September marks National Suicide Prevention Month and a chance for all of us to think again about what we can do against this huge public health problem and the number two killer of Vermonters between the ages of 10 and 34. While we’ve seen increased attention and resources devoted to suicide, there is still a […]
Tags: depression, prevention, suicide
The medical community was disappointed, but perhaps not shocked, several years ago when it was revealed that the efficacy of antidepressant medications in the treatment of adolescent depression might not be as strong as we thought. This bias was due to the fact that the clinical trials, most of which were funded by pharmaceutic companies, […]
Tags: antidepressants, bias, depression, psychotherapy, therapy
At our clinic at the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families, one unique component of our child psychiatry evaluations is the provision of also assessing mental health problems in the parents, using validated rating scales. This element was included in the face of mounting data showing that successful treatment of psychiatric disorders in parents […]
To keep in mind National Suicide Prevention Suicide Week as well as to offer some hopeful news, this week’s post summarizes a recent study from the American Journal of Psychiatry that claims to have found a gene that is related to suicidal behavior. It is somewhat of a complicated study with multiple samples (it’s hard […]
Tags: depression, ska2, suicide, suicide gene
It has been widely shown at this point that psychiatric problems in parents can negatively affect child behavior, but what about teachers? These days, many children spend as much if not more of their waking hours with teachers and other childcare providers than they do with parents. As such, it seems logical to extend the […]
Tags: depression, school, teacher
A recent posting on Babysitting.net describes 10 Common Causes for Teenage Depression. I thought it was a useful post and worth passing along. I think it is also certainly worth noting that most frequently there isn’t a single cause but several that can conspire to work together. A child with a genetic predisposition for depression […]
Tags: depression
The recent tragedy surrounding the attempted suicide in Walpole NH reminds us all that the danger of youth suicide remains active in our own backyard. Drawing upon the recently blogged Vermont Youth Suicide Prevention Platform and the new website http://www.umatterucanhelp.com , it is worth thinking again about some suggestions for parents and primary care clinicians. […]
Tags: depression, suicide
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHA) recently issued a report based on new survey results. One area of focus was major depression among adolescents. Major findings from the survey included the following: 1.9 million youth (8% of the population) between the ages 12-17 experienced a major depressive episode in 2010, a rate […]
Tags: depression, medications
