Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are not covered for weight loss under most Medicare and Medicaid programs.
“Health insurance providers work to ensure the right medications are prescribed to the right patients and at an affordable cost,” America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade association of health insurance companies, told ABC News in a statement, adding, “Evidence … suggests that patients may not be able to maintain their weight loss once they stop taking the drug.”
Among people whose insurance does not cover the medications, some are turning to an alternate option, finding a cheaper off-brand version at a compounding pharmacy.
Tina Straw of Ohio told ABC News she chose to use a compounding pharmacy when her insurance company denied coverage.
“I was like, ‘OK, I can do $1,200 a month for a year, but I can’t … do $1,200 a month indefinitely,” she said. “I’m planning on, you know, hopefully retiring soon.”
Instead of paying $1,200 per month, Straw said she is paying around $300 per month for a generic semaglutide compound.
Semaglutide is the active compound that Ozempic and Wegovy are made of, while Mounjaro contains a compound called tirzepatide.
Compound pharmacies create their own semaglutide or tirzepatide compounds using the raw ingredients.
“A compounding pharmacy is a pharmacy that takes drug components and mixes them together to make a drug,” Dr. Al Carter, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, told ABC News. “Patients [use compound pharmacies] if they need a specific drug, it’s not available in a market, or if they need a drug that doesn’t have a specific inactive ingredient because of allergy or something else.”
Some medical experts say there are risks associated with getting semaglutide through that route because the compounds can be altered and it’s not clear in many cases from where the drugs are sourced.
“It could be combined with something else that’s not tested or safe, so in general, it’s just really not recommended,” Johnson said of the use of compound pharmacies.
The FDA said while the medications are eligible for compounding because of shortages, the compounded versions “pose a higher risk.”
“Compounded drugs pose a higher risk to patient than FDA-approved drugs because compounded drugs do not undergo FDA premarket review for safety, effectiveness, or quality,” the agency said in a statement. “The FDA’s compounding program aims to protect patients from poor quality compounded drugs, while preserving access to lawfully marketed compounded drugs for patients.”
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy says many compound pharmacies are safe and are regulated by the states.
“Of these medications [used for weight loss], where I would get concerned is when you are going to purchase these compounded products online,” Carter said.
Experts say people who would like to take the brand names of the medications should check on their insurance coverage every few months because the coverage may change.
Eli Lilly, the maker of Mounjaro, said in April that it expects the medication could be approved by the FDA for weight loss as early as the end of the year.
(ATLANTA) — The mpox vaccination campaign after an outbreak swept the United States last year was highly effective at preventing infection, new federal data showed.
One dose of the JYNNEOS vaccine was 75% effective and two doses of the vaccine were 86% effective, a new study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Among patients who are immunocompromised, one dose of the vaccine was 51% effective and two doses were 70.2% effective.
CDC officials said the results showed the importance of at-risk populations getting vaccinated or getting a second dose among those who’ve only been partially vaccinated ahead of summer.
As of March 31, nearly 31,000 mpox cases and 42 deaths have been reported since the outbreak struck last year, according to the report.
During the height of the outbreak, cases were, in some instances, doubling every week. Although anyone — regardless of sexual orientation — is at risk if they have direct contact with an infected patient, the outbreak was primarily concentrated in men who have sex with men, a group that includes people who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary.
In response, health officials began advising anyone with known exposure to mpox or who might be at risk of exposure to get vaccinated with the JYNNEOS vaccine, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019.
To increase the number of JYNNEOS doses available, the FDA authorized a proven strategy in August to inject the vaccine intradermally, just below the first layer of skin, rather than subcutaneously, or under all the layers of skin.
This allows one vial of vaccine to be given out as five separate doses rather than a single dose.
Since summer 2022, more than 1.2 million doses have been administered. However, there has been limited data on the effectiveness of the vaccine, so the CDC conducted a study comparing vaccine effectiveness among sexually active men who have sex with men or transgender people between ages 18 and 49.
Between August 2022 and March 2023, a total of 309 patients who were vaccinated were compared with 608 patients who were not.
