How to Screen for Depression in Teens

️1 in 10 teens suffer depression & half may be undiagnosed, even less access care for it. Almost 1 in 5 teens have thought about suicide in the past year.

Talking about screening for depression in tweens & teens today for #nationaldepressionscreeningday as part of #mentalhealthawarenessweek.

Depression can hide itself. Sometimes it's tricky to tell if it's depression or normal moodiness. Teens may feel more irritable, bored, keyed-up, blah, angry over "sad."

Teens & parents if this has been on your mind, talk to each other about what you may notice & make sure your pediatrician screens for it. They should be speaking with your teen privately to ask.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the United States Prevention Services Task Force recommend depression screening in kids 12+ at well child checks. It's not a magical age cut off, if you have a younger child you are worried about or has risk factors like family history, bullying etc please ask them to screen!

There are many evidence-based screening tools to help guide concern for depression as well as to help asses severity for use in primary care. Some like the "Columbia Depression Scale" have a teen & parent version. Others like the one I use as a physician is called the "Patient Health Questionnaire 9 Modified for Teens" (freely available, in 10+ languages). These should be used while in discussion with your medical teams.

Some places only use the PHQ-2. This is not, in my opinion, an adequate screen in teens as it doesn't capture teenage depression as well & most importantly doesn't ask about suicide. If you are not asking about suicide you are not being complete in your screen.