[Depression in adolescents and family functioning].
OBJECTIVE
to determine the frequency of depression and family function in adolescents.


METHODS
252 students participated in the study, 134 males and 118 females; the average age was 16 years. The Birleson depression self-rating scale and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale III (FACES III) served to assess depression and family functionality.


RESULTS
the overall depression was 29.8%, although in young males was 18.7% and in young females was 42.4% (p < 0.05, OR = 3.2). The rigidly dispersed family was more frequently found in the group of adolescents with depression (p < 0.05, OR = 6.3). While in the group of adolescents without depression the most frequent were, the flexible agglutinated (p < 0.05; OR = 0.215), structurally agglutinated (p < 0.05, OR = 0.215) and rigidly agglutinated families (p < 0.05, OR = 0.106).


CONCLUSIONS
this study showed that a significant percentage of adolescents suffer depression. This finding should prompt to further actions to detect adolescents' depression in primary care settings to provide timely care and to avert its severe consequences such as suicide, drug and alcohol use.
Leyva-Jiménez
Rafael
R
Unidad de Medicina Familiar (UMF) 53, León, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Guanajuato, Mexico. leyvajimenez@msn.com
Hernández-Juárez
Ana María
AM
Nava-Jiménez
Gabriela
G
López-Gaona
Verónica
V
D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies