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Adolescent Depression

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By dhogan3
Words 2273
Pages 10
Desiree’ Hogan
Introduction to Psychology
2 December 2012
Professor Tobin Hart
Adolescent Depression
Experts estimate that 5% of all teenagers will suffer from depression. Unfortunately, only 20% of depressed teens are appropriately diagnosed and treated. It is a disorder that disturbs their mood, causes a loss of interest or pleasure in activities they should enjoy and makes them irritable to almost any aspect of life. It is very difficult to diagnose depression among teens because of the normal sporadic mood swings that are included in the teenage years; nevertheless, persistent unhappiness or moodiness is not normal in anyone. Therefore there are many key factors in looking for depression among teens.
There are multiple things correlated with depression among adolescents. Some examples include the normal process of maturing and the stress that occurs with it, influence of sex hormones, conflicts with parents, and the death of a friend or relative. Also teens who are most likely to become depressed when they experience stressful events have a factor of low self-esteem , are very critical of themselves and have feelings that they have little or no control over negative events (T. Rogge & D. Zieve (Eds.), 2012). In this paper, I will investigate the numerous symptoms and signs of depression among teens, the treatments taken to cope with depression, and the prevention and consequences of depression in adolescents. It is hypothesized that female adolescents will display higher levels of depression related symptoms and behaviors than male adolescents. The following research will comply with the hypothesis while also looking at the causes of depression among adolescents.
Depression is a medical illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. In the brain, neurons send messages from one nerve ending to another across synapses. Neurotransmitters,

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