Adolescent Depression 2 (SOLUTION)

Adolescence is a crucial and significant period of development for understanding the course, treatment and nature of depression. It is not unusual for teens or adolescents to feel down in the dumps or experience the blues occasionally (Gabbay, Ely, Li, Bangaru, Panzer, Alonso, & Milham, 2013). For most boys and girls, adolescence is usually a time with many emotional, physical, social and psychological changes accompanying this life stage. It is an unsettling duration and time of life development. Unrealistic social, family and social expectations crease such a strong sense of rejection and develop into disappointment (Gabbay, Ely, Li, Bangaru, Panzer, Alonso, & Milham, 2013).

When issues are going wrong at home or in school, adolescents often overreact. To worsen the situation, teens are often bombarded with different and conflicting messages from society, friends and parents. Research shows that adolescent depression has heightened in the recent past, and the rate of increase is extremely alarming. Recent studies indicate that one out of five teens develop clinical depression during their life development stages (Oldehinkel, Ormel, Verhulst, & Nederhof, 2014). Health practitioners explain that diagnosing depression in adults can be extremely difficult since most adults usually expect the teens to show moody signs. Despite this, several symptoms can be looked at, and they can be easily detected.

Changes in sleeping or eating patterns should not be overlooked, since they can be attached to lack of motivation or energy, and lack of enthusiasm (Stapley, Midgley, & Target, 2016). Extreme cases of rage, anger, and an overreaction to criticism are associated with depression. Thirdly, adults and parents should look out for hopelessness and sadness, with the teens showing signs of withdrawal from the family, friends and activities such as sports (Stapley, Midgley, & Target, 2016). In school, teens experiencing depression have problems with school leaders and authority, and often show poor academic performance. In addition, during class hours, the teen may show signs of forgetfulness, poor concentration and indecision (Stapley, Midgley, & Target, 2016). In extreme cases, depressed teens or adolescents can harbour suicidal thoughts, or take actions towards this direction.

Adolescence depression is a time of intense moodiness, stress, and self-preoccupation has permeated professional perspectives on this important developmental period (Gilbo, Knight, Lewis, Toumbourou, & Bertino, 2015). The approaches to the classification and assessment of adolescent psychopathology have been shown and reflected in the literature on adolescent depression: depressive syndromes, clinical depression and depressed mood. There are several key family issues that contribute to adolescent depression, and these factors can be addressed through parenting. Having depressed parents is a significant risk factor for depression both at childhood and adolescence (Gilbo, Knight, Lewis, Toumbourou, & Bertino, 2015).

Children of depressed parents and families are more likely to experience cognitive impairments in childhood and adolescence, perinatal complications, high rates of depressive disorders, peer problems, and school problems than offspring of healthy and steady parents (Lewis, Collishaw, Thapar, & Harold, 2014). Several mechanisms such as genetic predisposition, dysfunctional parent-child interactions and emotional unavailability of parents are involved in transmitting depressive problems and disorders from parents to children (Lewis, Collishaw, Thapar, & Harold, 2014).

Additionally, low family expression and cohesion, family conflict and constant wrangling are key factors contributing to depression in children, and even in their later stages of life development. According to Petersen (Family- children relationship expert), parental divorces has detrimental effects on the developmental stages, especially during adolescence when children are beginning to separate the good from the bad (Haroz, Ybarra, & Eaton, 2014). He says, that parental divorce amplifies the depression and behavioural disturbances in adolescents (Haroz, Ybarra, & Eaton, 2014). Peer popularity is detrimental and a significant factor in development of depression towards adolescence and several years later.

Low or reduced peer popularity is related to depressive symptoms and depression. For instance, among the younger adolescents, less contact with friends, more experiences of rejection, and less closeness with best friends increases the depressive symptoms over time, and can increase beyond levels of treatment if the contact and closeness widened over time. On the other hand, the depression will contribute to poorly developed relationships (Oldehinkel, Ormel, Verhulst, & Nederhof, 2014). Conversely, poor relationships with peers constitute risk factors for depressive symptoms and depression in early stages of adolescence.

As much as relationship counsellors advocate for it, good relationships with peers at such a stage do not offer a protective influence. Psychological factors contribute significantly. Negative body image, and this is common with females has been connected to eating and depression disorders (Oldehinkel, Ormel, Verhulst, & Nederhof, 2014). For instance, in the first assignment, Tim is constantly talking about how nobody likes him. Sometimes, low self-esteem if not checked can transition into adulthood, and can be hugely responsible for depression and related feelings.

