{
  "id": 14588844,
  "title": "NHS diagnoses may reach fewer than one in 15 south London teens with mental disorders",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/nhs-diagnoses-may-reach-fewer-than-one-in-15-south-london-teens-with",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-15T02:00:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Medical Xpress",
    "slug": "medical-xpress",
    "url": "https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-nhs-south-london-teens-mental.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London finds that fewer than one in 15 young people in south London with mental health disorders may have received a diagnosis from NHS mental health services. Researchers compared NHS diagnosis records from 2009 to 2024 with population estimates based on the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which included over 2,000 17-year-olds in south London. The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health—Europe, reveals that while the proportion of 17-year-olds diagnosed with any mental health disorder increased from 2.6% in 2009 to 4.4% in 2024, only fewer than one in 15 young people with these disorders received a diagnosis from NHS services. The diagnostic gap is particularly pronounced among girls and minority ethnic groups.",
  "summary": "Fewer than one in 15 young people in south London estimated to have a mental health disorder may have received a diagnosis from NHS mental health services, according to a new study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": "The massive diagnostic gap in south London suggests that NHS mental health services are failing to identify the vast majority of teenagers living with disorders, especially among girls and minority ethnic groups.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}