Fascinating numbers that, as you said, don't tell the whole story, probably.Having been a depressed teen myself way back before the age of Prozac, I remember relating to literature and literary figures for integrating my feelings. The boys I knew, if they felt depressed, they certainly didn't talk about it -- only acted out, again in ways popular culture glamorized a sense of alienation.... but all this is anecdotal. What is more empirical, in my experience, is a general push to pathologize larger chunks of women's experiences, both physiological and psychological. having made huge inroads in that area, the next territory is that of teen existence, given that in general mothers make health care decisions in a family.

I am not advocating a conspiracy theory here; simply observing that perhaps thee is a marketing strategy at work here with the target audience different from the population discussed in the study.

Teenage angst is legendary. Almost as famous as the Terrible Two's.

Personally I wouldn't start diagnosing mental illnesses in people until they are, at least, 25. The variety of behaviors a human can outgrow in time is simply amazing.

I would keep an eye open for sociopaths though. Those people are a lot more dangerous than obviously aggressive/depressed kids. For the latter I'd check into the environment first. Most "symptoms" in kids tend to be related to a messed up environment rather than a messed up head.

Well, I suspect that me and most of my friends probably did that for my high school, but I'll also argue that we were depressed because high school sucked, NOT because we had any sort of disorder. IMO, it's more likely that teens get depressed because of all the stuff they go through - burgeoning sexuality (which may go against some sets of cultural beliefs / values), peer pressure, developing their identity, trying to get through a snakepit of gossip and bullying ... it's an insanely emotionally tumultuous time.

And yet that doesn't only happen in high school. With increasing frequency, people are reporting bullying in the workplace. I have only worked at ONE job since my minimum wage days where I HAVEN'T been exposed to someone who tried it.

I wonder if it's time to start looking into depression rates and how much depression is caused by situations that shouldn't exist. IMO, almost all depressed teens - looked at through that lens - would be rightly understood as people struggling with the big, thorny stuff of adulthood at an age when they aren't yet fully emotionally equipped to deal with it.

After all, we are putting lots more pressure on kids at early ages these days and expecting them to act more like young adults long before they actually are young adults.

I would tend to agree with you, but with Forest Laboratories coming out and claiming that Lexapro is now safe for teens maybe some headway into teen depression will be made. I realize that they probably said it for financial gain, but maybe the tide is beginning to turn on teenage depression. We all know just how devastating depression can be on one's life and wouldn't it be great if they could reduce in the teenage years - I know that it would have been for me.