Anxiety, Depression Plague Students Suicides Increase to Five Last Year

The University Psychiatric Service treated 12.4 per cent of all Harvard undergraduates and 16 per cent of all Radcliffe students last year, a Harvard psychiatrist said yesterday.

Dr. Preston A. Munter, psychiatrist to the University Health Services, said in an interview that "the most prevalent student afflictions are identity crises and maturation problems, the symptoms being anxiety and depression."

Munter said that these problems usually result in one or two suicides a year, but that last year the number of suicides rose to five.

Munter also reported, however, that the use of hard drugs at Harvard has diminished in the last few years. "We are seeing fewer and fewer cases of bad acid trips," he said.

Munter is reluctant to say that Harvard students are unique, but he feels that the conception of Harvard as a unique institution is "a problem in itself."