Depression in adolescents is ever preceded with anxiety. For boys at the age of 18 and have developed depressive symptoms, they tend to be self-aggrandizing, aggressive and under controlled in school (Goff, Gee, Telzer, Humphreys, Gabard-Durnam, Flannery, & Tottenham, 2013). In cognitive development, since the adolescents start experiencing and showing dramatic increases in reasoning capacity and cognitive abilities, the heightened capacity to reflect on self-development and future plays a role in the possibility of developing depression and experiencing depressive moods (Goff, Gee, Telzer, Humphreys, Gabard-Durnam, Flannery, & Tottenham, 2013).

The academic performance and grades for both males and females appear to reduce over adolescence, despite the fact that part of the decline is attributed to increasingly difficult rating and grading practice as they move from elementary to high or secondary school. However, depression has been found to play a significant role as well. Studies have shown that boys involved in minor delinquent activities and are depressed had sharp grade declines relative to those who are either only delinquent or depressed (Naicker, Galambos, Zeng, Senthilselvan, & Colman, 2013). On the other side, boys showing neither of these attributes register stable academic performance and achievement over the course of their adolescence years.

The experience of difficult challenges or changes in adolescence, predicts the increased depressed impact (Naicker, Galambos, Zeng, Senthilselvan, & Colman, 2013). On that note, researchers and mental health providers explain that daily stressors, such parental restrictions, home chores, responsibilities, and arguments with peers mediate the connection between psychological symptoms and major stressful events (Naicker, Galambos, Zeng, Senthilselvan, & Colman, 2013). Depressed adolescents’ show and report chronic and more acute stressors than youth with rheumatic disease or conduct disorder or with healthy youths with several life stressors.

Teen depression is dangerous, and therefore if left untreated, can be life-threatening. Therapy can be helpful to the teens since it helps in understanding why they show depressive symptoms and learn strategies of coping with the stressful situations (Piko, Luszczynska, & Fitzpatrick, 2013). Depending on the seriousness of the situation, treatment may consist of group, family or individual counselling. Medications prescribed by psychiatrists are necessary in helping teens feeling better.

Some of the effective and common ways to treat depression in teens are: cognitive-behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy, medication, and psychotherapy. Medication is prescribed in connection with different forms of therapy, depending on the level of depression since it can help in relieving some depression symptoms (Piko, Luszczynska, & Fitzpatrick, 2013). Cognitive-behavioural therapy helps the adolescents in changing the negative patterns of behaving, thinking, and responding to criticism.

Interpersonal therapy is extremely important since the focus is on developing healthier relationships with friends and family (Piko, Luszczynska, & Fitzpatrick, 2013). Lastly, psychotherapy gives an opportunity to the teens to explore feelings and events that are troubling or painful to them, and teach them how to thrive.

References

Gabbay, V., Ely, B. A., Li, Q., Bangaru, S. D., Panzer, A. M., Alonso, C. M., ... & Milham, M. P. (2013). Striatum-based circuitry of adolescent depression and anhedonia. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(6), 628-641.

Gilbo, C., Knight, T., Lewis, A. J., Toumbourou, J. W., & Bertino, M. D. (2015). A qualitative evaluation of an intervention for parents of adolescents with mental disorders: the parenting challenging adolescents seminar. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(9), 2532-2543.

Goff, B., Gee, D. G., Telzer, E. H., Humphreys, K. L., Gabard-Durnam, L., Flannery, J., & Tottenham, N. (2013). Reduced nucleus accumbens reactivity and adolescent depression following early-life stress. Neuroscience, 249, 129-138.

Haroz, E. E., Ybarra, M. L., & Eaton, W. W. (2014). Psychometric evaluation of a self-report scale to measure adolescent depression: The CESDR-10 in two national adolescent samples in the United States. Journal of affective disorders, 158, 154-160.

Lewis, G., Collishaw, S., Thapar, A., & Harold, G. T. (2014). Parent–child hostility and child and adolescent depression symptoms: the direction of effects, role of genetic factors and gender. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 23(5), 317-327.

Naicker, K., Galambos, N. L., Zeng, Y., Senthilselvan, A., & Colman, I. (2013). Social, demographic, and health outcomes in the 10 years following adolescent depression. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(5), 533-538.

Oldehinkel, A. J., Ormel, J., Verhulst, F. C., & Nederhof, E. (2014). Childhood adversities and adolescent depression: A matter of both risk and resilience. Development and Psychopathology, 26(4pt1), 1067-1075.

Piko, B. F., Luszczynska, A., & Fitzpatrick, K. M. (2013). Social inequalities in adolescent depression: The role of parental social support and optimism. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 59(5), 474-481.

Stapley, E., Midgley, N., & Target, M. (2016). The Experience of Being the Parent of an Adolescent with a Diagnosis of Depression. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(2), 618-630.