title: Improving the recognition of depression in adolescence: can we teach the teachers?
abstract: This study evaluated the effectiveness of a schools-based psychoeducational intervention designed to help teachers recognize the symptoms of clinical depression in their adolescent pupils. Around 151 teachers in eight high schools in Scotland, UK were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and all received training on depression. The ability of the experimental teachers to report which pupils were depressed was compared with the control group whose reporting task occurred before they had received training. The teachers were reporting on 2262 pupils who had been independently screened for clinical depression using a two-stage screening procedure with the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and semi-structured clinical interview (K-SADS). Systematic evaluation showed that training teachers with this package did not improve their ability to recognize their depressed pupils. Recognizing depressive illness in adolescence is one of the main public health challenges for adolescent mental health services and this study adds to the growing literature on the difficulties in achieving this.
authors.affiliation: Depression in Scottish Schools team, Edinburgh Young Peoples' Unit, Tipperlinn Road, Edinburgh, UK. stephanie.moor@chmeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moor
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maguire
authors.forename: Maguire
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ann
authors.forename: Hester
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McQueen
authors.forename: McQueen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hester
authors.forename: Elisabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Wells
authors.forename: Wells J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Elisabeth
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elton
authors.forename: Elton
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wrate
authors.forename: Wrate
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.forename: Blair
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Caroline
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D015995:Prevalence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*