Depression Information, News and Support
(HealthDay News) -- Mildly depressed teenagers are more likely to have major depression, anxiety disorders and eating disorders as adults, a new study suggests.
In 1983, researchers interviewed 755 teenagers who were about age 16 about mood, anxiety and eating disorders, disruptive behaviors and substance abuse.
Posted: Sep 04, 2009
tags: teenagers, teenagers and depression, teens and depression
(HealthDay News) -- Teens whose parents pack them off to bed at 10 p.m. are less apt to become depressed or have suicidal thoughts than their peers who stay up much later, recent research shows.
"This study bolsters the argument that a lack of sleep can cause depression," said study author James Gangwisch, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. "Teens with earlier parental-mandated bedtimes were less likely to suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts."
Posted: Jun 09, 2009
tags: teenagers, teenagers and depression, teenagers and suicide, teens, teens and depression, teens and suicide
Depression is one of the dark demons of adolescence. Up to 1 in 12 American teenagers is affected, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and three times as many will experience depression at some point by age 18. Studies show that at least 20% of teenagers with clinical depression will go on to develop chronic cases that will haunt them throughout adulthood. That is, if they reach adulthood. Suicide is a significant risk for depressed adolescents and the third leading cause of deaths among U.S. teenagers.
It's no wonder, then, that researchers are beginning to focus on preventing teenage depression in the first place. A new study in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is the largest to date showing that a relatively modest intervention goes a long way to prevent episodes of depression in high-risk teens. The authors hope it will provide a model that could be used widely in schools to protect kids from depression.
Posted: Jun 08, 2009
tags: talk therapy, teenagers, teenagers and depression, teens and depression
It's thirty years ago, but I can still remember in painful detail what it was like to be a teenager with depression. I felt lost all the time. I dragged myself through weekdays and evenings, and weekends I spent as much time as possible in some form of escapism, mainly reading and television. When I filled out applications for college I had virtually nothing to put down for activities outside school.
Posted: May 26, 2009
tags: teenagers, teenagers and depression, teens and depression
(HealthDay News) -- Overweight teens, or those who believe they are, are more likely than other teens to attempt suicide, according to a U.S. study.
Researchers looked at more than 14,000 high school students to determine if there's a link between suicide attempts and body mass index (BMI), as well as a teen's belief that he or she might be overweight -- whether it's true or not.
Posted: May 18, 2009
tags: teenagers and suicide, teens, teens and depression, teens and suicide
(HealthDay News) -- Nearly one in 10 American adolescents have experienced at least one bout of major depression in the past year, but only about 39 percent of those cases received treatment, a new government report released Wednesday shows.
Conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the report found that health insurance coverage was a major deciding factor in whether or not treatment occurred. For example, 42.9 percent of adolescents suffering from depression who were covered by Medicaid/CHIP received treatment, as did 40.6 percent of those covered by health insurance. But only 17.2 percent of adolescents without insurance coverage received the depression treatment they needed, the SAMHSA report found.
Posted: May 14, 2009
tags: childhood depression, children and depression, teenagers and depression, teens and depression
(HealthDay News) -- Anti-social behavior among young elementary school girls and increased anxiety in either boys or girls that age tend to predict whether they develop depression in adolescence, a new study shows.
However, showing signs of depression in first or second grade did not mean adolescent depression was imminent, said the report published in The Journal of Early Adolescence.
"When all the risk factors were analyzed, anti-social behavior and anxiety were the most predictive of later depression. It just may be that they are more prevalent in the early elementary school years than depression," study lead author James Mazza, a University of Washington professor of educational psychology, said in a news release issued by his school.
Posted: Mar 02, 2009
tags: childhood depression, children and depression, teenagers, teenagers and depression, teens, teens and depression
Note: If you're a parent or educator interested in information about children and depression, my Children and Depression page might be more helpful.
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. Of course, it was over thirty years ago, but I still remember with painful clarity what it was like to be a teenager with depression. The sadness, the feeling of helplessness, the belief that it was part of my personality and the conviction that something was wrong. I just didn't know what it was. At that time, in the late '70s, no one really did. The medical community didn't believe children, including teenagers, could suffer from depression. Fortunately, now things are different, to some extent. There still is a lot of misunderstanding about what clinical depression is, so many teens don't get help, either because they don't realize they have depression, or because it's hard for them to get help.
This is a tough one, and a question I get fairly often. First of all, let's assume that your parents are loving, stable and have your best interests at heart. They may still unknowingly make it difficult for you to get help. They may say, "What do you have to be depressed about?" or tell you that your feelings will pass and are a normal part of being a teenager. There are two factors at work in this case. One is denial. No parent wants to think something is wrong with their child, especially something like mental illness which has so much stigma attached to it. They may feel guilty or deny what is happening because they feel helpless to take care of you, the way they used to be able to put a bandaid over a scraped knee. The second factor is lack of knowledge on their part. They are not alone in this - over 70% of adults surveyed believed that a depressed person just needed to pull himself/herself together. In this case, it's not their fault that they don't know enough about depression, and probably just need to be educated. Once you present them with some information, they will probably be eager to get help for you.
I know that you may not have parents like that. Let's assume that your parents are self-involved or have their own problems like addiction or are abusive. In this case you'll have to be strong and get help on your own. It's hard that your parents can't be there for you when you need them, but chances are that you're used to taking care of yourself. If you have depression it's very difficult to do anything positive, but you have to get help. You can't let it ruin your life.
If your parents are in the first category, probably all you have to do is tell them that you have the signs of clinical depression, and you would like to get a complete physical by your family doctor and get the name of a psychiatrist. If you present them with information about depression and educate them, you can probably overcome their denial and objections fairly easily. They do want what's best for you, and they probably have noticed a change in you.
If your parents are in the second category, you have two choices. One is to find a sympathetic adult who can convince your parents that you need help. This could be a school counselor, a favorite teacher, your priest or minister, or a friend's parent. You can educate this person about depression if need be and ask them to talk to your parents.
If you can't think of an adult who can help you, go directly to your family doctor and ask for a referral to a psychiatrist. If your family doctor is no help or there is a problem with insurance, find a local mental health clinic, suicide prevention center or crisis hot line. The most important thing is getting treatment; don't let anything stand in your way.
This is also a tough question. You should realize that this might be something that separates your real, true friends from your not-so-true friends. Some people will be supportive and other people won't, and will probably start avoiding you. But you might want to take negative reactions with a grain of salt. A friend may have a relative who has depression or another mental illness, and that could make it tough for them to be there for you. Or, they may have a sneaking suspicion that they're having problems with their own emotional wellness, and having you confront yours makes them freak out. Don't entirely shut the door on anyone; they may come around in time.
Posted: Feb 06, 2009
tags: teenagers, teenagers and depression, teens, teens and depression
This work by Wing of Madness Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.