Identifying depressed and suicidal adolescents in a teen health clinic.

PURPOSE: This study examined the 6-month prevalence of depression and suicidal probability among new referrals to an adolescent health clinic. METHODS: All subjects (n = 104) completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) prior to being seen by a physician and were categorized according to presenting problem (physical complaints only, psychological complaints only, and physical and psychological complaints combined). RESULTS: Fifty-nine percent of the sample was depressed with 21% falling in the moderate range and 21% falling within the severe range of depression. Almost 23% of the sample demonstrated significant suicidal probability. The BDI and SPS were highly correlated (r = .73, p < .001) and 22% of the sample met criteria for both moderate to severe depression and suicidal probability. A significantly greater proportion of patients presenting with physical and psychological complaints combined (60%) met BDI criteria for depression than was found for the other two groups. Suicidal probability was most prevalent in patients presenting with psychological complaints only (26%) and moderate to severe depression and significant suicidal probability also coexisted to a greater extent within this group (26%). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that depression and suicidal probability represent significant mental health problems within the adolescent clinic and the identification of high-risk individuals can be achieved through comprehensive screening practices.

Follow-up contact bias in adolescent substance abuse treatment outcome research.

This study examined the problem of follow-up contact bias in adolescent substance abuse treatment outcome research. The sample consisted of 299 male and female adolescents at an AA-oriented hospital-based inpatient substance abuse treatment program. Six-month and 12-month follow-up data were collected from adolescents and their parents with a sequence of standard and supplementary follow-up data collection procedures. Standard efforts were implemented first and subjects contacted were assigned to the easy-to-contact group. Those subjects not contacted with the initial standard efforts were included in the supplementary effort. Subjects contacted with supplementary efforts constituted the difficult-to-contact group. The difficult-to-contact group exhibited consistently poorer outcomes compared to the easy-to-contact group across most outcome variables and for both follow-up periods. Outcome results from extant studies with a significant number of noncontacted subjects may represent overestimates of outcome and may not be generalizable to the noncontacted group.

Overview of Runaway Youth: Role of the family physician.

By being sensitive to the precursors of runaway behavior and by being aware of the morbidity associated with living on "the street," the family physician can play both a preventive and therapeutic role. Advocacy by the family physician for appropriate shelters and rehabilitative services within the community can further contribute to effective management to this problem.