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Post by Admin on May 31, 2017 9:45:25 GMT -4
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Post by Sara Witten on May 31, 2017 12:54:52 GMT -4
This article provided some interesting tangible data for teenage depression. While the gender discrepancy between the incidence of depression is unsurprising, it would be interesting to see if the prevalence decreases in this population over time, in order to determine whether it is a generational change or an “age-change.” I was also a little shocked to see that children “as young as 4 or 5 years of age can be depressed,” and I would like to do further research with regards to the supporting data and recommendations.
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Post by Harneet Ghumman on May 31, 2017 18:10:52 GMT -4
Mental illness is not restricted to any age, race or socioeconomic status. This article proved to be no different and focused on the issue of depression during teenage years. The article stated that depression can begin at the age of 11 years. Teenage years can often be troubling as individuals often struggle to find their way and figure out who they really are. This issue is more prevalent in girls as they are almost 3 times more likely to struggle with depression than boys. I believe this to be true because girls have more expectations placed on them regarding areas such as beauty and body image. It can be hard for the parents of teenagers and although their children may push them away during this time it is important for them to continue supporting their children and monitor their behaviour.
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Post by Avneet Ghumman on May 31, 2017 19:00:03 GMT -4
As seen in previous articles, it is once again illustrated that depression does not discriminate and can affect almost anyone regardless of their demographic. Teenagers, although they are undergoing mental development at a rapid pace, are no different from adults when considering mental illness. While most young adults often present with conditions such as ADHD, it seems that depression may be under-diagnosed or short lived in teens. Most importantly, young females are high risk, with 36.4% of female teenagers presenting with or having a history of feeling depressed before the age of 17 years old. Some may contribute the higher incidence of depression in female teenagers to hormones but it should be noted that females often have it harder considering society’s pressure to look a certain way and “fitting in”, in high school. Screening for depression in teenage children should be taken more seriously and I feel like talking to your children more openly about these issues can help normalize and better treat mental illness in teenagers.
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Post by Jocelyn Anyanwu on May 31, 2017 21:17:20 GMT -4
Teenage years are very stressful and society added to the stress by dictating how a person should look or act. Recently in the news, a lot of suicides have been noted to be high among the teenagers. The article noted that from age 11 to 17, the signs of suicide are noted, but in girls it peaks at age 15, then decrease, but remains high till age 17. This could be attributed to hormonal changes taking place. It is sad to know that children suffer from depression, but also imperative that the signs are recognized in order to treat and follow up with them. The study could not differentiate between low risk and high risk depression cases, and such all should be treated the same even though not all will develop serious problems. The article calls for teachers and care givers to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression in the young to get them an early help and intervention through their pediatrician for mental health evaluation.
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Post by Jared Lambert on May 31, 2017 21:51:01 GMT -4
The point of this article is to bring attention to the surprising percentage of young girls who suffer from symptoms of depression. As we have learned in previous articles, depression is a serious mental disease in our society whose incidence continues to rise. Despite the fact that the research alluded to in the article does not aid physicians in identifying insights into how to differentiate between high-risk and low-risk cases of depression, I think it is useful to highlight the surprising prevalence of the disease among young girls. This could help bring awareness to physicians, especially pediatricians, of the growing problem and aid in subsequent diagnosing and treating in suffering pediatric patients. It was interesting to learn that the idea that children can be depressed is something that has only been recently accepted by psychologists and that today most scientists recognize that children as young as 4 or 5 years of age can be depressed. This article is a great follow up to last week's article highlighting the connection between diet and depression; building upon our clinical knowledge on the topic of depression. After reading the article I was disappointed however in not being able to find the citation for the research to review, nor being able to find the specific study in pubmed.
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Post by ljones on May 31, 2017 23:38:14 GMT -4
It is not surprising the large gap of incidence in depression among girls in comparison with that of boys. When compared with the incidence of bullying and or peer pressure, the percentage among adolescent females is significantly higher than the percentage involving males. This can also stem from these categorization of their status within their peer communities. It is generally believed that teenagers who are “ socially awkward” are the only students who are likely to be depressed, however that is far from factual. Persons who are deemed “popular” are those who are usually depressed due to expectations, whether social, performance and possibly academic. What is quite interesting is that the statistics stated online for suicide between the sexes among adolescents, indicates that suicide occurs more in males than females despite these facts in relation to the bullying, peer pressure and depression. This leads to the idea that females are more likely diagnosed with a mental health issues than males due to seeking professional assistance, as males follow a different path to substance abuse, extreme behaviors and suicide. Factors which may affect the prevalence of adolescent depression may not always be traumatic/situational, hormonal, inherited or even chemical. Some studies indicated that is can be a learned pattern of negative thinking which in turn develops behavioral anomalies, isolation and other signs and depression. This may be accountable for the development of depressive like patterns among children under the age of 11, as noted in the article.
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Post by AlanaWharton on May 31, 2017 23:43:06 GMT -4
The day to day of life is very stressful and adolescents have to deal with these usual stressors while managing the surging hormones, trying to figure out who you are, navigating the social hierarchy of their community (a.k.a School) and finding their place as well as dealing with physical, mental and emotional change - and this does not even include the extra stress of family problems. So it is understandable that some members of this group would experience depression, although it was surprising and dishearten to learn children as young as 4 - 5 are experiencing depression. I wish the researchers would have indicated where in the adolescent social hierarchy (jocks, nerd, pariah... etc) those with depression or those that had experienced depression belonged, as I believe for each of these groups the path to depression may vary but the impetus was similar As for the gap between the sexes I do think hormones play a minor role; but also, I would not say that it's because girls experience extra stressors because I believe both sexes experience similar stressors (e.g. body image, performance) and different (i.e. unique to their sex) additional stress. Adolescents are very social beings and I wonder if the researchers even considered asking these youths about their real world persona and their fictional/social media persona, where they any differences between them; also how was their status in the social media universe affecting them in the real world. This study is a step in the right direction as we are now acknowledging that adolescents can suffer from what was previously considered adult only mental disorders but it is great that they gave parents signs to look for so that these adolescents can get help early.
