Too little is known about depressed adolescents, yet early treatment is critical

In David Letterman fashion, UCLA psychologist Constance Hammen, PhD, listed the top 10 reasons for researchers to pay more attention to adolescent depression:

1. Adult depression is largely a continuation of adolescent-onset depression.

2. There have been increasing rates of depression among groups of people born more recently.

3. Adolescent depression tends to recur frequently.

4. It impedes development at a critical time.

5. Adolescent depression contributes to other health problems, such as obesity.

6. Youth depression is a marker of other problem behaviors, such as suicidal thinking and substance abuse.

7. It's predictive of significant, lifelong impairment.

8. There's strong evidence for gender differences in adolescent depression.

9. There are unanswered questions about how it differs from other types of depression, and about how biological and psychosocial factors interact in it.

10. There are too few effective treatments, too little awareness and too little access to care.

Speaking Friday during APA’s Annual Convention, Hammen emphasized that interpersonal stress is much higher for adolescent girls than boys. That heightened stress, she said, predicts depression in adolescence and later in life. And if those depressed adolescents grow into depressed women and have children, those children inherit an increased risk for depression.

"Parental depression affects the whole family," she said.

The transmission of depression from one generation to the next underscores the need for early intervention in adolescents, Hammen said.