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Acting on the science to prevent depression
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Louis Pasteur communicated to doctors why to wash their hands before surgery. Today, studies find that prevention is better than waiting for symptoms to develop. The potential for improvement in mental health is excellent. After Pasteur, lifetimes doubled as doctors dropped old habits and practiced the science for preventing bacteria; today, psychoeducation can prevent depression, the number one cause of disability. All doctors should be actively practicing depression prevention.
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Psychoeducation, or depression prevention, is defined as a process of increasing awareness, problem solving and coping skills. Universal prevention helps every youth, rather than attempting to identify whom may have diagnosable symptoms at the moment. Early recognition and treatment of depression and other psychiatric illnesses appear to be the best way to prevent suicide, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Families, doctors and communities can act today to prevent depression. Resources for each group are suggested on this website. For example, school curricula are available for the asking from the elite research and treatment providers:
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| Children's Hospital Boston |
Johns Hopkins Hospital |
McLean Hospital |
For details and contact information, please click the School Curricula page on the left side menu. Each resource may be used by community health officials to direct schools to:
- Implement universal preventive intervention through psychoeducation and communicate clear referral procedures.
- Initiate a wellness council with public and independent school leadership to share their curriculum content on building resilience, symptom recognition and referral procedures with parents and leaders from other community programs, including clergy.
- Support teen leadership and open communication with adults.
- Evaluate outcomes.
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Parents and teens can partner with their pediatrician by requesting psychoeducation during each well child visit. Articles and tip sheets are available through this website. The importance of prevention and early treatment is clear because depression is common, it appears in youth, and early action is most effective:
- Treatment For Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS) confirms depression is very treatable, especially by combination of talk therapy (CBT) and antidepressant (Archives of General Psychiatry, Oct 2007)
- psychoeducation can prevent depression before symptoms appear (Prevention of Depression in at-risk adolescents, JAMA, Jun 2009)
- depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide (NIH Pub. No. 03-5121)
- half of us who will ever experience depression show symptoms by age 14 (Archives of General Psychiatry, Kessler, R., June, 2005)
- untreated depression can lead to a more severe, more difficult to treat illness (ibid)
- most individuals who complete suicide have depression (NIH Pub.No. 06-4594, also National Strategy for Suicide Prevention)
- 80% of adolescent suicides are completed by boys (Report on Mental Health, Surgeon General)
Resource information is offered directly through this website. You are encouraged to download information on keeping healthy kids healthy. For example, Challenging Negative Self -Talk is a tip sheet with six questions to help your child practice realistic thinking. There is also material on building awareness to know common symptoms of depression such as irritability or recurring headache/stomachache, and suggested topics to discuss with the pediatrician. View these at Parent Resources.
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