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Adolescence is a term that refers to teenage years between thirteen and nineteen years. Adolescence itself is a stage and hence, a stage of transition. This is called a stage of transition because it is in this stage that many changes takes place in a person's body. Such changes includes; physical changes and psychological changes. On the other hand depression is a term that describes a situation where one feels very low in moods and esteem and also avoids activities that contributes to the well being of a person.

Depression is normally related to anxiety, stress and worst of all, suicide. Therefore, adolescence depression (Teenage depression) refers to a serious problem that affects teenagers and that makes them always sad, very low in mood and also makes them lack interests in activities that contributes to their well-being. Adolescence depression can affects a teen's school life, personal life, family life, social life and also work life.

It can be very difficult to parents to spot this mental problem in their children but adolescence depression, like other diseases, has got signs and symptoms. The most major symptom that can be noted is change in behavior and attitude. Behavior and attitude are accompanied by; a teen becoming irritable most of the time, appearing sad with no genuine reason, changes in a teen's appetite, loss of interest in activities that a teen used to love earlier, feeling of worthlessness, guilt and low self-esteem, withdrawal from friends or activities that are done after school, changing sleeping habits and finally difficulty in concentrating in school work (Robert, Lewinson & Seeley, 2011).

Researchers have confirmed that there is no exact cause of adolescence depression but there are contributing factors to adolescence depression. Some of the factors are; traumatic early life events, differences in the brain, inherited traits and also learned pattern of negative things. Brains of adolescents have a different structure from adult brain and hence how their reasoning capacity is very low. Therefore, they can be easily affected by depression. Traumatic early life experiences can also make children lack well developed coping techniques. This hence makes children easily affected by depression when they become teenagers. Lastly, researchers have proved that teen depression is related to biological components and therefore, it can be passed down from parents to their teenage children. Teens who have relatives or parents who have depression are more likely to get depression themselves.

Teenage depression can be prevented by methods that are divided into three major categories. The three categories are; primary, secondary and finally, tertiary. Primary prevention is one of the major categories and is normally practiced at home. This prevention is usually administered by the parents, guardians and relatives. This prevention is normally done by parents listening to their children and children talking freely with their parents. This then gives parents the forum of talking and advising their children on issues associated with adolescence.

Secondary prevention is another category. This deals with already existing behavior. This is normally administered through treating the behavior as early as possible. This is always very important because it can be done to prevent the long term threat that is likely to occur to the teenager.

Lastly, tertiary prevention involves special hospitalization for very bad behavior which normally includes medical and psychological therapy to the teenager. Rehabilitation can also be very important to the affected teenager.  The nursing interventions that can be used to assist the adolescents from getting depressed is offering the teenagers with psychological treatments, advices and teach them on the things they should do in order to avoid adolescence depression.

References:

Birmaher, B., Ryan, N. D., Williamson, D. E., Brent, D. A., Kaufman, J., Dahl, R. E., ... & Nelson, B. (2006). Childhood and adolescent depression: a review of the past 10 years. Part I. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35(11), 1427-1439.

Roberts, R. E., Lewinsohn, P. M., & Seeley, J. R. (2011). Screening for adolescent depression: A comparison of depression scales. Symptoms and Signs. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 30(1), 58-66.