Not only was the vaccine shown to be effective, but also there was little difference in vaccine effectiveness when it came to the method by which the shot was administered, whether subcutaneously or intradermally.
“Vaccination is an important tool for preventing mpox, and this report demonstrates that the JYNNEOS vaccine is effective at reducing risk for mpox,” the report said. “However, additional pre-cautions to reduce exposure should be considered, particularly among immunocompromised persons” including limiting the number of sexual partners and one-time sexual encounters.”
The study comes as the CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health reported a recent outbreak of mpox.
Twenty-one cases in Chicago have been diagnosed, with most among gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men, the CDC said during a press briefing with reporters Thursday morning.
Some cases did occur among previously vaccinated individuals, but there could be explanations including decreased immunity over time or infected patients being immunocompromised, the officials said.
This demonstrates “the ongoing risk for new cases and outbreaks and the need for continued vigilance and prevention efforts,” Dr. Christopher Braden, the CDC mpox response incident manager, said during the briefing.
(NEW YORK) — An advisory committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to meet Thursday to discuss drugmaker Pfizer’s application for a new RSV vaccine for pregnant people, two weeks after the federal agency approved the first RSV vaccine for older adults.
A new study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown encouraging data that supports the case for an RSV vaccine during pregnancy. The study data was gathered from a phase three clinical trial with pregnant participants in over 18 countries and showed that when the RSV vaccine is given between 24 and 36 weeks gestation, it appeared immunity passed to the fetus through the placenta. The results also showed the vaccine was effective at preventing severe lower respiratory tract infection and reducing hospitalization.
If approved, the RSV vaccine could be given to those who are pregnant, much like other vaccines available now, including those for Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), the flu and COVID-19.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infants and young children, like older adults, are at high risk for RSV, which sends approximately 58,000 to 80,000 children in the U.S. to the hospital each year.
It’s likely the FDA may approve the RSV vaccine option for pregnant individuals as early as this summer, ahead of the winter RSV season, which typically surges between December and February. Pfizer is hoping for an approval by early August but after the FDA approves a vaccine, the CDC would also need greenlight the vaccine too.
An RSV vaccine for children is also currently in the works.
(NEW YORK) — An ongoing parenting debate about when it’s appropriate to give a child a smartphone has been reignited, ironically, on social media.
Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, shared a post to Instagram on Monday stating his belief that parents should wait until their child is in high school to give them a smartphone.
In calling on parents to wait, Grant, a bestselling author with nearly two million Instagram followers, cited his own family’s experience, as well as a new report that he said showed a negative correlation between mental health and getting a smartphone earlier in life.
“We were among the holdout parents,” Grant wrote in an Instagram post that now has over 130,000 likes. “We know it’s not easy, but the evidence is clear: even if kids under 14 need phones for communication, they don’t need smartphones or social media. It’s time for parents to align on waiting so it isn’t just a few kids being left out.”
Among the thousands of comments left on Grant’s post were people on both sides of the debate, with some agreeing that no kid should have a smartphone until high school, and others arguing the decision is more nuanced than that.
“It’s ridiculous to think that it’s only a one household decision,” one commenter wrote, in part. “When kids are surrounded by peers with some thing like a smart phone, it’s impossible for them to not think that they are excluded.”
“This is the world we live in now, and I don’t understand why so many parents think we can ignore it or put up a united front against phones,” wrote another commenter.
Some commenters shared that they want their child to be able to communicate their whereabouts with parents, while others commenters emphasized that mental health struggles cannot be blamed on phones alone.
“Great, another thing to shame parents and make them feel bad about themselves,” one commenter wrote. “Why don’t we focus on learning more about mental health and how to support those suffering from it rather than blaming parents for letting their child have too much screen time so the holdout parents can feel superior.”
Many parents, however, shared in the comments their own experiences with waiting until their kids were older to give them phones.
“We waited till 18. They had a flip phone before that so they could reach us from anywhere. They hate social media. It worked,” one commenter wrote.
“Couldn’t agree with this more!,” wrote another commenter. “Our 13 year old is not on smartphone or social media and it shows!”
