Can puberty be a factor in clinical depression?

Nonetheless, do not ignore behavioral and mood changes in your child, as there is clear evidence that rates of depression increase during puberty. Investigate any new or unexplained behaviors in your child and bring them to the attention of your child's physician. read more

Furthermore there are many developmental changes that can be hard to deal with during this transitional period that can be challenging and cause depression. There maybe other factors at school, at home etc that can also cause depression and puberty changes would enhance it more. read more

Stage of Physical Development: The research of Dr. Adrian Angold and colleagues, published in The Journal of Affective Diseases in 1998, reported that physical development during mid-puberty predicted the increase in depression rates more than other any factor they studied. read more

The study is one of the first to confirm that early puberty heightens risk for depression in both sexes over time and to explain the underlying mechanisms. “It is often believed that going through puberty earlier than peers only contributes to depression in girls,” Rudolph said. read more