Diagnosis of Depression in Teenagers: What do doctors look for?

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Apr 21, 2022

✨POV✨: You may have social-emotional learning in school, but all you're learning is that you still don't understand how you feel. You have a lot of questions about your mental health and want to know how you can feel better.

Teenage depression is a thing and it's one of those things that can easily be dismissed, in the general storm of puberty and teenage years, as teenage angst. It may be easily missed, but a lot of effort is being put in to make sure that we don't because the added pressure of mental health issues makes every struggle (which is a sort of rite-of-passage of teenage years) that much harder to overcome.

The Clinical Depression Diagnosis 📃

In teenagers.

Teenage depression is an umbrella term for three different diagnoses of clinical depression. That means the doctor looks for the most evident, noticeable, and reported symptoms of depression. These depression symptoms then help in making the right diagnosis.

These three types of mental illness, their symptoms, and diagnostic criteria (the conditions that must be met for the diagnosis) are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which is written and updated by the American Psychiatric Association (the global leader on mental disorders).

🥇 Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

Aka severe depression or major depression.

This type of depression is the most common type of teenage depression and is often thought to be the only type. To be diagnosed with MDD, the teenager must have at least 5 symptoms, one of which has to be 'depressed mood' or 'loss of interest'. These symptoms must be present for at least two weeks and have a noticeable negative impact on the teenager's day-to-day life. Girls are at a higher risk of developing MDD in their teenage years.

To know more about the symptoms of MDD in teenagers, click here.

🥈 Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD)

Aka mild depression.

This type of depression is the second most common type of teenage depression. It is very similar to MDD in the symptoms that may appear. The only difference is that PDD does not have severe symptoms. This lower severity makes PDD harder to diagnose as the symptoms may not wreak the kind of havoc that MDD does.

For a PDD diagnosis, 5 or more symptoms must be present for the majority of a year, with at least one symptom being 'depressed mood' or 'loss of interest'.

To know more about the difference between MDD and PDD, click here.

🥉 Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)

This type of depression is not as well known. Imagine the stereotypes of a misunderstood teenager - being loud, aggressive, irritable, throwing tantrums, and so on.

These signs of aggression actually point towards DMDD. Such symptoms must be present on at least three days a week for most part of a year for a diagnosis.

DMDD generally sets in before the age of 10 and if not treated and healed, can lead to MDD after the age of 18 years.

Last Word on Mental Health 🤍

A special type of teenage depression is the treatment-resistant depression that, as the name suggests, does not respond to therapy and medication. It requires special forms of brain-stimulation therapies like electroconvulsive therapy.

Diagnosis is one of the first steps of treating depression.

And no matter how many articles and resources pop up in 0.028 seconds on Google, we need the guidance of a mental health professional on this journey. To tell us about these special types of depression and what the right model of treatment for our depression is. Because sadly, there is no one best treatment for depression. Don't believe us? Click here.

Note on Mental Disorders 🚩

Clinical Depression is never clear cut, making it harder to diagnose and treat. It is not unheard of for people with depression to self-harm or have suicidal thoughts. If you have such depressive symptoms, please use the national suicide prevention lifeline or contact a mental health professional to treat depression.

Some of the other clinical depression diagnoses are bipolar disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and seasonal affective disorder (aka seasonal depression).