Abstract

Depression is one of the most important mental health problems among adolescents. A cross sectional study was conducted in a government school of Pathanamthitta district. The study population was adolescent students studying in this school belonging to the age group of 12 -18 years. Children, whose parents were given consent and present in the day of data collection were included in this study. Total 273 children and parents were screened. Screening was done using Child Adolescent Psychiatric Screening (CAPS) tool. Out of the total 273 subjects, 72 % of students were in the age group of 15-18years. The prevalence of symptoms suggestive of depression according to the study subjects was 97 % .Among this, 26 % had mild, 61.2 % had moderate and 9.8 % had severe form of depression.  According to the parents, the prevalence of symptom wise depression was 37.36 % (None 62.64 %, mild 11.36 %, moderate 24.17 %and severe 1.83%) (Fig 2). The difference between the prevalence reported by study subjects and parents was found to be statistically significant. (p =0.002, significant at 0.01). Gender wise difference also found to be statistically significant. Students with symptoms suggestive of depression were referred to psychiatrist/ psychologist.

Key words: Adolescents ,CAPS, mental health and depression.