Recent news shows that researchers at the University of Cambridge want to develop a way of screening for depression in the same way as heart problems can be predicted.
They claim to have come up with a tool for predicting the risk of clinical depression in teenage boys.
Teenage years and early adulthood are both a critical time for mental health with 75 per cent of disorders developing before the age of 24.
But there is no way to accurately say who will or will not develop depression. High levels of the stress hormone cortisol and reports of feeling miserable, lonely or unloved could find those at greatest risk.
Tests on 1,858 teenagers, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combined hormone levels and mood questionnaires to assess risk.
They showed that having both high cortisol levels and depressive mood symptoms posed a higher risk of depression than either factor alone and presented a risk of clinical depression 14 times that of those with low cortisol and no depressive symptoms.
Around one in six boys was in the high-risk category and half of them were diagnosed with clinical depression during the three years of study.
One of the researchers, Prof Ian Goodyer, said: “Depression is a terrible illness that will affect as many as 10 million people in the UK at some point in their lives. Through our research, we now have a very real way of identifying those teenage boys most likely to develop clinical depression.”
Dr John Williams, from the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, said: “Progress in identifying biological markers for depression has been frustratingly slow, but now we finally have a biomarker for clinical depression.”
But Sam Challis, from mental health charity Mind, said: “This study claims there is a biomarker linked to depression, but it’s important to bear in mind that many factors play a part in depression, such as life events, genetic factors, side effects of medication and diet.”
And this is where hypnotherapy can help as there are no possible medicinal side effects and the therapy takes into account life events and diet.
What’s more, when treating minors, therapists invite parents to be present at the sessions.
Time spent in hypnosis with a professional hypnotherapist has been proved to help. Therapists look at people as a whole, rather than just treating symptoms.
Hypnotherapy for depression works with both the conscious and the subconscious mind in order to achieve the desired results.
Depression, also known as major depression, clinical depression or major depressive disorder, is a medical illness that causes a constant feeling of sadness and lack of interest.
Depression affects how the person feels, behaves and thinks. Hypnotherapy may help identify the causes and origins of the depression. Once this occurs people often describe it as a ‘light going on’.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy has 1,800 registered therapists in its directory. Many of these specialise in treating depression. Click here to find a therapist near where you live.
Mind’s Sam Challis concludes: “We know that it is possible to recover from a mental health problem, and this is more likely for those who seek help straight away.”