Treatment for Depressed Adolescents Introduction

Treatment for Depressed Adolescents

Introduction (Brief section)

Recognition of Depression in Adolescents:

The word "depression" holds a different meaning for all of us. Some might describe it as a bad work or school day, others might be sad over a bad incident while some might be depressed just out of pessimism towards where their life is leading or due to no adventure in life. Most of these depressive moods are normal and don't last for long, while the clinical depressive moods do last for long and affect the individual in their later years.

Some of the obvious depressive elements are the individual's sudden change of mood in a day, amplified weakness, alteration in sleep patterns, deficiency of incentive and force, weakened awareness and recollection, despair suicidal feelings, modification in mood power, feeling tired and lacking in energy, alteration in mobility, loss or gain in appetite and weight, the individual's reduced sense of worth, the individual's decreased immunity to pain, obsessive features, immobilization.

However, all these results could have been caused by habits other then depression for example, changes in sleep patterns could be because early morning disturbances or age, changes in weight could be due to some medical reason and changes in mood during the day could be because of the use of drugs or alcohol, etc. (Marie-Paule Austin, Kerrie Eyers, Sue Grdovic, Dusan Hadzi-Paviovic, Gin Malhi, Philip Mitchell, Gordon Parker, David Straton and Kay Wilhelm, 2002).

Support for treatment of adolescent depression:

Depression and accepting that one has a problem relating to depression is considered a disgrace which is why much of it goes unsaid and untreated. The real shame though is that depression does go untreated or under treated. However efforts have to be made that depression whether clinical or biological should not be ignored and should be treated correctly and in due time.

Some forms of depression are really minor and are resolved without any treatment on their own. Others might require a bit of treatment. Some people who do not respond to initial treatment need to seek professional help and if the depression continues without any change then specialist should be consulted. Some people are helped by taking antidepressant medications while others resort to therapy. (Marie-Paule Austin, Kerrie Eyers, Sue Grdovic, Dusan Hadzi-Paviovic, Gin Malhi, Philip Mitchell, Gordon Parker, David Straton and Kay Wilhelm, 2002)

C. Current research of treatment options for depressed adolescents:

Depression amongst adolescents is pretty common especially between the ages of 13 and 19. The female adolescents suffer more from depression at a rate of 2:1 and research has proven that depression is more harmful for adolescents than adults.

Analytically speaking adolescents usually imitate the depressive traits of the adults but of course there are some very distinct differences between the acts of a depressed adolescent and a depressed adult.

Adolescent depression is usually a reaction towards educational failure or failed relationship and adolescents tend to portray more vulnerability and misery than depressed adults, but, usually the adolescent depression is periodical and ends after a space of time.

Eating disorders and suicide attempts are more common in adolescents. Usually the peer pressure on image forces the adolescents to think about their physical appearance and hence either gain weight or lose it dramatically. Suicide attempts are far more successful in adolescents than in adults and the most common reason for this is depression. (Patricia M. Beamish and Elizabeth A. Mellin, 2002)

II. Recognition of how Adolescent Thinking effects Depression

Unrealistic expectations:

Cognition is strongly influenced by depressive behavior. Depressive behavior eventually leads the individual to think negatively towards his own self, his future as well the world in general.

One destructive difference that is created by a depressed individual is the difference between who he really is and what he would ideally want to be. This means that the individual feels like he is already not good enough, or thinks about who he is in negative terms, for example a person might think that he is not a good athlete which would lead to a difference in his actual self and his ideal self. This also affects the individual's perspective of the future, for example he might feel hopeless towards seeing the end of his therapy sessions or might think that his therapy sessions would never end. This also affect his view of the world, the difference in his actual self and his ideal self might make the individual believe that a person is a certain way and then get disappointed for him not being that way.

So in all, depression leading to a major difference in the actual self of a person and his ideal self as well as hopelessness all lead to have unrealistically negative expectations in an individual (Dori E. Goldfarb, 2002).

B. Automatic Thoughts:

The first hindrance to getting over depressive attitude is going to be the automatic depressive thoughts that come into an individual's mind. For instance, when you're cut off in traffic by a speeding car, your initial immediate reaction or thought would be to get angry, or when a friend doesn't reply to your call your immediate conclusion is that she doesn't want to talk to you or that she is sick. Realizing what your automatic thought is, is the first step, and then changing it to a more rationale thought is the second step.

A depressed individual would not only have illogical and irrational thoughts but they would also be untrue, would not consider the harm or benefit of the individual or his relation, would be one way (i.e. The individual would not be ale to come to any other conclusion), etc. (Barbara K. Bruce and Denise Foley, 1998).

C. Maladaptive Assumptions:

The maladaptive behaviors of a depressed individual can vary from his social skills to his concentration ability to his attitude towards authority. The depressed individual would not act his age or be emotionally distraught or seek too much attention. Socially, the depressed adolescent would be isolated and shy and prefer to be unaccompanied. Cognitively, the depressed adolescent would be lazy and incapable of learning and would underachieve. He would not be able to sit still in class or have long concentration duration. The depressed adolescent would also be very rebellious towards authority as well as stubborn and disobliging (Gerald R. Patterson, 1990).

D. Low self-esteem or negative self-concept:

Most adolescents who suffer from clinical depression tend to have very low self-esteem and don't take pride in who they are as a person and this low esteem and self pride results in social, academic and behavioral problems for the child that would be long lasting and damaging. On the other hand, the child might also be able to keep a positive instead of a negative approach to his pride and self-esteem, which is good, but if too much of it happens then it becomes a study of "positive illusory bias" amongst the adolescents. However, not much research has been done on this circumstance of depression.

III. Support of treating Adolescent Depression

A. No treatment vs. treatment:

Adolescents that become victims of depression and hopelessness usually go through an environment of struggling relationships either between their parents, their peers and friends or between their personal relationships. Usually adolescents who don't get treatment for their depressive moods usually end up feeling even more remorse and despair in relation their self and their future. Whereas adolescents that get treated get helped to channel their depression towards a more positive and open conversation with the people they are having trouble to communicate with.

Similarly, adolescents that don't get treated become more accustomed to suicidal thoughts and obsessive natures. The suicidal rates and attempts increase immensely and the success rates of suicides becomes even more. Whereas adolescents who do get treatments are able to express their inner desires to a therapist who helps them overcome these suicidal feelings and look at the positive scale of their lives.

B. Medication vs. Non-Medication Approach:

Non-medication approach to a depressed adolescent might work really well in interpersonal, family as well as group therapy. In group therapy the adolescent can be taught to cope with his skills and use them positively, as well as get help with his social, communication and academic skills and use them in a way that would get him the best results.

Medication, on the other hand, can also be very useful and perhaps more useful as most recent researches suggest. Medication is probably more effective, in the long-term, to help the adolescent deal with his depressive behavior and overcome or control it. Medication is said to be a good choice because of its efficiency to work. However, medication can be done necessarily on those adolescents who have been not responding to therapy sessions or get recurrent depression attacks or are unable to go through counseling.

Treatment Recommendations (1 page)

Past, Present and Future:

In the past the issue of depression and its effect on adolescent has not been addressed and the treatment that had been available for it had been inefficient and lacked any kind of stable positive aftermath.

However, in recent decades this problem has not only been addressed but ways have been researched so that this problem could be reduced in percentage and affect. The treatment has become more diverse and the environment provided for the treatments has been made safe and hospitable. The family of the depressed adolescent has been made more aware and has cooperated in controlling or overcoming this problem with time. The goal of trying to get the adolescent to understand and comprehend his self and his thoughts has been achieved regularly and with fruitful results.