California
Depression was rising among young people in Southern California. COVID made it worse
Children, teens and young adults in Southern California had been grappling with rising rates of depression and anxiety for years before the pandemic. Then COVID-19 came along and made their mental health struggles even worse.
Among 1.7 million young patients who were part of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health system, the prevalence of clinically diagnosed depression was 60% higher in 2021 than it had been five years earlier, according to a new study. The prevalence of anxiety among young patients who did not have depression also rose by 35% during that period, researchers found.
For both conditions, the annual rate of increase was significantly higher during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 than in the three years that preceded them.
What’s more, the trend was seen across all demographic groups regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or income, according to the report published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open.
“COVID initially was considered an infectious-disease crisis,” said Dr. Siddhartha Kumar, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Kaiser and the study’s senior author. “This was another side of COVID. The side effects on mental health are long-lasting and impacted the society in a very major way.”
It’s no secret that young people have been suffering.
In 2016, when the National Survey of Children’s Health asked parents and other caregivers how their youngsters were faring, their responses indicated that 3.1% of kids ages 3 to 17 were depressed. By 2020, that figure was 4%.
That survey also found that the prevalence of anxiety among those children increased from 7.1% to 9.2% during the same period.
Another study of adolescents ages 12 to 17 who participated in the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 20% of them had experienced major depressive disorder in the past year.
And U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy focused the nation’s attention on the issue by issuing a public health advisory about youth mental health in 2021. The advisory cited studies that found 25% of children and teens ages 4 through 17 from around the world had experienced symptoms of depression during the pandemic while 20% had symptoms of anxiety. Both measures had doubled since the start of the pandemic.
The new study is believed to be the first large-scale examination of youth mental health in the COVID era based on official diagnoses rather than survey data, according to Kumar and his colleagues from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, whose territory extends from Ventura County to the Inland Empire and from Kern County to San Diego.
The study authors focused on the roughly 1.7 million health plan members who were between the ages 5 and 22 on the first day of at least one of the years between 2017 and 2021.
Those children and young adults reflected the diversity of Southern California as a whole, the researchers wrote. About half were Latino, 23% were white, 8% were Asian and 8% were Black. (Data were missing for some plan members.)
Slightly more than half — 55% — were from households with an annual income of $50,000 to $99,999. An additional 29% were from households that earned less, and 16% were from ones that earned more.
The researchers checked whether the young patients had been formally diagnosed with some form of clinical depression. To qualify, a doctor had to determine that a patient was experiencing a “sad or irritable mood or loss of interest in activities” that caused “significant impairment in daily life.”
They found that 1.35% of the patients were newly diagnosed with depression in 2017. That figure rose to 1.58% in 2018, 1.76% in 2019, 1.84% in 2020 and 2.1% in 2021, with the incidence increasing for all groups regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or income.
Teens of high school age, 14 to 17, and young adults old enough to be in college, 18 to 22, had the highest incidences of depression throughout the study, the researchers found. Generally speaking, girls and women were more likely to be diagnosed with depression than boys and men, and the risk was consistently higher for patients who were white and who came from households with the highest incomes.
When the researchers tallied all the children and young adults with a new or existing depression diagnosis, they found that the prevalence was 2.55% in 2017, 2.92% in 2018, 3.27% in 2019, 3.53% in 2020 and 4.08% in 2021. The annual rate of increase was higher during the pandemic than before it, and the difference was large enough to be statistically significant, the researchers said.
They also examined patients diagnosed with anxiety, a condition they said was characterized by “excessive feelings of worry or persistent, even intrusive thoughts about certain fears or constant fear in general.”
Nearly 37% of the young patients with anxiety had also been diagnosed with depression. The researchers set them aside and focused on the ones who had anxiety alone.
By that measure, the incidence of newly diagnosed cases was 1.77% in 2017, 2.03% in 2018, 2.1% in 2019, 1.93% in 2020 and 2.32% in 2021.
College-age young adults had the highest incidence of anxiety without depression. The risk was also higher for people who were white and were in the highest income bracket, according to the study.
The prevalence of new or existing anxiety in patients without depression followed a similar pattern — 3.13% in 2017, 3.51% in 2018, 3.75% in2019, 3.61% in 2020 and 4.22% in 2021.
Both new and total cases of anxiety without depression increased significantly more in the COVID years than in the ones preceding it, the researchers found.
“Anxiety, mild depression, hopelessness, disappointment — these are common feelings all of us have from time to time. But it’s another thing when it reaches a clinical level,” Kumar said.
And when that happens to young people, the effects can be enduring.
“The teenage years are when you build your sense of self,” he said. “When adults go through stressful situations in their lives, often their reactions are based on how their sense of self was when they were young.”
Christina Bethell, a social epidemiologist and director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, agreed that the pandemic had exacerbated a mental health crisis affecting young people nationwide. But she said medical records could not capture the full scope of the problem.
Patients with depression or anxiety may not have access to a doctor, and those who do might not feel comfortable seeking treatment, she said. Primary care doctors are supposed to screen adolescents and adults for depression, but that doesn’t always happen. Even when it does, patients may not answer screening questions honestly. Sometimes doctors make mistakes that lead to misdiagnosis. And sometimes a patient who was correctly diagnosed recovers from depression or anxiety, but their medical records aren’t updated to reflect that.
“Medical records are often wrong, incomplete and only available for those in healthcare,” said Bethell, who wasn’t involved in the study.
In her view, the most important question isn’t whether someone has a diagnosis of depression or anxiety, but how they are actually faring.
“There are a whole bunch of people with a diagnosis who flourish, and there are people without a diagnosis who don’t flourish,” she said. “We want to keep our eye on the prize, which is youth well-being.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
From one crackdown on hospice fraud to another.
A few weeks ago, the FBI arrested multiple people in Southern California that were accused of defrauding the government for millions of dollars.
In a more recent announcement last Thursday, California’s State Attorney General Rob Bonta held a press conference to announce a fraud bust of their own.
“Operation Skip Trace uncovered and ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million,” Bonta said. “So just to be clear, a quarter billion dollars over funds that are paid for by California taxpayers, funds that are meant to provide care to Californians in need. It is unacceptable. It is illegal and we will not stand for it.”
The operation saw a total of 21 suspects charged as a result and dismantled a major hospice fraud scheme, with two handguns and over $750 thousand in cash seized as well.
According to the state’s attorney general, this is just one of the many cases over the years the state has cracked down on.
“This is just the latest example of the California DOJ’s longstanding ongoing and successful efforts to combat hospice and medical fraud,” Bonta said. “We have been doing this work for years. We’ve been doing it successfully before certain people in this country decided to think about it for the first time. We will continue to do this work. Heads down, sleeves rolled up, important investigative work, prosecutorial work.”
He added to that by taking a shot at the Trump Administration’s latest fraud operations.
“While healthcare fraud might be President Trump’s shiny new political talking point, the California DOJ has been going after healthcare fraud since 1979,” Bonta said. “For decades, Trump is late to the party. Protecting taxpayer dollars and protecting programs sick and vulnerable Californians rely on have been our priority for nearly five decades.”
Governor Gavin Newsom also spoke out about this latest crackdown while taking a shot of his own at President Trump.
In a post to “X” the Governor’s Press Office wrote in part quote…
“California has been cracking down on hospice fraud long before Trump gutted oversight and pardoned the architect of the biggest health care fraud scheme in U.S. history.”
State Republicans have responded to this latest announcement from Attorney General Bonta, calling for a special session to demand accountability from the Governor on widespread fraud.
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