About one in seven children in the US has at least one mental health condition, a new study reveals.
And at least half of them go untreated, according to new research from the University of Michigan.
In recent years, mental health conditions have been on the rise in the US, especially among children and teenagers.
Some have blamed technology, while others suggest that there is simply an increased awareness of mental health concerns.
But whatever the case may be, struggling with mental health conditions as a child - especially without proper treatment - paves a harder road to adulthood, and raises the risk of both lifelong mental illness and other chronic health problems.
There are 7.7 million children across the US with at least one diagnosed mental health disorder and they are most highly concentrated in states like Maine, Oklahoma and Mississippi, a map from a new University of Michigan study shows
The team at University of Michigan collected data on about 4.6.6 million children across the US.
Ranging from age zero to 17, 16.5 percent of the kids had been diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder at some point in their lives.
That means that some 7.7 million children are struggling with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD or any one of over 200 possible mental health concerns.
And several of the states with the highest rates of pediatric mental health disorder - Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah - also had the highest rates of children that went untreated, according to
