The following is a summary of “Influence of the Great Recession on Adolescent Major Depressive Episodes and Treatment in the United States: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis,” published in the January 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Askari, et al.

Teenage sadness rose in the US from 2008 to 2010, which was the same time as the Great Recession.  For a study, researchers sought to look into whether the changed economic situation affected teen sadness and care during this time. They looked at information from the 2004–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health for teens and young adults (12–17 years old) (N = 256,572). Self-reported symptoms were used to track teens’ major depression episodes (MDEs) over the past year. 

As part of MDE care, people had to see a doctor or take medicine. Researchers looked at how MDE and MDE treatment changed from 2004 to Fall 2007 (before the Great Recession) to 2007 to 2019 (after the Great Recession). They used interrupted time-series segmented regression models to take into account variation and correlations and to see if family poverty affected the results. The Great Recession did not immediately lead to a rise in the number of people with MDE (β:-0.77 [i.e., quarter-year change in frequency], 95% CI: −2.23, 0.69). However, the rise in the number of people with MDE sped up after the Great Recession (β: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.13–0.44). 

Teenage MDE treatment did not change right away or over time because of the Great Recession (immediate β: −2.87, 95% CI: −7.79, 2.04; long-term β: 0.03, 95% CI: −0.46, 0.51). Effects were the same for all homes, no matter how poor they were. It was not linked to higher rates of sadness among teens during the Great Recession, but the rise of teenage MDE did speed up after the recession. The number of people getting MDE treatment stayed the same. As the number of teens who are depressed rises, more should be done to stop it. One way to do this is to get parents involved as family support to lessen the negative effects that money problems could have on teens who are depressed.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X23004330