Physical Complaints May Predict Teen Depression

If you're a parent, especially the parent of a teenager, each day brings new joys
and new frustrations. For many parents, a constant challenge in the family
home is dealing with a common teenage condition: complaining. You're
probably so accustomed to the steady stream of complaining that you "tune
out" some of it. 

But don't tune out everything. A study published in the journal Pediatrics
reports that adolescents with multiple physical complaints (that cannot be
explained by known physical conditions) may be at risk for depression. The
study evaluated 1,015 teenagers (13-16 years old) and found that teens
reporting physical symptoms (i.e., headaches or abdominal pain) with
unknown causes faced the possibility of panic attacks and major depression
four years later. If you don't think these results are cause for concern, listen to
this somber statistic: The suicide rate for adolescents has increased by more
than 200% over the last decade! 

We should all listen more in general. Parenting is more than just telling your
children what to do. It's also about listening to what they have to say and what
they're feeling. As this study suggests, seemingly harmless physical complaints
might be a manifestation of depression.

Zwaigenbaum L, Szatmari P, Boyle MH, et al. Highly somatizing young
adolescents and the risk of depression. Pediatrics, June 1999: Vol. 103, No. 6,
pp1203-09.