ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to contribute to an understanding of the developmental processes that may lead to depression and suicide or suicidal attempts during adolescence. It intends to promote what adolescent depression is, and who is at risk in becoming depressed or in attempting suicide during adolescence. The chapter deals with suicide during adolescence, presenting specific epidemiological data for adolescents, analyzing risk factors and looking at possible pathogenetic processes. It addresses the question of how depression and suicide attempts might possibly be prevented and what needs to be taken into account for working efficiently with adolescents with depressive disorders and adolescents who have attempted suicide. Children of depressed parents are at a considerably higher risk of developing a depressive disorder themselves than children of non-depressed parents. Depressive adolescents seems to distinguish strongly between dyadic relations with friends, which they find to be agreeable, and being in peer groups, which seems problematic for them.