A major research project at Cardiff University into adolescent depression has been given £1million funding by medical charity the Sir John Thorn Trust.
The joint team from the Cardiff Schools of Medicine and Psychology has already discovered a link between depression in adolescents and adults. The grant will enable them to will develop a software package to help GPs identify teenagers at risk of depression so that treatment can begin earlier.
Project leader Anita Thapar, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the School of Medicine said “Depression is set to become the second largest cause of medical disability in the world by 2020.
“Most adult sufferers start to show symptoms during adolescence but the problem is rarely identified at that stage. The two million UK children exposed to depression suffered by their own parents are at especially high risk. We want to find out how we can identify those as greatest risk so that preventative strategies can be targeted on them.”
For more information go to: www.cardiff.ac.uk