Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
New researchMajor Depression in the National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement: Prevalence, Correlates, and Treatment
Section snippets
Sample and Procedure
The NCS-A is a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of 10,123 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years in the continental United States.11 The survey was administered by professional interview staff of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and was conducted in a dual-frame sample that included a household subsample and a school subsample.12, 13 The combined NCS-A adolescent response rate was 82.9%. One biological parent or parent surrogate of each participating
Lifetime and 12-Month Prevalence
The lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates of DSM-IV MDD (with or without dysthymia) among US adolescents were 11.0% and 7.5%, respectively. The corresponding rates of severe MDD were 3.0% and 2.3%; the rates of mild/moderate MDD were 8.0% and 5.2%. Dysthymia affected far fewer adolescents, with lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates of 1.8% and 1.3%, respectively, and 0.9% and 0.7% for severe cases. Although most cases of DSM-IV MDD assessed over the lifetime (87.5%) or over the past 12 months
Discussion
When applying DSM-IV criteria, MDD was highly prevalent in this population, whether measured over the lifetime (11%) or during the past year (7.5%). Dysthymia affected far fewer adolescents and co-occurred with MDD in approximately 90% of cases. The increasing prevalence of MDD across adolescence was markedly greater in females than in males. Most cases of MDD were associated with psychiatric comorbidity and severe role impairment, and a substantial minority of depressed adolescents reported
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Supplemental material cited in this article is available online.
This study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of NIMH (1 ZIA MH002808). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of any of the sponsoring organizations, agencies, or US government.
Ms. He served as the statistical expert for this research.
Disclosure: Drs. Avenevoli, Swendsen, Burstein, Merikangas, and Ms. He report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.