LAUSR

Introduction Amongst adolescents, depression is a common mental health problem. Adolescent depression is associated with distress, functional impairment and difficulties in relationships with peers and family members. Depressive symptoms, even if sub-threshold to meet diagnostic criteria for a depressive disorder, are also risk factors for these difficulties. Adolescents rarely consult for their psychological distress. Emergency departments, which are often used by adolescents in this context, constitute a privileged place to detect this suffering. Objectives The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence and correlates of psychological distress among adolescents seen in emergency department. Methods Our study was a transversal type, descriptive and analytic. It was conducted with 106 adolescents consulting in emergency department. All adolescents completed a sociodemographic data and the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS), a screening questionnaire for depression. Results The study included 106 adolescents. All of them consult for a somatic complain and none of them goes to the emergency department for a psychiatric reason. The mean age was 16.34 ± 2.54 (12→19 years). Sex ratio (♂/♀) = 0.89. The ADRS score was considered normal (score < 4) for 54.7% of the sample (n = 58) and 45.3% of adolescents (n = 48) had depressive symptoms (score ≥ 4). Depression was significantly correlated to bad school results (P = 10−3), tobacco use (P = 0.014), personal psychiatric history (P = 10−3) and family problems (P = 10−3). Conclusion Depressive symptoms are frequent among adolescents. Their consultations within emergency department provide a potential opportunity for their identification and for signposting to appropriate specialist services. Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.