Help!!Need Info On Teen Depress Research
Q: I'm currently a college student doing research for my Developmental
Psychology class on teen depression. I need info on the differences of
adult and teenage depression, typical age and reasons for onset,
statistical info on annual numbers and number of suicides resulting from
teen depression. I would appreciate any information regarding this
subject or where I can obtain
more information. University professors, students, grad students, please
respond ASAP.
A:Every parent worries about the future of his or
her child. Parents of a depressed teen-ager are likely to be even
more concerned -- and they should be, according to new research.
"Having a depressive episode as a teen more than doubled the risk
of having another depressive episode in young adulthood," says
Ian H. Gotlib, PhD, co-author of the study. The study also found
that only about one in four people who had been diagnosed with
depression as teens said they remained free of psychiatric
illness in early adulthood.
"As a general rule of thumb, depression in adolescence seems to
be underdiagnosed and underappreciated," says Robert L. Findling,
MD, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who
commented on the study for WebMD. "We are quite aware that this
is a malignant and potentially lethal disorder. The leading cause
of death in young people is suicide. But the earlier the disorder
is caught, the less malignant it is, just like any disorder in
medicine.
"There's a lack of appreciation that depression is a
dysregulation of mood, just as diabetes is a dysregulation of
blood sugar," Findling says. "We see youngsters with profound
disturbances in function who suffer needlessly because parents or
other well-meaning adults say it's part of being a teen-ager or
it's just a phase."
Depression should be distinguished from common sadness, says
Gotlib: "Some warning signs are loss of interest, sadness,
fatigue, concentration difficulties, sleep disturbances, and
appetite problems that last for at least two weeks." But, he
cautions, "it's important not to overreact if you see sadness for
a few days in an adolescent."
For more than 10 years, doctors have been studying a group of
1,700 Oregon teen-agers, aged 14 to 18, who were randomly
selected from nine high schools. The doctors originally wanted to
find out how common depression and other mental disorders were in
this group of "normal" teen-agers. In this study, published in
the American Journal of Psychiatry, they focused on