Citation

Duffy A. Evid. Based Ment. Health 2015; 18(1): 7-9.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/eb-2014-101993

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Adolescence is an important developmental period characterised by accelerated biological, psychological and sociological development. Adolescence is also the high-risk period for onset of major psychiatric disorders that persist into adulthood. In particular, mood disorders in youth account for a substantial proportion of disability and premature death in those aged 10-24 years.1 In contrast to prepubertal mood disorders, adolescent mood disorders recur or persist lifelong and are associated with a high estimated heritability.2 Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth in Canada and the UK and is strongly associated with psychiatric disorders; with mood disorders accounting for the greatest proportion.3 Therefore, early accurate identification of serious recurrent or persistent mood disorders is of paramount importance, and yet represents a major challenge. This is in part attributable to the overlap of psychiatric symptoms with normative transient distress in this age group, lack of youth friendly specialised mental health programmes and the failure of the current diagnostic approach to consider the natural history of illness development. This paper focuses on the latter problem and specifically highlights evidence from high-risk studies illustrating how a developmental approach, in the context of other risk factors, advances an earlier accurate diagnosis of mood disorders in adolescents and young adults.

Language: en