Depressive symptoms among teenagers in the emergency department: prevalence estimate and concordance with parental perceptions

Purpose

This study aims to estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms among adolescents seen in hospital emergency departments and to investigate the concordance between self-reported adolescent depression and parental perceptions of their adolescents’ health status.

Method

A multicentre cross-sectional survey in three emergency departments receiving adolescents in Ile-de-France took place in 2010. All adolescents completed a questionnaire including the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS) and a series of questions concerning somatisation and risk behaviours. Parents simultaneously completed a questionnaire collecting their perceptions of their adolescent’s health status.

Results

The study included 346 adolescents, and of them, 320 were fully analysed. ADRS scores were in the normal range for 70.6 % of the sample (score of <3) (n?=?226); 19.4 % (n?=?62) showed moderate depressive symptoms (3?≤?score?n?=?32). We observed a wide discrepancy between adolescent depression, determined by a score on a self-administered scale, and parental perceptions of it.

Conclusion

Routine use of a self-administered questionnaire in emergency units could enable identification of adolescents with moderate or severe depressive symptoms. The present study confirms the importance of increasing parental awareness of their adolescent children’s depressive symptoms.