Depressed Teens Continue to Suffer Those with mild depression more likely to suffer major episode later, researchers say

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.

About 8 percent were found to have minor depression, defined as feeling down, losing interest in normal activities, and having insomnia or difficulty concentrating for two weeks or more. The symptoms
of minor depression are similar to, but less severe, than those of a major depressive episode.

Researchers followed up with the teens when they were in their early 20s and in their early 30s, and found that teenagers who had had minor depression were significantly more likely to have major depression in adulthood.

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Depressed teens 'face adult risk'

Teenagers who have minor depression are at a higher risk of mental health problems later in life, a study says.

Psychiatrists at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute spoke to 750 people.

Anxiety, severe depression and eating disorders were all far more common in 20 and 30-year-olds who had had minor depression as adolescents, they found.

The British Journal of Psychiatry report said further research was needed to unpick the reasons for the link.

UK charities said specialist services for young people were vital.

The study was based on interviews with 750 14 to 16-year-olds who were then assessed again as adults.

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Depression Tests Urged for Teenagers

An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to perform routine screening on all American teenagers for depression, a step that acknowledges that nearly two million teenagers are affected by this debilitating condition.

Most are undiagnosed and untreated, said the panel, the United States Preventive Services Task Force, which sets guidelines for doctors on a host of health issues.

The task force recommendations appear in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics. And they go further than the American Academy of Pediatrics’ own guidance for screening of teenage depression.

An estimated 6 percent of American teenagers are clinically depressed. Evidence shows that detailed but simple questionnaires can accurately diagnose depression in primary-care settings like a pediatrician’s office.

The task force said that when followed by treatment, including psychotherapy, screening can help improve symptoms and help children cope. Because depression can lead to persistent sadness, social isolation, school problems and even suicide, screening to treat it early is crucial, the panel said.

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Psychiatric Disorders Are Common In Adults Who Have Had Anorexia

The study was initiated in 1985. A total of 51 teenagers with anorexia nervosa were studied, together with an equally large control group of healthy persons. The groups have been investigated and compared several times as the years have passed.

"This study is unique in an international perspective. It is the only study in the world that reflects the natural course of anorexia nervosa in the population", says Elisabet Wentz, Associate Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

The research group has published new results from the study in two scientific journals: the British Journal of Psychiatry and the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Three women have still not recovered from anorexia, 18 years after the start of the study. Thirteen people, or around 25%, are on disability benefit or have been signed off sick for more than six months due to an eating disorder or other psychiatric disorder.. Thirty-nine percent have at least one other psychiatric disorder, in addition to the eating disorder. The most common of these is obsessive compulsive disorder.

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Teen depression: No genes required - Depressed moms can raise their children’s risk for depression via nurture alone

Some youngsters get depressed in the absence of any genetic legacy of the mood disorder, a new investigation finds.

Researchers report that having a depressed mother substantially ups a teenager’s likelihood of becoming depressed, even if he or she was adopted and shares no genes with the mother.

This finding provides the first direct evidence that purely environmental factors can promote depression in the children of depressed women, says a team led by psychologist Erin Tully of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Having a depressed father does not increase depression susceptibility in either adopted or non-adopted teens, Tully and her colleagues report in the September American Journal of Psychiatry.

Two other investigations, both published in the same journal, further emphasize nurture’s role in depression. They show that successful treatment of depressed mothers — either with medication or psychotherapy — spurs emotional gains in their depressed children.

“There is an environmental liability of maternal depression that cannot be accounted for by genes but that almost certainly interacts with genetic factors to create depression risk in children,” Tully says.

Depression can impair a mother’s parenting skills, cause marital conflict, and disrupt a youngster’s ties to peers and school — and these outcomes can in turn spread depression from mother to child, Tully suggests.

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Depressed Teens More Likely To Get Better With Switch To Combination Therapy

More than half of teenagers with the most debilitating forms of depression that do not respond to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) show improvement after switching to a different medication combined with cognitive behavioral therapy, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and their colleagues in a multicenter study have found.

Dr. Graham Emslie, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UT Southwestern and chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Children's Medical Center Dallas, was a principal investigator in the study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Adolescents with treatment-resistant depression have unique needs, for which standard treatments do not always work. "If an adolescent hasn't responded to an initial treatment, go ahead and switch treatments," said Dr. Emslie. "Our results should encourage clinicians to not let an adolescent stay on the same medication and still suffer."

The 334 study participants suffered from depression on average for about two years. The teenagers involved exhibited moderate to severe major depressive disorder, many with suicidal ideation. Historically, these types of patients have the worst treatment outcomes.

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