In Depth: What’s Behind China’s Growing Problem With Child Depression

Cao Qingjiu and his colleagues at Peking University Sixth Hospital see working overtime as the norm. As one of fewer than 500 psychiatrists in China focused on children and adolescents, he has a heavy caseload of depressed young people. They account for 70% of the department’s outpatients, he told Caixin.

Not only have case numbers climbed, especially since the pandemic, but children are being hospitalized in growing numbers.