Anxiety overtakes physical illnesses as leading cause of disability among Brazilian children, revealing early mental health crisis

A new study in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas highlights anxiety now surpassing physical ailments as the primary cause of disability in Brazilian children aged five to nine, exposing a concerning early onset of mental health issues and systemic gaps.

A new analysis published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas suggests that anxiety has overtaken physical illnesses as the leading cause of disability among Brazilian children aged five to nine, underscoring a growing mental health burden that begins early and continues into young adulthood. Drawing on Global Burden of Disease 2023 data, the study estimates that more than 15 million people in Brazil aged 5 to 29 live with at least one mental disorder, equivalent to 20.91% of that age group, while a further 2.5 million are affected by alcohol- or substance-related disorders.

The findings point to clear age-related patterns. In younger children, separation-related difficulties are more common, while adolescence brings a sharper rise in social functioning problems. By early adulthood, generalised anxiety and panic attacks become more frequent. From the age of 15, anxiety and depression rank as the top two causes of disability in the study’s assessment, with the impact falling more heavily on girls and women.

The authors also warn that Brazil’s mental health system still struggles with a divide at 18, when patients move from child and adolescent services to adult care just as school, work and family pressures are intensifying. Christian Kieling, who led the research, said this break in care can make treatment harder to maintain and can push young people away from support. The study also found that suicide is the third leading cause of premature death among Brazilians aged 15 to 29, with most deaths in this group among males, prompting calls for more targeted prevention.

Researchers said the picture remains incomplete because Brazil has limited regional data on child and youth mental health, with much of the available evidence concentrated in São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. They argue that weaker data from the North, North-east and Central-West should not delay action, and call for earlier identification of distress, better access to basic care, stronger school-based referral pathways and clearer use of public mental health funding. Other Brazilian studies have similarly linked anxiety and depression in children and adolescents to hardship, violence, disability-related caregiving stress and disrupted routines, reinforcing the view that mental health problems in the young are both widespread and deeply shaped by social conditions.