Several commenters also agreed with the idea that parents can have an impact, with one writing, “We need more parents aligned on creating the ‘norm’ for smartphone use (or lack thereof).”
Grant declined to comment to ABC News.
Brooke Shannon, a mom of three daughters in Texas, is the founder of Wait Until 8th, a movement in which parents sign a pledge to not get their child a smartphone before 8th grade.
Shannon told ABC News the pledge is important because she believes it has to be a “community effort” to successfully limit young people’s screen time on phones, with parents, coaches, schools and kids all on board.
According to Shannon, what started out nearly seven years ago as a small effort among the parents of her daughters’ friends has grown into a national movement with over 40,000 families from across the country having signed the pledge.
“I think because so many parents struggle with this same question, it just spread very quickly,” Shannon said, adding she believes the movement has also grown because of the growing body of research showing the potential impact of screen time on young people.
“There are so many studies,” she said, adding, “‘When you look at the amount of research, you just want to shout it from the rooftops, ‘Parents just wait. There’s no hurry.'”
Shannon said her oldest daughter just received her first smartphone last year, at the start of her freshman year of high school. She does not have access to the internet or any social media apps on the phone, according to Shannon.
“It’s basically like a communication device, where she can text, she can call, she can FaceTime, she can listen to music and take photos,” Shannon said. “That has worked really well for our family, to just take it very slowly and to keep it very simple.”
Dr. Hina Talib, a board-certified pediatrician and adolescent specialist in New York City, said she hears from parents daily with questions about their teens and phones and social media.
She said in her opinion, it’s hard to issue a blanket age at which it’s OK to give a child a phone and access to social media.
“The reality is just way more nuanced than these headlines,” Talib told ABC News. “The best advice is really particular to the child in front of you. There’s no doubt that social media for some teens can be harmful, but there are still groups of teens who are able to engage with their friends … and their interests in helpful ways.”
Talib said she believes a better approach is to decide on a more individual level when a child is ready for a smartphone, and then give more access to the phone with “more skills gained and responsibility earned.”
“For example, you might start with just using it as a communication tool having text only or music only, and then over time, try out other applications and eventually social media,” Talib said. “But even then, it should always be an ongoing, by-way communication between you and your adolescent and young adult as they continue to develop their relationship with technology.”
How to know if your child is ready for a phone
Talib said she encourages parents to use a free 10-question tool from the American Academy of Pediatrics and AT&T to help them decide if their child is ready for a smartphone.
The tool asks questions like how often a child would need the phone to communicate with others, how responsible the child is in other activities, like turning in school assignments, and how well the child follows rules about other media, like TV or video games.
If a child is ready for a phone, the AAP also has a free tool where parents can work with their child to create a media plan that works for their own family.
Parents also have a resource through the American Psychological Association, which earlier this month issued the first guidance of its kind on teenagers and social media.
The guidance contains 10 recommendations designed to ensure that teens get the proper training on how use social media safely. For most families, that means starting with an active discussion about which sites teens are using, how often and how those experiences make them feel.
In addition to setting limits, the APA strongly encourages ongoing discussions about social media use and active supervision, especially in early adolescence. Parents are encouraged to model healthy social media use, including taking social media “holidays” as a family.
(NEW YORK) — A new proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture could eliminate flavored milk from school cafeterias.
The agency opened a comment request in February for feedback on its proposal to revise long-term school nutrition standards, which includes less added sugars in school lunch and breakfast programs to “reduce children’s risk of chronic disease.”
The proposal states, “This approach would reduce exposure to added sugars and would promote the more nutrient-dense choice of unflavored milk for young children when their tastes are being formed.”
More specifically, the USDA suggests limiting the amount of strawberry and chocolate milk in high schools and banning it altogether in elementary and middle schools.
As of time of publication, the USDA had received more than 92,000 comments on the proposal, with opinions from both sides of the debate.
Some commenters applauded the effort and voiced support to strengthen nutrition standards at schools, while others condemned the plan and said it should be left up to parents and families individually to make those dietary decisions.
The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long told the Wall Street Journal Monday that “flavored milk is a challenging issue to figure out exactly the best path forward.”
