Troubled Teens Resources

They are always moody. They come home from school in a good mood and then come raging out of their room an hour later, upset about something that they “just can’t talk about.”
Parents of teenagers are very familiar with the mood fluctuations undergone by their teens. But few parents take any of this moodiness as a sign that their teen is depressed. Indeed, a recent study suggests that most parents do not know when their teenager is going through an actual depressed episode and without some type of crisis intervention, the teen is very vulnerable to the suicidal thoughts swirling around in their head.

“An American study has shown that parents may not know their teenage children as well as they think they do. This results in depression going undiagnosed and increases the risk of suicide.

The study, conducted by a team from Columbia University in New York, found that 90% of the 900 parents interviewed said they would know if their teenage child were depressed or suicidal. In reality, however, two-thirds of depressed teens are not diagnosed and are left at risk of suicide.

Past statistics show that only a third of depressed adolescents are ever diagnosed by any adult, be it their parents, teacher or doctor.”

Because of a teens unwillingness to reveal or talk about their emotional upset, a test is being developed that will screen the troubled teen for any indicators of depressed or suicidal thoughts.

The result of the study is a special free-of-charge screening test that will be made available to certain schools. The test, funded by private donors, includes an hour-long, self-administered questionnaire.

Researchers believe that a teenager will reveal more in a confidential, self-administered questionnaire than they will in an open interview.

The survey was tested out on 640 teenagers of whom 148 were diagnosed with depression. Forty of these depressed teenagers were suicidal. The test missed seven adolescents who were later diagnosed as suicidal.”
(Source)