Adolescent Depression from a Developmental Perspective: The Importance of Recognizing Developmental Distress in Depressed Adolescents

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2022 Dec 11

PMID 36498102

Authors

Christopher Rikard-Bell

Caroline Hunt

Claire McAulay

Phillipa Hay

Arshia Morad

Michelle Cunich

Stephen Touyz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To make the case that developmental distress needs to be assessed when evaluating adolescent depression.

Methods: Reviews of relevant papers relating to adolescent depression.

Results: Adolescent depression is a common and costly health condition, confounded by a lack of consensus among health professionals regarding evidence-based approaches regarding treatments. Little attention has been paid to the contribution of developmental distress.

Conclusion: The current adult-like model of adolescent depression fails to advance the understanding of adolescent depression. A systematic evidence-based approach to identifying developmental self-perception distress in depressed adolescents could provide important advances in treatment to improve short-term and longer-term mental health outcomes. This paper proposes the creation of a psychometric tool to systematically measure developmental self-perception distress in adolescents with depression.

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