Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:45:54.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior among general population adolescents and young adults across Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

MG Madianos ,
D Gefou-Madianou  and
CN Stefanis
MG Madianos
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry Medical School, University of Athens, 74 Vasilissis Sophias Av, 11523, Athens
D Gefou-Madianou
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Social Policy, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
CN Stefanis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry Medical School, University of Athens, 74 Vasilissis Sophias Av, 11523, Athens
Get access

Summary

The authors conducted a home survey investigating the prevalence of self-reported symptoms of depression, suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts among a probability nationwide sample of 1316 adolescents aged 12-17 and 1114 young adults aged 18-24. Depressive symptoms were detected by the use of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. 20.3% of adolescents and 35.7% of young adults were characterized as being depressed. Similar differences between the two age groups in the prevalence rates of suicidal ideation and attempts were observed. Suicide attempters of both age groups reported a higher number of depressive symptoms compared with the non attempters. Characteristics that distinguished the suicide attempters from the total sample were low rates of school attendance, use of substances, previous psychiatric help-seeking and additional mental health problems in families.

Keywords

prevalenceepidemiology of depressioncross-sectional studysuicidal ideationsuicide attempt
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , 1993 , pp. 139 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier, Paris 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akiskal, HSMc Kinkey, WT Jr (1975) Overview of recent research in depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 32, 285–305CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Albert, NBeck, AT (1975) Incidence of depression in early adolescence: a preliminary study. J Youth Adol 4, 301–306CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 3rd edn, Washington DC, APAGoogle Scholar
Bazas, TJemos, JStefanis, CTrichopoulos, D (1979) Incidence and seasonal variation of suicide mortality in Greece. Comp Psychiatr 20, 15–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blazer, DGeorge, LKLandermann, RPennybacker, MMelville, MLWoodbury, MManton, KGJordan, KLocke, B (1985) Psychiatric disorders. A rural/urban comparison. Arch Gen Psychiatr 42, 651–656CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, GACantwell, DP (1982) Suicidal behavior and depression in children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 21, 361–368CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Comstock, GWHelsing, KJ (1976) Symptoms of depression in two communities. Psychol Med 6, 551–563CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dimitriou, ECIerodiaconou, IHahamidou, EMinas, A (1986) Attempted suicide in Thessaloniki, Greece. Med J Soc Psychiatry 7, 151–158Google Scholar
Friedman, RCClarkin, JFCorn, R (1982) DSM III and affective pathology in hospitalized adolescents. J Nerv Ment Dis 170, 511–521CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frerichs, SIAneshansel, CSClark, JA (1981) Prevalence of depression in Los Angeles County. Am J Epidemiol 113, 691–699CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holinger, P (1978) Adolescent suicide: an epidemiological study of recent trends. Am J Psychiatr 135, 754–756Google ScholarPubMed
Garfinkel, BFroese, AHood, J (1982) Suicide attempts in children and adolescents. Am J Psychiatr 139, 1257–1261Google ScholarPubMed
Ierodiaconou, CS (1988) Adolescents’ mental health and the Greek family: preventive aspects. J Adoles 11, 11–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kandel, DDavies, M (1982) Epidemiology of depressive mood in adolescents. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39, 1205–1212CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kienhorst, CWMde Wilde, EJDiekstra, RFWWolters, WHG (1992) Differences between adolescent suicide attempters and depressed adolescents. Acta Psychiatr Scand 85, 222–228CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kish, L (1965) Survey Sampling. Wiley J, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Korczak, D (1988) Estimation of suicidal behavior in representative epidemilogic studies, In: Current Issues of Suicidology (Möller, HJSchmittke, AWelz, R eds). Springer Verlag, Berlin, 27–32Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, MMBurton, N (1978) Childhood depression: a critique of the concept. Psychol Bull 85, 716–726CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locksley, ADouvan, E (1979) Problem behavior in adolescents. In: Gender and Disordered Behavior (Gomberg, EFrank, V eds). Brunner/Mazel, New York71–100Google Scholar
Madianos, MVaidakis, NTomaras, V (1983) The prevalence of depressive symptoms in the general population with the CES-D scale. Encephalos 20, 24–28 (in Greek)Google Scholar
Madianos, MVlachonikolis, JMadianou, DStefanis, C (1985) Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the Athens area. Acta Psychiatr Scand 71, 479–487CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Madianos, MMadianou, DZarnari, OStefanis, C (1987a) Prevalence of psychosomatic illness in Greece: Two nationwide cross-sectional studies in 1978 and 1984. In: Psychosomatic Medicine (Christodoulou, G ed). New York, Plenum Press, 173–178CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madianos, MStefanis, CMadianou, D (1987b) Prevalence of mental disorder and utilization of mental health services in two areas of Greater Athens. In: Psychiatric Epidemiology: Progress and Prospects (Cooper, B ed). Croom Helm, London, 372–386Google Scholar
Madianos, MStefanis, C (1992) Changes in the prevalence of symptoms of depression and depression across Greece. Soc Psychiat Psychiatr Epidemiol 27, 211–219CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Madianos, MMadianou, D (1993) The Greek family paradigm: Implications For family therapy. Int J Fam Psychiatry(in press)Google Scholar
Madianou, DMadianos, MStefanis, C (1987) Preliminary results of two nation-wide epedemiological studies of drug use in Greece: a study of known cases and a general population survey. Bull Narcot 39, 59–65Google Scholar
Madianou, DMadianos, MStefanis, C (1989) Drinking patterns and alcohol related problems in three age groups: preliminary results. In: Alcoholism and Other Dependancies (Piortrowski, ALeder, SGawroonskka, B eds). PPA, Warsaw, 16–20Google Scholar
Mavreas, VGBeis, AMouyias, A (1986) Prevalence of psychiatric disorder in Athens: a community study. Soc Psychiatry 21, 172–181CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Myers, JKWeissman, MM (1980) Use of a self report symptom scale to detect depression in a community sample. Am J Psychiatry 137, 1081–1084Google Scholar
Pfeffer, CR (1985) Self destructive behavior in children and adolescents. Psychiatr Clin N Am 2, 215–226CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radloff, LS (1977) The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Appl Psychol Meas 1, 385–401CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robbins, DRAlessi, NE (1985) Depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior in adolescents. Am J Psychiatry 142, 588–592Google ScholarPubMed
Rutter, MGraham, PCladwich, OFDYule, W (1976) Adolescent turmoil: fact or fiction? J Child Psychol Psychiatry 17, 35–56CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schoenbach, VJKaplan, BHGrimson, RWagner, EH (1982) Use of a symptom scale to study the prevalence of a depressive syndrome in young adolescents. Am J Epidemiol 116, 791–800CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoenbach, VJKaplan, BHWagner, EGrimson, RMiller, FT (1983) Prevalence of self reported depressive symptoms in young adolescents. Am J Pub Health 73, 1281–1287CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SPSS-X (1983) Statistical package for social sciences, version x. Mc Graw Hill, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Tsaoussis, DG (1976) Greek social structure. In: Regional Variation In Modern Greece and Cyprus (Dimen, MFriedl, E eds). Toward a Perspective on the Ethnography of Greece. Ann NY Acad Sci 268, 429–441Google Scholar
Weissman, MKlerman, G (1977) Sex differences and the epidemiology of depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 34, 98–111CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, VKlerman, GDeykin, E (1987) The prevalence of depressive symptoms in college students. Soc Psychiatry 22, 20–28CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wexler, LWeissman, MMKasl, SV (1978) Suicide attempts 1970-1975: updating a United States study and comparisons with international trends. Br J Psychiatry 132, 180–185CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.