Depression in adolescents: Current treatments, suicidality and evaluation of novel treatment strategies

Abstract

Multiple studies have examined the age of onset of major depression, indicating it is most frequent in adolescence and young adulthood. In this context, the off spring of depressed parents have a 2 to 4 time increased risk for depression compared with children of non-depressed parents. Treatment for depression in adolescents can be divided into psychosocial, psychopharmacologic, somatic and combined psychosocial-psychopharmacologic, psychosocialpsychosomatic and psychopharmacologic-psychosomatic. Depression in the children and adolescent population has been an area of research for over 20 years. Among novel therapeutic strategies, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has demonstrated the most favorable side eff ect profi le. Until this time there are no published suicide attempts associated with this treatment and it may off er an option that is not associated with stigma of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or medications. Further research may provide more access to this therapy and hope to children, adolescents with depression and their families.