State Parental Consent Law and Treatment Use Among Adolescents With Depression

State Parental Consent Law and Treatment Use Among Adolescents With Depression, in JAMA Pediatrics

key takeaway: "Adjusting for state-level prevalence estimates of adolescent MDE showed that adolescents with past-year MDE in states with laws prohibiting independent adolescent consent for mental health treatment were significantly less likely to receive treatment (F1,46 = 11.18; P = .002; η2p = .21) (Table 2). In states that prohibited this consent, the mean (SE) proportion of adolescents with MDE receiving any treatment in 2021 to 2022 was only 37.2% (2.3%) compared with 46.7% (1.7%) in states allowing adolescents to consent with no or limited stipulations."