A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF DEPRESSION IN AN URBAN SPANISH PUBERTAL POPULATION

Depression characteristics were investigated in 507 adolescents using a two-stage longitudinal study design. The three-year longitudinal stu dy started when the girls and boys were 11 and 12 years, respectively. In the initial (screening) phase the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) was used to select subjects for phase-II of the study in which t he Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) interview was u sed. The caseness definition of Major Depression (MD) and Dysthymia (D ) was based on the DSM-III-R criteria. Pubertal development was assess ed by Tanner's staging. Estimated prevalence of Major Depression in th e female sample for each increasing year of age was 2.2%, 2.7% and 4.1 %. In the male sample the prevalence for the three years was 0.9%, 0.3 % and 0.6%. There was no relation to age. The estimated mean prevalenc e of Dysthymia was 1.4% in girls and 0.8% in boys. No association betw een pubertal development and depression was found. Longitudinal data s upport the notion of chronic depression in early adolescence.