Treating adolescents for major depression can also reduce their chances of abusing drugs later on, a secondary benefit found in a five-year study of nearly 200 youths at 11 sites across the United States.
Only 10 percent of 192 adolescents whose depression receded after 12 weeks of treatment later abused drugs, compared to 25 percent of those for whom treatment did not work, according to research led by John Curry, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.
“It turned out that whatever they responded to — cognitive behavioral therapy, Prozac, both treatments, or a placebo — if they did respond within 12 weeks they were less likely to develop a drug-use disorder,” Curry said.
The study found no such relationship when it came to thwarting alcohol abuse, however.
The researchers followed nearly half the 439 participants from the “Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study” (TADS; 2000-2003), led by Dr. John March, chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center. TADS is considered the largest sample of adolescents who had been treated for major depression. (https://trialweb.dcri.duke.edu/tads/overview.html)
The participants analyzed by Curry’s study were ages 17-23 at the end of the five-year follow-up study and had no preexisting problems with abusing alcohol or drugs. [continue reading…]
More than one-third of teenagers with treatment-resistant depression – many of whom had been depressed for more than two years – became symptom-free six months after switching their medication or combining a medicine switch with cognitive behavioral therapy during a multicenter study led by UT Southwestern Medical Centerresearchers. [continue reading…]
It might be obvious to many, and reading this particular press release my first reaction was …OK… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that adolescent depression and anxiety disorders are two distinct psychiatric disorders and are classified thus in the revised fourth edition of the DSM-IV. However it has been suggested that these two disorders be given a join classification in the DSM-V. Dr. William W. Hale III(a researcher of the Langeveld Institute for the Study of Education and Development in Childhood and Adolescence at Utrecht University) and his colleagues completed a five-year study which concluded that while adolescent anxiety and depression were strongly related to one another, adolescent depression and anxiety disorder symptoms are in fact best classified as two distinct disorders.As such Hale argues that the classification of adolescent depression and anxiety disorders be preserved in the DSM-V
Excessive discussion of problems between adolescent friends may lead to depression and anxiety, according to research published in the February issue of the Journal of Adolescence. In their article, “Clarifying co-rumination: Associations with internalizing symptoms and romantic involvement among adolescent girls,” Lisa R. Starr, M.A., doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Stony Brook University and Dr. Joanne Davila, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University show that excessive discussion of problems within friendships, including repeated conversations, conjecture about causes, and heightened focus on negative emotions, is associated with depressive symptoms among early adolescent girls, especially those who have had romantic experiences. [continue reading…]
