Awareness about depressive conditions, methods of their prevention and correction in adolescents

Background. According to WHO, there is an increase of depressive disorders in all age groups. The risk group of depression is adolescents, the risk factor is the low level of knowledge about it. The aim was to study the prevalence of depressive states, the level of literacy about depression among schoolchildren for improving educational programs. Materials and methods. An anonymous voluntary survey was conducted in two stages with an interval of 4 years in the Moscow region among students in grades 8-11 of educational institutions. At the first stage, three hundred twenty-four respondents were interviewed, at the second stage - 251 one. The severity of depression was assessed using the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS), with the help of the questionnaire the level of depression literacy was studied. Statistical processing was carried out with the calculation of relative risk values, reliability of differences (with a probability degree of more than 0.95) using Microsoft Excel 365. Results. The prevalence of depression in 2014 was 20.4%, in 2018 - 21.1%. During the observation the number of students who believe that nothing should be done in the case of depressive symptoms has significantly decreased, the number of students who are ready to visit a psychologist has significantly increased, the number of schoolchildren who were willing to see a medical doctor and who consider self-treatment possible has not changed. The main source of knowledge remains the Internet, help from the professional community is underused. Discussing mood problems with others and using physical activity turned out to be effective for self-corrected depressive states. Limitations. The study has age (14-17years), regional and educational (students of schools) restrictions. Conclusions. Revealed high prevalence of depressive manifestations among schoolchildren and their insufficient knowledge requires correction of educational programs and regular monitoring of their awareness.