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Post by Prerana Rodrigues on Jun 1, 2017 7:37:39 GMT -4
It is interesting to read that gender can play an integral part in adolescent depression. There is such huge difference in the incidences between males and females; depression being more prevalent and peaking earlier in females. While one can attribute these differences to biology and social influences, we must also consider other influences such as the mental and cognitive development of the adolescent. This is important in order to differentiate depression from other psychological child disorders. Finding a more definite trigger for depression and understanding factors that can worsen it, can be used to effectively diagnose and treat depression early on.
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Post by Amy Emtage on Jun 1, 2017 13:34:11 GMT -4
Depression seems to no longer be bound by the constraints of age or gender. Even though we still see generalizations that indicate increased susceptibility in teenage females, increased awareness has expanded the boundaries of the typical diagnosis pool. This leads us to question whether environmental factors are leading to increased incidence or whether diagnosis is becoming more feasible either due to better accessibility of psychiatric evaluation or improved public awareness leading to a willingness to seek help. New studies such as this one expand our understanding of whom should be screened and how we can improve our approach to preventative treatment. Let us hope that continued research will lead to continued improvement in our treatment methodologies.
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Post by Owais Khan on Jun 1, 2017 15:16:16 GMT -4
Depression, unlike most mental illnesses, quite seldom gets the integrated importance in relation to children and young adults. As most teenagers are growing up in a society congested with a plethora of nuisances and grossly out of the world life styles, most adults construe depression as a sign of rebellion or just a fade. In the case where a female teenager sees or hears a thousand new things said about her or her friends the fact that depression is very real should not be overlooked, likewise in male teenagers. An interesting aspect of the study looked into the similarity between male and female, which essentially shows that girls are going through a lot of psychological changes in their teenage years yet the boys are as well, but quite often in some cases are not diagnosed as such due to the gender differences. Clearly, the research is quite accurate in stating that depression is very real and starts as early as 12-13 years of age, hence the start of the middle school years. And the article clears up the air in regards to stating the importance of recognizing and treating depression as early as possible, where a child is initially growing and may still have time to find a solution to their problems. If overlooked,depression stays with the child into their young adulthood and becomes a part of life that they do not realize is not truly part of them, and can be treated. The fact that depression is seen as early as 12 years of age also pushes the notion that no age is too early for parents and guardians to speak with a child about their feelings, because it does not always revolve around social issues but quite possibly could stem from another physiological/pathological issue. The research did a great job in stating the importance of this disease, which should prompt further research and hopefully further logical solutions.
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Post by Mackenzie Keintz on Jun 1, 2017 15:37:11 GMT -4
I find it really interesting that children can be diagnosed with depression at such an early age. It doesn't surprise me that there is a gender gap at age 12, but I am surprised the gender gap is so prominent earlier than that. This article did not detail the criteria of childhood depression which made me question if children must fulfill the same criteria as an adult and how those criteria are met via interview. I am curious if any research has been done linking tv, video games, and current music with depression. This is especially interesting because boys are more likely to play violent video games but less likely to be depressed.
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Post by Silky Kataria on Jun 1, 2017 16:07:22 GMT -4
According to this article, it was found that girls are prone to having depression than boys. There are several factors that may play a role in this, although pinpointing as to what they are might be very difficult. However, having this information can be quite useful as it can allow us to better screen for any underlying severe mental illnesses. Such conditions that may be hard to diagnose at that age include schizophrenia, personality disorders and even certain mood disorders. Knowing this information and how strongly girls can be affected by depression will help pediatricians and PCPs to cater more to their needs and allow for immediate attention if needed and early treatment.
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Post by Rashonda Carlisle on Jun 1, 2017 19:28:58 GMT -4
This article illustrates the importance of research. It was thought that adolescents were too young to experience depression, and new studies have proved this wrong as we see here. I believe that this not only stems from further research but also from changing times. Children growing up now are exposed to more than previous children. Expectations have grown and they are trying new things earlier, which can become stressful, as their minds and bodies may not be developed enough for such experiences. Now that there is ongoing development about the young onset of depression, I think it is important to further investigate why males are less prone to develop it than females. With this knowledge it is possible that treatment, or avoidance can begin early and lessen the number of people suffering with it later years.
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Post by Fernando Grabner on Jun 1, 2017 21:43:31 GMT -4
Although this article is mainly focused on depression in adolescents, I found the most interesting piece of information to be recent diagnoses of depression in children as young as 4 or 5 years old. This led me to read some other sources citing cases of diverse types of mental illness in young children, ranging from the more commonly seen ADHD and disruptive behavior disorders to eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and even schizophrenia. This is an issue that requires immediate attention from the psychiatric community because surely many mental illnesses are currently underdiagnosed in children based on the notion that they are “considered too developmentally immature to be able to experience such a grown-up affliction,” as this article states. I can only imagine the repercussions undiagnosed and untreated mental illness in children and adolescents may have later in life.
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