Depression Issue in Adolescence - Research Paper Example

Depression in Adolescence One of the most common disorder in the world, among the adolescents is unipolar depressive disorder. This type of disorder is difficult to recognize. In girls, it is noted that unipolar depressive disorder rises after puberty. After a girl becomes a full adolescent, the one year prevalance rate surpasses 4%. This burden is higher in middle-income and low-income nations. Future and present morbidity are associated with depression, which brings to suicides later. Depression risk factors among adolescents are exposure to psychological stress and depression in the history of a certain family (Rey, J., & Birmaher, 2009). Sex hormones, inherited risks, psychological adversity and developmental factors interact in increasing risks through related perturped neutral pathways and hormonal factors. Eventhough there are many similarities between depression in adulthood and depression in adolescence, in adolescent depression, one of the concerns is the use of antidepressants and clinical management opinions are divided. There are available treatments that are effective, but the choices are reliant on available resources and severity of depression. Introduction Unipolar depressive disorder as one of the common health problems has a calculated one year prevalence of 4 to 5 percent in mid adolescence and late adolescence. Depression in adolescence is one of the reasons for suicide that is the leading death cause among the adolescents. Many adolescents who have been reported to be suicide victims are viewed to have depressive disorder. Moreover, depression leads to educational and social impairments. It also leads to substance misuse, obesity and an increased smoking rate. It is important to recognize unipolar depressive disorder and know how to treat it (Rey, J., & Birmaher, 2009). Depression is a precise symptom that has an associated impairment. The diagnostic and clinical features of the Unipolar depressive disorder are broadly the same in adults and adolescents. Adolescents depression is commonly missed than depression in adults. This is due to the changing symptoms in adolescents, irritability prominence and mood reactivity. Also, depression can be missed if the main presented issues are eating disorders, substance misuse, physical symptoms that cannot be explained, anxiety, behavioral problems or academic performance decline (Rey, J., & Birmaher, 2009). In some instances, adolescence depression can be seen as a form of adult disorder due to the solid links it has with reappearance in life later. The disorder has the same neural activity patterns and clinical features to that seen in adults. On the other hand, its occurrence is connected with the disorder’s family history. Nevertheless, significant differences are present between these two disorders, specifically in response to the given treatment. There are different divided views on what treatment practices are the best. Depression in adults or adolescents is more common than depression in prepubertal children. Moreover, this depression seems to have differences from the two disorders with respect to some prognostic, causative and epidemiological features. Statistical information Studies have indicated that one in every five adolescents suffer some sort of behavioral, emotional or mental problem where one in ten probably has a serious emotional problem.one in eight adolescents suffers from depression. 70% of the children and teens simply struggle through this pain of emotional turmoil or mental illness as they advance to adulthood. The rest, consisting of a mere 30% are lucky to receive some sort of intervention and treatment. The risk of untreated depression at the tender age leads to alarming depression incidences in adulthood. Untreated depression leads to the adolescents involvement in crime and to some extent leads to suicide. Research shows that the third leading cause of death is suicide among youths aged 15-24. Shockingly, suicide is ranked sixth among the leading causes of death in among the children of ages 5-14. This suicide usually advances from depression among these children and teens. The most worrying fact is that these teens and children struggle on their own without receiving any kind of medical intervention, counseling or therapy. Reports have shown that treatment in depression at this age could be effective. If treated a lower number of the adolescents would get to suicide and a decreased number would have these cases advance to adulthood ( Rey & Birmaher, 2009). Importance of this topic The topic plays an integral role in creating awareness of the risks that adolescent depression imposes on the society. By educating people on the challenges faced by young people in this particular stage of life, the society will be in a better position to understand the adolescents and treat them in a way that will overcome these challenges. It will prevent the teens and adolescents possible victimization. The topic also helps to understand that adolescent is just a stage in life and every person can do something to ensure that this transition to adulthood is successful without bringing about harm. It also helps those of us who all along thought that teenage depression is all about occasional melancholy and bad moods.it enlightens us on the dangers the depression could cause to the entire society. Many may not know that teen depression is the root cause of drug and alcohol abuse. This topic plays an integral role in helping us understand and handle these youngstars. Psychogical importance Psychologically, this topic on adolescent depression prepares the society and more so parents on the impacts of untreated depression. It equally helps the affected adolescents to understand that what they undergo is normal and they should therefore not result in crime or drug and alcohol abuse. Parents should therefore not hesitate to take their teenage sons and daughters for counseling and treatment incase they notice change in their behaviors. The topic creates psychological preparedness in parents bringing up adolescents on how they should get help in handling them. Parents need to investigate and seek help from necessary parties once they start noticing queer behaviors in them like despair, hopelessness, worthlessness, sadness or lose interest in their usual activities. Parents should also raise concern if their teens start having trouble in making simple decisions and deteriorate in academic performance. The society should also understand that teens lack verbal skills that adults have and therefore can not courageously express themselves. It wouldn’t be easy for parents to identify what their teens are undergoing through their expression. Parents should find their own means of identifying the symptoms of depression in their teens.physical symptoms complains of muscle aches, weight and appetite loss, headaches and low energy, insomnia and hypersomnia are also physical manifestations of depression mainly clinical depression. Teachers should also play a role in identifying these symptoms and report cases of lack of concentration and skipping of classes at school. Immediately these symptoms are identified and patterns exist for weeks, parents should contact the relevant mental health practitioners who are experts in handling adolescents and children to conduct further assessments on them. Therapy and treatment are recommended as depression responds well to them. The procedure for depression should start with identification, assessment of the depression, diagnosis and epidemiology. Change in adolescent behavior should not be generalized as just mood swings. It is something totally different that calls for clear understanding by the people surrounding them. Teenagers unlike adults need other parties like teachers, parents and other caregivers to recognize and address the suffering through treatment. This topic has a great role in the psychological development of both adolescents and their parents as well as the necessary caregivers. Dealing with teenage and adolescent depression helps to curb the main causes of drug and alcohol abuse as well as suicide among the young people. The society needs to have a clear mind set to enhance the fight against deaths caused by depressionamong young people. If depression is well understood and all the people in society take their rightful positions in dealing with it, a larger number of teenagers would be saved from the resulting repurculsions of adolescent depression. Conclusion Adolescent depression needs to be viewed as a real disaster in the society. Its understanding, proper identification and treatment including counseling and medical attention would reduce the number of adolescents that are negatively affected by its end results. Depression tends to destroy a teenagers personality and may affect their lifestyle forever. A wake up call in the society is thus vital in helping to save ou future genreration that depression has put at great risk. Reference Rey, J., & Birmaher, B. (2009). Treating child and adolescent depression. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More