CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 2,365Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentMental Health Treatment and AccessTreatment of Major Depression

Depression in adolescence

Open access
Thapar, Anita, Collishaw, Stephan, Pine, Daniel S, Thapar, Ajay K·2012·The Lancet
DOI 10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60871-4PMC PMC3488279
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Unipolar depressive disorder in adolescence is common worldwide but often unrecognised. The incidence, notably in girls, rises sharply after puberty and, by the end of adolescence, the 1 year prevalence rate exceeds 4%. The burden is highest in low-income and middle-income countries. Depression is associated with substantial present and future morbidity, and heightens suicide risk. The strongest risk factors for depression in adolescents are a family history of depression and exposure to psychosocial stress. Inherited risks, developmental factors, sex hormones, and psychosocial adversity interact to increase risk through hormonal factors and associated perturbed neural pathways. Although many similarities between depression in adolescence and depression in adulthood exist, in adolescents the use of antidepressants is of concern and opinions about clinical management are divided. Effective treatments are available, but choices are dependent on depression severity and available resources. Prevention strategies targeted at high-risk groups are promising.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60871-4

Cites

160 of 161 references verified0 citation errors · 1 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Other studies suggest increasing depressive symptoms from middle adolescence through young adulthood.

    “Some point towards increases in self-esteem (Orth et al. 2018) starting in late adolescence, but others suggest decreasing life satisfaction (Goldbeck et al. 2007) and increasing depressive symptoms (Thapar et al. 2012) from middle adolescence through young adulthood.”

    From Patterns of Romantic Relationship Experiences and Psychosocial Adjustment From Adolescence to Young Adulthood (2021) · cites this paper as Thapar et al. 2012

    The Epidemiology section says the prevalence of depression rises throughout adolescence, supporting an increase during the adolescent portion of the claim. It does not establish that depressive symptoms continue increasing into young adulthood; instead, it says prevalence in mid-to-late adolescence is roughly similar to that in adulthood. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The current findings suggest that adolescence is a critical period of psychosocial development.

    “Together with previous findings showing a normative trend of decreasing life satisfaction (Goldbeck et al. 2007) and increasing depressive symptoms (Thapar et al. 2012) during adolescence, the current findings suggest that adolescence is a critical period of psychosocial development.”

    From Patterns of Romantic Relationship Experiences and Psychosocial Adjustment From Adolescence to Young Adulthood (2021) · cites this paper as Thapar et al. 2012

    The Epidemiology section reports that the prevalence of depressive disorder rises substantially throughout adolescence, supporting the age-related direction of the claim. It does not establish a normative increase in depressive symptoms specifically; the sentence’s conclusion about psychosocial development is the citing authors’ own inference. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • When persistent, internalizing problems often result in emerging psychiatric disorders affecting young people's daily lives, their future, and society.

    “When persistent, internalizing problems often result in emerging psychiatric disorders affecting young people’s daily lives, their future, and society [1-3,6].”

    From A Smartphone Serious Game for Adolescents (Grow It! App): Development, Feasibility, and Acceptance Study (2022) · cites this paper as [1]

    The Introduction says adolescent depression causes social and educational impairment, and the Epidemiology section says it predicts adult mental health disorders and later psychosocial difficulties. The paper supports the claim’s concern about present and future effects, but these passages concern depression specifically; they do not establish that persistent internalizing problems generally result in emerging psychiatric disorders. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Early identification and timely intervention are crucial to prevent further deterioration, improve prognosis, and reduce burden on health care systems and society.

    “Therefore, early identification and timely intervention are crucial to prevent further deterioration, improve prognosis, and reduce the burden on health care systems and society in general [1,7,8].”

    From A Smartphone Serious Game for Adolescents (Grow It! App): Development, Feasibility, and Acceptance Study (2022) · cites this paper as [1]

    The Detection and diagnosis and Prevention sections support identifying at-risk adolescents and intervening to prevent or delay depression. The Treatment section reports short-term symptom improvement but says evidence for long-term benefits is scarce. The Conclusion identifies treatment costs and calls for cost-effective approaches; it does not establish that early intervention reduces health-care or societal burden. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Internalizing problems such as anxiety and mood problems have a substantial impact on young people's lives and are associated with school dropout, reduced social functioning, loneliness, unemployment, and reduced quality of life.

    “Internalizing problems, such as anxiety and mood problems, have a substantial impact on young people’s lives. These internalizing problems are often associated with school dropout, reduced social functioning, loneliness, unemployment, and reduced quality of life [1-3].”

    From A Smartphone Serious Game for Adolescents (Grow It! App): Development, Feasibility, and Acceptance Study (2022) · cites this paper as [1]

    The Introduction reports serious social and educational impairments from adolescent depression, and the Clinical outcomes section says adolescent depression predicts unemployment. The source focuses on depression rather than internalizing problems generally, including anxiety, and these passages do not establish school dropout, loneliness, or reduced quality of life specifically. Page numbers are not provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 163 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Collishaw, 2009, Trends in adolescent depression: a review of the evidence, 7
  2. Patel, 2007, Mental health of young people: a global public-health challenge, Lancet, 369, 1302, 10.1016/s0140-6736(07)60368-7 · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Thapar, A., Collishaw, S., Pine, D. S., & Thapar, A. K.
Affiliations
  • Cardiff University (GB)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
Corresponding author
Thapar, Anita
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2012-03
Volume
379
Issue
9820
Pages
1056-1067
ISSN
  • 0099-5355 (ISSN-L)
  • 0140-6736
DOI
10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60871-4
PMC
PMC3488279
OpenAlex
W2130901187
Semantic Scholar
2e453d281dad3e7e244f28203adf9b31d991be2b
Cited by
2,365
References
163
Citations by year
2026: 188 · 2025: 202 · 2024: 212 · 2023: 211 · 2022: 243 · 2021: 288 · 2020: 245 · 2019: 174 · 2018: 139 · 2017: 128 · 2016: 106 · 2015: 91 · 2014: 72 · 2013: 42 · 2012: 19
FWCI
80.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • The Lancet (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Mental Health (ZIAMH002780, ZIAMH002781, ZIAMH002782)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
Keywords
adolescent depression, major depressive disorder, prevalence, incidence, suicide risk, family history of depression, psychosocial stress, sex hormones, low- and middle-income countries, antidepressant use, depression treatment, depression prevention, neural pathways
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Depressive Disorder, Diagnosis, Differential, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Risk Factors, United States, Incidence, Prevalence, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review