WHAT IS THE PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION IN YOUNG-PEOPLE

Community and epidemiological studies show that the lifetime prevalenc e of major depressive disorder increases from puberty to late adolesce nce. There has been a tendency to interpret this varying lifetime prev alence to mean that depression is rare in childhood and increases in f requency after puberty. A critical reevaluation of existing studies, h owever, finds no evidence of age-related changes in the current preval ence of depression in boys and little evidence for puberty-related cha nges in girls. Thus, the incidence of depression appears constant for boys across the child and adolescent age span but increases for girls. This review will focus on age-specific prevalence estimates of depres sion from community and epidemiological samples.