College Students Don't Seek Mental Counsel

The mental health of college students is getting a lot of scrutiny these days in the wake of revelations that the Virginia Tech student who gunned down 32 of his classmates in April had exhibited signs of instability.

But while Seung Hui Cho belongs to a class of his own, a new study out of the University of Michigan has found that over half of the surveyed students who exhibited severe anxiety or depression did not seek counseling or other aid, even when professional help was available free of charge on campus.

The full article appeared yesterday on the website of the journal Medical Care.

In late 2005, Cho was evaluated at the Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford, Va. The next day, a magistrate recommended that Cho receive outpatient care, saying he posed a danger to himself. But it is unclear whether he did so, and his case has spawned an intense re-evaluation of how college students shoulder the stress and challenges of life on campus.

 --Chris Wilson