“We really do want to encourage children to consume milk and we also recognize the need to reduce added-sugar consumption,” she said.
Dairy industry, milk processors commit to reduction of added sugars
Last month, the International Dairy Foods Association announced a “Healthy School Milk Commitment” on behalf of U.S. milk processors, pledging to provide milk with less added sugar for public schools.
In it, the association wrote that dairy companies would “deliver milk’s 13 essential nutrients to America’s students while reducing calories and added sugars in flavored milk.”
The commitment by 37 school milk processors, which represent over 90% of the school milk volume in the country, will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year.
The milk options would have “no more than 10 grams of added sugar per 8 fluid ounce serving, fully consistent with the latest federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans and ahead of current school meal nutrition guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).”
“Flavored milk products such as chocolate milk offered in schools today contain an average of just 8.2 grams of added sugar per serving. The Healthy School Milk Commitment combines dairy’s passion for product innovation with a long-standing promise to provide healthy, nutritious dairy options to schoolkids everywhere,” the group said in a statement.
What happens next?
Public comments which were extended from April to May 10, 2023 are now closed.
The USDA said it expects to issue a final rule in time for schools to plan for school year 2024-25.
(NEW YORK) — As the popularity of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro continues to grow, some women are taking a closer look at whether the drugs could impact their chances of becoming pregnant.
Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh told ABC News’ Good Morning America that she and her husband previously suffered four pregnancy losses in their quest to have a child. When the couple decided to turn to in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, Mitchell-Rohrbaugh said they hit another roadblock when a doctor told her she needed to lose 40 pounds before they could begin the process.
“I just kept thinking to myself, are you insane? I’m not a small person,” she said. “I’m a plus-size woman.”
For help losing the weight, Mitchell-Rohrbaugh said she turned to Ozempic, one of a class of drugs called GLP-1 RAs that help people produce insulin and lower the amount of sugar in the blood. The drugs work by slowing down movement of food through the stomach and curbing appetite, thereby causing weight loss.
Ozempic, made from a compound called semaglutide, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe it off-label for weight loss.
After using Ozempic for five months, Mitchell-Rohrbaugh said she had lost 40 pounds.
She went off the medication and began fertility treatment. Mitchell-Rohrbaugh said she then had a successful round of IVF, one that produced viable embryos.
“To get to that call, ‘Wynter, hi, I have good news,’ I just I never thought I was going to hear that,” Mitchell-Rohrbaugh said.
What to know about weight loss drugs and fertility
Because semaglutide, the compound used in Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, the compound used in Mounjaro, are relatively new on the market — approved by the FDA within the last five years to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity — there is still research to be done on exactly how they impact women of childbearing age, experts say.
“We need to collect the information and ascertain that it’s safe in this indication and that it’s going to be working for us,” Dr. Richard Paulson, a California-based board-certified reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist, told GMA.
The FDA says in its safety profiles of Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro that they should not be taken during pregnancy, noting there is “insufficient data” available.
The FDA also explains that the drugs could cause weight loss, and that “weight loss offers no benefit to a pregnant patient and may cause fetal harm.”
The agency recommends that people discontinue treatment at least two months before they plan to become pregnant.
Going off of the medications should be done under the supervision of a medical provider, just as when you start the medications, experts say.
A person who becomes pregnant unexpectedly while taking one of these drugs should contact their healthcare provider, who can help them transition off the medication and make sure they are receiving proper maternal care.
The FDA will monitor any cases where women are exposed to semaglutide (found in Wegovy and Ozempic) during pregnancy. The agency says pregnant women who are impacted and health care providers should contact the drug’s manufacturer.
Prior to pregnancy, drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy can be very effective in helping people with Type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar levels and get to a healthy weight, which can be critical for a healthy pregnancy, according to Dr. Sarah Lassey, a board-certified OB-GYN and co-director of the diabetes in pregnancy program at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“We know that poorly controlled diabetes during pregnancy is associated with [adverse] maternal and fetal outcomes in a pregnancy,” Lassey told GMA earlier this year, noting those risks can include miscarriage, birth defect, stillbirth and preeclampsia. “Our way to prevent any of these adverse outcomes is to control blood glucose levels and hemoglobin A1c in the time prior to conceiving as well as throughout the pregnancy.”
