Teen Depression
Q: "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.
A:"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 teens who
originally were found to be depressed but had recovered when
questioned again a year later to see what happened to them as
they got older. These subjects were interviewed by phone around
the time of their 24th birthdays.
Findling adds that parents should find a mental health
professional who is proficient in caring for depressed
adolescents. "We're fortunate in Cleveland to have a center of
experts in pediatric mood disorders," he says. "But every
community is different. Even if there is no specific program
available, your doctor can probably tell you who is good at
seeing young people with depression within your community."
Almost half of the group of formerly depressed teens developed
another type of problem, such as substance abuse or anxiety,
between the time they were 19 and 23 years old.
Preventing new problems is another reason to treat depression
early, the doctors say. "The earlier the disorder is caught, the
less malignant it is, like any disorder in medicine," Findling
says. "Because a disturbance in mood can affect a youngster's ...
social, academic, and [family] functioning ... we know the longer
we let the disorder