Teen Depression: Health Story

Aired on Superstation WGN
Saturday, July 23 and November 12, 2005
Show 219

"I always felt alone, even though I had friends. I didn't really enjoy anything," says Katie Roeder who suffered from depression as an adolescent. Most teens don't ask for help. Almost 30 percent of teens with depression develop problems with drugs or alcohol.

"Depression is a disorder of regulation of mood," says Dr. Bennett Leventhal, child and adolescent psychologist.

"Most parents don't recognize depression until problems are most severe. They need to look for irritability, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, and inability to make decisions," says Cheryl King PhD, Director of the Child and Adolescent Depression Program at the University of Michigan. 

"What happens in the brain, the genes and the environment all trigger depression. Now that we recognize this, we have a better chance of treating depression earlier when it's easier and more effective," says Dr. John Greden, executive Director of the Depression Center at the University of Michigan.