Depression in Youth Essay

The purpose of writing the article: The article focused on the reality of depression disorder in children and adolescents and not only in adults, as it can lead to the same outcomes in adults, like, impairment, and mental and physical illness. It also highlighted the descriptive aspects of depression in children and adolescents, and the risk factors that are likely to be involved. Finally, the article discussed the possible treatment for depression in young people.

The opinions discussed: There are many opinions and points of view that have been discussed in this article. The popular view of people regarding depression and children that children are immature and are in a developmental state makes them not susceptible to depression, or that the feeling of sadness they might face is a part of mood swings that affect them due to negative results related to school or social life and has no connection with depression, has been denied and strongly rejected in this article. The article elaborated on how children and adolescents are as susceptible as adults to the possibility of being affected by depression and it also has a great impact on them. The article also mentioned that there are specific groups that are at higher risk of having depression than others, and there also are different causes for the occurrence of depression. for example, according to the author's view, females, in general, are more susceptible to depression than males, and lately, this was proved in the article by statistics and resulted in an incidence curve of depression begins with a noticeable rise in adolescence or puberty and it occurred to be in girls more sharply than in boys.

The results achieved: The evidenced-based article has reached results suggesting that anxiety and disruptive behaviors may be a sign proceeding children and adolescent’s depression. Family history, as well as genetic and environmental factors, are all basic influences for children and adolescent’s depression. Unipolar polar depression is slightly detected in youth before puberty; however, rates significantly increase in teenagers, especially girls. Children and adolescents diagnosed with depression are characterized to be with poor physical and mental health, and they don’t function properly in social life, with an increased risk for alcohol addiction. Finally, according to trials, although children and adolescents do benefit from available therapies and treatments, the effect still remains low to moderate. So, it was concluded that treatment approaches as well as an understanding of children and adolescent’s depression mechanisms needed to be developed.

A brief analytical summary of the article:

-Introduction:

The article starts talking about depression and its relation to age and sex. First of all, it was introduced generally that depression in females occurs more than in males, and according to statistics it is less common in prepubertal children, and most common in adulthood with a prevalence of 10%-17%. The authors discussed people’s view of depression about not appearing in children and that it is mainly restricted to adults, so they can prove the opposite.

-Clinical features and epidemiology:

The article mentioned clinical features associated with depression, like low self-esteem, suicidal behaviors and thoughts, and sleep and appetite loss. A comparison method between depression and other disorders like anxiety, ADHD, and ODD was then discussed.

-Continuities and discontinuities across development.

Clinical studies on adolescent depression confirm that it is a chronic and recurrent condition. Within five years, 50–70% are expected to develop another episode. Such results may be aetiologically informative, said the authors. There was particular interest in links with anxiety disorders, alcohol and substance use, and CD/ODD. Study shows that adolescent depression varies greatly from its later-onset counterparts. The results may have implications for the social functioning of young people as well as for their later mental wellbeing, they add.

-Risk processes and mechanisms.

The article demonstrated that depression is a complex disorder, in which both environmental factors and genes play a role. It has been shown that parents who suffered from depression and stressful live events have 3-4 more chance of having offspring with depression, so family history should be considered as a major cause of depression

The article pointed out that psychosocial factors like poverty, parent neglect, sexual abuse, bullying, and child assault also contribute to depression, especially in chronic states. Also, it was shown that different psychosocial factors imply or affect different developmental stages, for example, childhood depression may result from child maltreatment, parent neglect, and peer problems, while exposure to sexual abuse, poverty, and psychopathology leads to long-term effects.

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However, both the environment and genes influence the exposure and susceptibility to depression, for example, in the serotonin transporter gene variant 5-HTTLPR, only one variant in this gene increases the risk for depression in people who get exposed to stressful life events, so these factors influence the vulnerability to disorders.

Finally, it was highlighted that the development of depression varies between the two genders, the way the brain works, dealing with stress even the use of coping styles, and hormonal changes that differ between females and males.

-Treatment and prevention of depression in youth.

First of all, the author focuses on that depression treatment which is currently used for children was firstly designed for adults, Regarding treatment, the article points out 3 types of evidenced-based treatment for children and adolescent depression: serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI), cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT), and interpersonal therapy (IPT). A randomized control trial was set up to detect any side effects resulting from those mentioned, however, so far just little could be known about long-term consequences, and shreds of evidence concern more about short-term ones. The article demonstrated a high response to placebo in SRI treatment trials. CBT is currently highly used as the first approach to children and adolescent’s depression treatment in many countries, however, as what has been reached in the article, the evidence showed low to moderate effects of CBT. Finally, IPT was found to be useful but still a limited way of treatment. In the end, the author was pointing out that clinicians should make treatment decisions according to the case.

C. Evaluation of the Article:

How can the article be useful to whom?

This article was written to review new evidence of childhood and adolescent depression. To help parents and the community to better understand the developmental trajectories of depression, and to make efforts to identify disease mechanisms that may serve as intervention targets early in life.

How does it contribute to the field?

Since behavioral medicine takes a life-long approach to health and health care, engaging with teenagers, youth, adults, and seniors separately and in groups, it is obvious that this article on adolescent depression contributes to the field. That's because adolescent depression is associated with a range of later adverse outcomes, including suicidality, difficulties with social functioning, and impaired physical and mental health.

To whom, would you recommend?

Parents, teachers, and even the whole community should be conscious of adolescent depression. Why?

According to WHO, depression is the fourth leading cause of illness and disability among adolescents aged 15-19 years and the fifteenth among adolescents aged 10-14 years. Besides, it can lead to suicide.

D. Photocopy of the Article:

Article link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3565713/