La depresión como problema de salud mental en los adolescentes mexicanos.

In past decades, the construct of depression was studied mainly as an adult phenomenon, but recently it has been recognized as an increasing health problem among adolescent populations. Teenage depression has been attributed to the presence of physical, affective-emotional, social and intellectual changes that the adolescence stage represents for the human being. It is usually a temporary complaint, but it can sometimes become a severe problem that may lead to consequences related with drug consumption, violence, bad performance at school, predisposition to accidents, or even suicide. Its opportune detection is one of the first tasks of psychologists in order to establish intervention strategies for youngsters. The purpose of this research was describing levels of depression in a sample of 2469 high school students by means of the Clinic Questionnaire for the Diagnosis of the Depressive Syndrome (CCDSD), developed by Calderon-Narvaez. It was found that several cases of incipient, moderate and severe depression exist among the adolescents of this population.