Teenage depression is the most neglected and least understood illness that affects adolescents. There are many reasons and situations for teenagers to become gloomy and unhappy. It is their transient phase from childhood to adulthood that causes many psychological and physiological changes in their thinking and behavior. Puberty brings in its wake phenomenal changes in personalities in physical and psychological terms. They are most vulnerable because they are susceptible to unhappy situations at home or school or at social gatherings. It is estimated that about 20 percent of teenagers suffer depressive symptoms before they become adults.

Depression generally does not differentiate between boys and girls, but girls become more prone to depression because of their social disposition and dependencies. It may also be due to biological factors after the onset of puberty in girls. Girls are shown to be two times more prone than boys. Some sections of a society may feel that they are socially segregated and neglected and such thinking may run in families. Children in such families only need a small trigger to exacerbate their feelings of depression.

Now, teen depression is being taken seriously because of its association with teen suicides. Alarming number of suicides in teens are attributed to disturbed personal relations, social tensions, family situations, academic frustrations, childhood abuse, drug dependence, etc. Teen suicide is estimated to be the third most causative factor in adolescent deaths. Depression in teenagers is periodic and frequent in occurrence, with recurrence rate at 12 percent within the first year of onset. In four years time, 33 percent of teenagers would have experienced at least one relapse of the illness. Statistics show that at least 20 percent of teenagers would have undergone at least one major depressive episode by the time they become 18 years of age. Teen depression is the basis for adult clinical depression.

The percentage of depression in teenagers that lasts for more than a year at a stretch is 8.3 points. The percentage is against the total population figure of 5.3 points. Between 20 and 40 percent of teenagers undergo more than a single bout of depression and a high figure of 70 percent of adolescents would have suffered more than one bout of depression before they reach adulthood. In teenagers, the phases of depression last, on an average, for about eight months.

The chronic mild depression, the dysthymia, is prevalent in two percent of all teenagers. Teens may also develop bipolar depression in their late teen years, who account for two percent of all teens. And fifteen percent of all teens suffering from depression will subsequently get bipolar depression illness. Only some negligible percent of teenagers suffer from seasonal affective syndrome (SAD).

Teenage Suicide Statistics – Depression Related

The data are related to metal illnesses or depressive disorders.

In the US , suicides and attempted suicides have gone up by three fold increase in three decades since 1970.

Home is the most happening place where 90 percent of total suicides are committed.

90 percent of people who attempt or commit suicide suffer from a mental illness, such as depression.

The risk of first suicide attempt is increased by 14 times due to depression.

About fifty percent of teenagers will ultimately make at least one suicide attempt, the causative factor being depression. These suicide attempts result in actual death in seven percent of all teenagers.

Young males are four times more prone to commit suicide than young women, but young women attempt suicide three times more often than young men.

Mental illness or disorder was estimated to have constituted to about 33 to 50 percent of deaths, and only 15 percent of people were receiving medical attention at the time of their death.

Depression makes a person 12 times more prone to attempt suicide than a normal person without depression.

Alcoholism or medicine addiction, in combination of some mental disorder; account for 20 to 50 percent of all suicide attempts.

A school study showed that 50 percent of students felt lonely occasionally, while 25 percent of students felt lonely all the time. Some 40 percent of students disclosed that they were thinking about suicide, while.8 percent of students informed their intention to commit suicide, given an opportunity.