Social Policy in Ontario

Why anxiety and mood disorders are skyrocketing in Canada — and who is being hit the hardest

Posted on September 15, 2026 in Health Debates

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Kevin Jiang

TheStar.com – Life/Health-Wellness
Aug. 26, 2026.  Updated Sept. 8, 2026.   By Kevin Jiang, Science and Life Reporter

A study from McMaster University shows the odds of having both a mood or anxiety disorder and a substance use disorder nearly doubled from 2012-2022.

Mental health continues to decline across Canada, a new study out of McMaster University suggests.

The odds of having a mood or anxiety disorder in Canada grew 2.5 times between 2012 and 2022, the paper found. What’s more, the odds of developing both a substance use disorder and a mood or anxiety disorder nearly doubled in the same period — despite the odds of having a substance use disorder alone decreasing by 40 per cent.

“That’s probably an underestimate of the true burden of mental illness, because we only measured a handful of disorders, even though they are the most common,” said Jillian Halladay, the study’s lead author, who is a clinical epidemiologist and assistant professor at McMaster’s School of Nursing.

Notably, the study suggested Canadian youth aged 15 to 24, as well as women, had disproportionately higher odds of mood and anxiety disorders, as well as concurrent disorders.

We don’t yet have a concrete answer to why that is.

“For women and girls, it’s unclear whether this is biologically driven, whether it’s related to hormones or neurobiological differences between males and females … or whether this is more of a socio-cultural phenomenon in terms of gender norms or power imbalances or marginalization related to gender,” Halladay said.

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The plunge in mental health has been recorded across multiple high-income countries, Halladay noted. “This is not just a Canada thing,” she said. And it predates COVID-19 — although the pandemic is believed to have made it worse.

Unaffiliated experts say the study’s findings highlight the need for better integrated care for both mental health and substance use disorders. “This reinforces the importance of looking beyond a single diagnosis,” said Katy Kamkar, a clinical psychologist at CAMH and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“When someone presents with anxiety, depression or substance use concerns, we need to consider the broader clinical picture and assess for co-occurring difficulties, particularly given the greater distress, complexity and suicidality associated with concurrent disorders.”

The paper was published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychiatry Research last week. Here’s what it tells us.

Canada’s worsening mental health crisis

About one in six Canadians met the criteria for a mood, anxiety or substance use disorder as of 2022. Of these, two in five were living with two or more disorders at the same time and reporting greater distress, unmet care needs and likelihood of suicidal ideation.

Roughly half of people living with a substance use disorder also had a mood or anxiety disorder, the paper found. From 2012 to 2022, concurrent disorders in people who used alcohol rose from 21 to 50 per cent, cannabis from 30 to 51 per cent and other drugs from 50 to 58 per cent.

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“Fewer Canadians are using substances, but a larger share of those who do appear to be using them to manage distress rather than for social or recreational reasons,” said Norman Farb, a professor of psychology at U of T Mississauga who is unaffiliated with the study. “That is a meaningful change in what substance use means.”

However, Halladay noted the relationship could be the other way around. “Substance use itself can cause neurobiological changes,” she said. “We do have increasingly potent cannabis. We also have increasing toxic drug supplies, and that might shift your social and physical environments and make you more prone to experiencing mood and anxiety disorders.”

Farb noted the increase in mood and anxiety disorders doesn’t appear to be linear. Recent Canadian evidence among post-secondary students suggests rates of anxiety and depression may have levelled out in the years since 2021. Farb said his own, yet-unpublished research also shows a “genuine rise across the 2010s, then a plateau at a high level from roughly 2021 onward.”

Why is this happening?

The new MacMaster study didn’t investigate the reasons for Canadians’ worsening mental health. But numerous recent papers offer some explanations.

“These trends have been going on for quite a while. They tended to start anywhere between 2010 and 2014, depending on the country or the survey,” Halladay said. “Things like the COVID lockdowns could have contributed, but again, these increases started well before COVID.

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The advent of social media likely played a role, Halladay said. In the past decade, we’ve seen the internet transform the way people, especially youth, connect and spend time with each other. It’s led to growing social isolation, fewer in-person events and less physical activity; a recent report from Mental Health Research Canada linked extended screen time and negative online experiences with higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation among Canadian youth.

At the same time, the world is in a period of growing uncertainty. “There are constant discussions of war, political crises, climate crises, financial crises, precarious job markets — there’s a lot of really stressful things going on in the world, and there’s also a lot of awareness and access to that news,” Halladay said.

“Meanwhile, we’re also seeing greater socioeconomic disparity and uncertainty over time,” she said, with Canada’s cost of living continuing to rise amid trade disputes with the U.S.

On the flip side, part of the increase is likely due to growing awareness of mental health: “Canadians have become much better at recognizing and naming distress, which is a public health success being counted here as deterioration,” Farb said.

What can we do to prioritize mental health?

The study’s researchers are calling for a paradigm shift in how we approach and treat mental health disorders. Much of our current funding structures and health services focus on treating disorders separately. Sometimes, a substance use disorder could even exclude someone from receiving treatment for anxiety or depression, Halladay said, leading people in need to fall through the cracks.

“Can we think about early intervention and treatment of multiple disorders — both substance use disorders and anxiety and mood disorders — at the same time?” Halladay asked.

There are realistic solutions to our growing mental health crisis

This would require an overhaul of the way clinicians are trained, as well as how services are structured and funded.

“There’s a lot of evidence that shows that treating both at the same time leads to better outcomes,” Halladay said. “We just need to think about how do we build the skills and the resources to be able to do that.”

Kevin Jiang is a Toronto-based science and health reporter for the Star. Reach him at: kjiang@thestar.ca

https://www.thestar.com/life/health-wellness/the-odds-of-canadians-having-a-mood-or-anxiety-disorder-more-than-doubled-over-10-years-study/article_dc19e87d-324b-4473-b787-29ccc670b16d.html

Tags: mental Health

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