Depression in Teens Likelier to Recur Later
Excerpt By Janice Billingsley, HealthDay

Teens who suffer a major depressive episode are more likely to have adjustment problems in early adulthood.

Less satisfaction with their lives, a smaller social network, and poorer relationships with family are some of the ways this group differs from those who were free from depression as teens, according to a study from the Oregon Research Institute, a nonprofit behavioral research center in Eugene.

The results of the study appear in the August issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

"This is the largest study to date," says Paul Rohde, one of the study authors, and is significant because it is the first of its kind to include controls "for a number of factors that could have accounted for functioning problems, like demographics, or being depressed at the time of the young adult assessment."

The authors emphasize in the study that they can't definitely prove the causal relationship between adolescent depression and relatively poorer coping skills. They write, however, that "the pattern of findings is consistent with the possibility that some or all of these effects are related to the depression experienced during childhood and adolescence."

For the study, the researchers interviewed 1,709 high school students from nine high schools in Oregon at ages 18 and 19 to assess their mental state, and then did follow-up interviews with 917 of them when they were 24 to see how major depressive disorders (MDD) had affected them as they aged.

Of the 917, the researchers eliminated those who had more serious mental disorders like psychosis, or who were currently depressed, leaving 851 in the sample. Of those, 324 had had no mental disorder as teens, 144 had had MDD, 175 had had MDD in addition to other mental disorders, and 208 had mental disorders other than MDD, Rohde says.

By conducting extensive telephone interviews with the participants as well as controlling for lifestyle factors and other mental health markers, the researchers were able to identify problems that seemed to be associated specifically with adolescent MDD rather than with non-mood disorders like anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or eating disorders.

These included a lower satisfaction with life, poorer overall functioning, poorer relations with family, smaller social networks, and more use of mental health treatment.

In contrast, five measures that had initially been associated with MDD were found not to be affected by the disorder any more than other emotional problems. These categories were years of education, recent unemployment, physical health, parenting status, and smoking.

Overall, 62.3 percent of the young people who had had a MDD during their adolescence had another MDD episode in their early 20s, compared to 42.3 percent of the rest of the study participants -- young people with no history of mental disorder and those with mental disorders other than MDD.

University of Vermont psychiatrist David Fassler says identifying exactly what problems are specific to MDD is helpful.

"We know that kids who have psychiatric problems have difficulties as they get older, but this study tries to tease out the difficulties related to MDD," he says. "This offers potential value in terms of treatment and prevention."

"The real issue is, if kids are identified early and if they get appropriate treatment, can we reduce the risk of future difficulties?" he says.

More information

Facts about depression in adolescents can be found at the National Institute of Mental Health. Tips for parents who suspect their child might be suffering from depression can be found at the American Academy of Child and Academic Psychiatry.

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