Lassey said there is not enough long-term research at this point to know how the medications may impact fertility.
“We just don’t know,” she said, adding, “However, we know that when people have better blood sugar control and things like that, they have lower rates of miscarriage and improvement in their fertility, typically.”
(NEW YORK) — Depression rates in the United States are skyrocketing, particularly among young adults and women, a new poll shows.
The survey, published by Gallup on Wednesday, found 29% of U.S. adults report being diagnosed with depression at some point during their lifetimes, an increase from 19.6% in 2015.
Meanwhile, 17.8% of those aged 18 and older either currently have or are currently being treated for depression, up from 10.5% in 2015.
According to Gallup, both rates are the highest ever recorded by the analytics company since it began tracking depression rates.
“I think the results are startling,” Dan Witters, research director of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being, told ABC News. “The disproportionate manner in which some groups have been affected by this makes sense to me based upon what we know about other research and those sharp increases in those depression rates among those adults under 30, women too, Blacks and Hispanics, they are really eye-popping.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic can’t be blamed completely for the increasing rates, it definitely was a major factor, Witters said.
“Both of these rates had kind of been coming up over the years pre-pandemic,” he said. “And you don’t want to get too far out in front of your skis as far as putting all the blame on the pandemic.”
He went on, “There’s plenty of other big factors out there that could be relevant to these increasing rates that we’ve been measuring but the pandemic’s a big one and indeed the rates have really come up significantly in the years since COVID hit.”
More than 5,100 adults were surveyed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia during the last week of February 2023. The results are part of the larger ongoing Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, which seeks to track and understand factors that drive well-being.
Results showed rates are rising fastest among certain groups, particularly young adults and women.
Women’s rates of depression during their lifetimes climbed from 26.2% in 2017 to 36.7% in 2023. Rates of those with current depression increased from 17.6% to 23.8% over the same period.
By comparison, men with depression during their lifetimes saw a smaller increase from 17.7% in 2017 to 20.4% in 2023. Current rates for depression rose from 9.3% to 11.3%.
Witters said women have historically had higher rates of depression than men. COVID, however, may have led to a jump in these rates due to women being disproportionately forced to leave the workforce to take care of children at home and that fact that they make up a higher percentage of frontline health care workers.
Breakdowns by age showed one-third of younger adults between ages 18 to 29 reported being diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, up from 20.4% in 2017. Additionally, 24.6% said they currently have depression, an increase from 13% in 2017.
Witters pointed to other research showing a growing mental health crisis among young people in the U.S.
“Obviously social media predates 2017, but social media had the effect on a lot of kids where they feel left out, they feel compelled to look at social media, and they see people out having fun, and they’re not a part of it,” he said. “They can get ostracized through social media.”
Adults aged 65 and older had the smallest increase for depression and were the only group that saw a decrease in rates of current depression from 2021.
When it came to breakdowns by race/ethnicity, results showed rates for Black and Hispanic adults are rising at about twice the rate of white adults.
The percentage of Black adults diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime rose from 20.1% to 34.4% between 2017 and 2023. For Hispanic adults, the percentage jumped from 18.4% to 31.3% over the same period.
Comparatively, white adults saw their rates increase from 22.3% in 2017 to 29% in 2023.
“For a long time, white America and white adults were reporting a clinical diagnosis of depression at rates that exceed Black and Hispanic adults,” Witters said. “These big increases … really show the strain that Black and Hispanic Americans have been under since 2017.”
Black and Hispanic Americans were more likely to lose their jobs in the early days of the pandemic, he said, and events such as the death of George Floyd in May 2020 may have also contributed to depression.
“When the pandemic first hit, across all adults, negative emotional experiences [tracked by Gallup] such as sadness and anger went up a little but didn’t really change that much,” Witters said. “You fast forward a couple of months and you get to kind of the latter part of May and into June, anger and sadness were up over 10 percentage points.”
ABC News’ Dr. Amanda Kravitz contributed to this report.
