Somatic symptoms as a marker for severity in adolescent depression.

AIM

This study aims to investigate the prevalence of somatic symptoms in depressed adolescents and in their healthy peers. A second aim is to investigate the correlation, in the depressed adolescents, between the number of somatic symptoms and severe concurrent symptoms, signs and life events.

METHODS

The total population of 16-17 year olds - in the city of Uppsala - was screened for depression and then interviewed using a structured interview questionnaire. Depressed subjects and matched controls were identified. A total of 177 pairs were used for pair-wise analyses of somatic symptoms. Severe symptoms, signs and life events were selected for analysing their relation to depression with somatic symptoms.

RESULTS

The adolescents with depressive disorders experienced considerably more somatic symptoms than their healthy controls. The duration and depth of the depression correlated with the number of somatic symptoms. There was a strong correlation between depression with many somatic symptoms and suicidal plans/thoughts, suicidal attempts, disruptive behaviour, as well as multiple stressful relationships.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that somatic symptoms are common in adolescent depression. Multiple somatic symptoms within depression imply a higher severity in terms of duration, depth and psychiatric comorbidity. The strong correlation with suicidal plans, suicidal attempts and disruptive behaviour is concerning.