Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school

Background: Three to nine per cent of teenagers meet the criteria for depression at any one time, and at the end of adolescence, as many as 20% of teenagers report a lifetime prevalence of depression. Usual care by primary care physicians fails to recognize 30-50% of depressed patients. Materials a...

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Main Authors: Vivek Bansal, Sunil Goyal, Kalpana Srivastava
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2009-01-01
Series:Industrial Psychiatry Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.industrialpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0972-6748;year=2009;volume=18;issue=1;spage=43;epage=46;aulast=Bansal
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spelling doaj-8efe6e7f7209401e9fd88fac7d0149362020-11-25T01:39:55ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsIndustrial Psychiatry Journal0972-67482009-01-01181434610.4103/0972-6748.57859Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public schoolVivek BansalSunil GoyalKalpana SrivastavaBackground: Three to nine per cent of teenagers meet the criteria for depression at any one time, and at the end of adolescence, as many as 20% of teenagers report a lifetime prevalence of depression. Usual care by primary care physicians fails to recognize 30-50% of depressed patients. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional one-time observational study using simple screening instruments for detecting early symptoms of depression in adolescents. Two psychological instruments were used: GHQ-12 and BDI. Also socio-demographic data (e.g. academic performance, marital harmony of parents, bullying in school, etc) was collected in a separate semi-structured performa. Statistical analysis was done with Fisher′s Exact Test using SPSS17. Results: 15.2% of school-going adolescents were found to be having evidence of distress (GHQ-12 score e"14); 18.4% were depressed (BDI score e"12); 5.6% students were detected to have positive scores on both the instruments. Certain factors like parental fights, beating at home and inability to cope up with studies were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) associated with higher GHQ-12 scores, indicating evidence of distress. Economic difficulty, physical punishment at school, teasing at school and parental fights were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with higher BDI scores, indicating depression. Conclusion: The study highlights the common but ignored problem of depression in adolescence. We recommend that teachers and parents be made aware of this problem with the help of school counselors so that the depressed adolescent can be identified and helped rather than suffer silently.http://www.industrialpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0972-6748;year=2009;volume=18;issue=1;spage=43;epage=46;aulast=BansalDepressionStudentsPublic school
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Vivek Bansal
Sunil Goyal
Kalpana Srivastava
spellingShingle Vivek Bansal
Sunil Goyal
Kalpana Srivastava
Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
Industrial Psychiatry Journal
Depression
Students
Public school
author_facet Vivek Bansal
Sunil Goyal
Kalpana Srivastava
author_sort Vivek Bansal
title Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
title_short Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
title_full Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
title_fullStr Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
title_full_unstemmed Study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
title_sort study of prevalence of depression in adolescent students of a public school
publisher Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
series Industrial Psychiatry Journal
issn 0972-6748
publishDate 2009-01-01
description Background: Three to nine per cent of teenagers meet the criteria for depression at any one time, and at the end of adolescence, as many as 20% of teenagers report a lifetime prevalence of depression. Usual care by primary care physicians fails to recognize 30-50% of depressed patients. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional one-time observational study using simple screening instruments for detecting early symptoms of depression in adolescents. Two psychological instruments were used: GHQ-12 and BDI. Also socio-demographic data (e.g. academic performance, marital harmony of parents, bullying in school, etc) was collected in a separate semi-structured performa. Statistical analysis was done with Fisher′s Exact Test using SPSS17. Results: 15.2% of school-going adolescents were found to be having evidence of distress (GHQ-12 score e"14); 18.4% were depressed (BDI score e"12); 5.6% students were detected to have positive scores on both the instruments. Certain factors like parental fights, beating at home and inability to cope up with studies were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) associated with higher GHQ-12 scores, indicating evidence of distress. Economic difficulty, physical punishment at school, teasing at school and parental fights were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with higher BDI scores, indicating depression. Conclusion: The study highlights the common but ignored problem of depression in adolescence. We recommend that teachers and parents be made aware of this problem with the help of school counselors so that the depressed adolescent can be identified and helped rather than suffer silently.
topic Depression
Students
Public school
url http://www.industrialpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0972-6748;year=2009;volume=18;issue=1;spage=43;epage=46;aulast=Bansal
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