Finding and helping teens for whom sadness is a disease

Author: Alison Pearce Stevens / Source: Science News for Students

Life can be challenging for teens. They must juggle schoolwork, family life and friends. Feelings of sadness, frustration and irritability are common.

But for some teens, those emotions take a more extreme turn. Their negative feelings don’t come and go, punctuated by periods of satisfaction or happiness. Instead, those intense feelings can point to a disease called depression — one that may require treatment. The American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, has now asked its member doctors to start screening for signs of this in all preteens and teens.

It’s easy to think that depressed people simply feel sad or hopeless. For many teens that may be true. But depression in teens can be hard to spot. Some kids withdraw from friends and family. Others respond with angry outbursts. Some teens may skip school or stop eating or sleeping. Some may start abusing alcohol or drugs. Teachers, parents or even a teen’s close friends may find it hard to tell whether these behaviors are just part of being a teen or signs of something truly serious.

How serious?

Each year, an estimated 5,000 Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 take their own lives. “The rate of suicide for this age group has nearly tripled since 1960,” according to Mental Health America, or MHA. Indeed, it says, suicide has become “the third leading cause of death in adolescents and the second leading cause of death among college-age youth.

” Founded in 1909 and based in Alexandria, Va., MHA describes itself as “the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness.”

There is a link between mental illness and suicide in teens. That’s according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, based in Washington, D.C. “The majority of children and adolescents who attempt suicide have a significant mental health disorder,” it says — “usually depression.” And as a disease, depression can last for a decade or longer.

Even depressed teens may not realize they have this problem. And the share of those affected is high. More than three million Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced depression in 2016. However, most likely went untreated. A 2001 study by researchers at Harvard and Yale universities found that half of all teens with…

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