If Your Adolescent Has Depression: An Essential Resource for Parents

The authoritative guide to understanding and helping a teenager with depression.

While coping with teenage moodiness can be difficult under any circumstances, it can be especially challenging if a teenager has a serious mood disorder. This concise, readable book is the definitive guide to understanding and getting effective help for adolescents with depression, designed for parents and other adults in contact with afflicted teens. It combines the most current scientific expertise available today--including the newest treatments and medications and the latest research findings on depression--with no-nonsense, hands-on advice from parents who have faced this mood disorder in their own children.

Among other topics, the book addresses the roots of depression, red flags to look out for, treatment options for young people, and practical strategies for helping a teen cope at home and at school. It concludes on a hopeful note, by reviewing the latest scientific evidence on treating depression. A growing body of research now shows that early diagnosis and treatment of depression may reduce the severity of the disease, both now and in the future. Including chapters on sex, drugs, and social media, and life after high school, this book will provide the information and tools parents need to help adolescents achieve the best possible outcome.

Until his passing in 2022, Dwight L. Evans, MD, was the Joseph and Madonna DiGiacomo Professor and Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also Chair of the Annenberg Foundation Adolescent Mental Health Commission on Depression and Bipolar Disorder and an editor of Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders. Over the course of his career, Dr. Evans received numerous awards for his work on mood disorders including the Klerman Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and the Beck Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Moira A. Rynn, MD, is Chair for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. She is an expert in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders across the life span. Prior to joining Duke, Dr. Rynn was the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. Most recently, her career has focused on improving treatments for the pediatric population and young adults with treatment refractory anxiety disorders.

Katherine Ellison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent, and author and coauthor of a dozen books, including Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention and ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know®. She has written about mental health for publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Knowable.