Has Your Teen Been Screened for Depression?

[The Straight Story]

Has Your Teen Been Screened for Depression?


SACRAMENTO, CA - A government medical task force is recommending that all teenagers be screened for depression, and not just those teens who appear at risk. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts in primary care, made that recommendation in March.

According to some estimates, more than 2 million teens -- one in eight teens -- may suffer from depression, but few are getting any type of intervention, counseling or treatment.

How do you know if your teen is depressed and not just experiencing normal teenage angst? And what can you do to help your teen through depression?

On Monday's Live_Online at 11 a.m., Stephen Grinstead, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Sacramento, gave us some of the warning signs of depression in teens:

*
Chronic irritability, anger and hostility
*
Withdrawal from family and some, but not all, friends
*
Restlessness and agitation
* Substance abuse
* Suicidal thoughts and actions
*
Unexplained aches and pains
*
Extreme sensitivity to criticism
*
Extreme changes in eating or sleeping habit

Grinstead said while the independent medical panel recommends depression screenings for children 12 to 18 years of age, some doctors are not following through. He suggested you ask your family doctor or pediatrician about the questionnaire they use to screen teens for depression.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=65721&catid=2

[JackintheGreen]

1. It's not reallt anything to joke about

but the warning signs for depression are remarkably similar to the warning signs of being a fucking teenager. It was the very picture of me.

[ejpoeta]

2. no you are right. that pretty much sounds like most teenagers i've ever known.

[rocktivity]

4. DING DING DING! JackintheGreen, you're our grand prize winner!

...(T)he warning signs for depression are remarkably similar to the warning signs of being a fucking teenager...

Posted on DU by rocktivity FIVE AND HALF YEARS AGO when a similar program was rejected by a Florida school system:

The screening program asks a variety of questions about mental well-being. Examples include: "In the last year, has there been a time when nothing was fun for you and you just weren't interested in anything?" and "Has there been a time when you couldn't think as clearly or as fast as usual?"

EVERYONE has such feelings at one time or another--I'd tend to think you were mentally ill if you DIDN'T. But it doesn't mean you're mentally ill and need medication. It's called life, and the cure is dealing with your problems, aka maturing. The teen years are volatile precisely because the physical and emotional maturing process is beginning. Some teens are more vulnerable than others because they feel things more intensely. But what they should get is adult mentoring and guidance, not "state-of-the-art treatments" and "specific medications."

It really does sound like a boondoggle for patient-hungry pharmaceutical companies.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[SoCalDem]

11. The teen years are MOSTLY depressing..

packed with urges you don't understand, but think you do

full of anxiety about fitting in with kids whose names you won't even remember 10 years later

wanting to grow up, while still wanting to be taken care of

hating your parents for daring to question your judgment, but calling them in a hot second when your judgment gets you in a jam, and then hating them more for having to listen to them tell you "I Told you so".

thinking you're :
fat
ugly
skinny
dumb
unloved
stupid
etc etc
when in fact, everyone else is too busy thinking those same things about themselves to even NOTICE you..

eager to grow up, and afraid to ..all at the same time..

[malaise]

13. True but big pharma

has drugs to sell.

[Deja Q]

15. How about abstinent teenagers?

Bad joke... it is a serious issue as I was one. (Abstinent AND depressed...)

[MineralMan]

3. I wish they'd come up with a GOOD list of things parents can

watch for. Most of these lists mostly describe typical adolescent behavior and don't offer suggestions for differentiating between that and real depression signs.

They need to qualify these lists with words like, unusual, extreme, uncharacteristic, and the like. Not just sometimes, but in every line of these bulleted lists.

Sadly, most of these stories end up being by unqualified people.

[dembotoz]

5. it the teenager is labeled as depressed, then everything the teenager does will

been seen as a symptom.

once labeled, you are damned.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Once labelled

you are drugged.

[DCKit]

7. I wonder which drug company is shopping this "news" story around.

Aren't 95% of the kids already on one drug or another?

[sixstrings75]

8. Hmm. Check. Check. yep. Sounds like me..., lol

Just got out of 7 year relationship. I believe I am definitely depressed. Would suck to be a teenager and going thru this, that's for sure.

I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

I used to think this stuff was hooey, until it happens to you.

[slampoet]

9. "He's going through Puberty." "WELL can't you give him a PILL for it or something?"

[Dr_Willie_Feelgood]

14. Having been through the toxic waste that is...

...pharmaceutical antidepressents, I am scared by stories like this.

I am not going to argue that there are not legitimate biological reasons for depression. But what these young people need is hope and respect. They need people to talk to. They need a culture where they are not harassed or dismissed if they are not part of the "In Crowd".

Sadly, it is cheaper and easier to pay big pharma to poison them.

[slampoet]

16. My parents actually had to say, "He wouldn't be depressed if you didn't let your kids beat the shit

out of him every week. Why aren't your sadistic little hellions on drugs?"


The reason was that those little hellions wouldn't be allowed to score baskets and touchdowns if they were getting the therapy they needed.

[ddeclue]

10. Has your teen been signed up for big PharmCo anti-depressants yet?

This is obviously an effort by Big Pharma to scare up a new batch of customers to hook on their magic pills, many of which don't work or have nasty side effects.

These aren't symptoms of "depression" they are symptoms of being an adolescent.

Shame on you Big Pharma!

[Blue Diadem]

12. I think, before anyone is prescribed depression meds, that they first should have

their vitamin levels, especially Vit. D, checked and that includes teens.