By Elda Hauschildt
Screening sexually active teenagers, particularly boys, for depressive symptoms could help identify those at risk for sexually transmitted diseases.
Researchers from Harvard University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, also suggest that adolescents diagnosed with STDs should be monitored for depression.
“Clinicians, including mental health professionals, need to recognise the temporal associations between depressive symptoms and STDs in adolescents,” the investigators say. “Although girls are more likely than boys to report depressive symptoms after early adolescence, our findings suggest that clinicians need to be particularly alert to boys with depressive symptoms, who are at increased risk for being diagnosed as having a STD.”
The researchers say that, despite efforts to reduce the prevalence of STDs, both adolescents and young adults continue to have high rates of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. Young people also show greater increases in the Seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus 2 than do adults. One in four new STD diagnoses is in adolescents, and as many as 30 percent of young people report at least one current major depressive symptom.
Investigators used the United States National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to analyse data on 4,738 teenagers in grade seven through 12 who reported having sexual intercourse between baseline and one year follow-up. Participants included 2,232 boys and 2,506 girls. Alcohol and marijuana use was assessed as potential mediators.
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