280,000 Adolescents Treated for ADHD or Depression... 3.5-Fold Increase Over 9 Years

280,000 Treated Last Year, Up 16.4% from Previous Year
1 in 23 Adolescents Affected... 3.5 Times Increase Over 9 Years

The number of children and adolescents treated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or depression surpassed 280,000 last year. Compared to 2017, the number of patients has increased 3.5 times, and it was tallied that 4.4% of the total population aged 5 to 19 received treatment for either of the two conditions.

Image to help understand the article. Pixabay

According to an analysis by the Good Teachers Movement of data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service on July 20, a total of 280,270 people aged 5 to 19 were treated for ADHD or depression in 2025. This figure represents an increase of 39,470 people (16.4%) from the previous year’s 240,800.

By disease, the number of ADHD patients rose by 32,559, from 152,229 in 2024 to 184,788 last year. In the same period, the number of patients with depression also increased by 6,911, from 88,571 to 95,482.

Given that the population aged 5 to 19 last year was 6,333,065, this means that approximately 4.4% of individuals in this age group received treatment for ADHD or depression. This equates to about 1 in every 23 adolescents, meaning more than one student per class is receiving related care.

Unlike the declining adolescent population, the number of those receiving treatment for ADHD and depression has continued to rise. The population aged 5 to 19 fell by 17.3% over nine years, from about 7.66 million in 2017 to about 6.33 million last year. In contrast, during the same period, the number of patients treated for either condition increased by about 3.5 times, from 80,863 to 280,270.

The proportion of patients in the overall 5 to 19 age group also surged, from 1.1% in 2017 to 4.4% last year—an almost fourfold increase.

The Good Teachers Movement pointed out that although the Ministry of Education announced the “Student Mental Health Support Improvement Plan” in December last year, there are still insufficient measures to directly intervene in students’ emotional and behavioral issues by professionals within schools. The group argued that, in addition to increasing the number of professional counselors, behavioral intervention specialists and professional teachers should be nurtured and deployed in schools.

The organization stated, “We are currently facing a national crisis that exceeds the capabilities of individual schools and teachers,” and urged, “The Ministry of Education must work swiftly, together with the National Assembly, to establish the legal foundation to deploy professional teachers and specialists in behavioral intervention.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.