Detecting and Treating Depression among Adolescents Presenting for Reproductive Care: Realizing Opportunities

This article reviews typical symptoms of depression presented by adolescents in the reproductive care practice setting, provides an overview of the assessment process, and offers options for referral and/or treatment of this common, yet often unrecognized, mood disorder. Because females have a two-fold higher prevalence rate of depressive disorders as compared to males of the same age and because reproductive care providers have exceptional access to females during the early reproductive years, these physicians have a unique, but often unrealized, opportunity to detect and initiate treatment and/or referrals for depression in adolescent patients. Indeed, adolescents often discuss symptoms of depression with their reproductive care provider with an expectation that they will serve as a “first responder” in terms of assisting in the management of the depression. Thus, it is important that the provider have an understanding of the disorder, its symptoms, and possible treatment modalities. Reproductive care providers are uniquely qualified to identify, assess, and treat many types of mood disorders in adolescent females.