Life sucks. It doesn't get better as you get older. It's quite a shock for a teen to realize, after believing in sunshine and rainbows from 4 to 14, how much life really does suck.

Then they gain weight. Then life sucks more.

My first thought on why teenage girls are more likely to relapse is peer pressure and social status bullying. A girl's status in her clique or peer group is extremely important to most girls. Being diagnosed with a mental health issue, in this case depression, costs her status points. Losing status, whether social, employment, academic or financial, is a leading trigger for depression in adults; why not also for teenagers?

I think teenage girls have different pressures. It's a big deal for them to fit in, be pretty, have good cloths, look like barbie, etc. Boys are more oblivious to their cloths and looks at that age. Some aren't, but ALL girls are aware they don't look the prettiest, or have the best cloths. Girls are constantly judging themselves by comparing themselves to Cosmo magazine, in my opinion boys do this ALOT less. Even the pretty girls do this, they are just as insecure.

I could be wrong. But being female and growing up with a brother and now married. There is def a difference in how critically i judge myself whereas they don't.

The kind of depression I had at 14 wasn't something that would ever go away. I'm 60 now and there has been little difference throughout my lifetime. I never fit in and didn't care until my awareness expanded to include the consequences. Then...

This study should also have included whether the teens' parents or close blood relatives suffered (or had recovered) from depression.

Is being a female teen more of a risk for depression relapse than being a teen in a family with a genetic inherited risk of depression?

I was a very crazy teen, definitely depressed and self-destructive. I had no support, grew up in foster care and never really dealt with anything. I am 50 now and have been through a lot of crap, and a few severe bouts of depression as an adult. I am amazed that I am even alive and going on actually. It is a long story but I did survive. I just learned to keep on putting one foot in front of the other. I could probably do much better if I got help, but who can afford that? Even as a professional with a master's degree, I do not make much money. I can see that it would be a brain chemistry issue and the more we live and breathe and drink water, the more we chemically change ourselves. It kinda sucks.

When you look at how women/teens judge each other and how society judges them based on their looks instead of who they are that is the problem. Until we as a whole can accept people for who they are not what they look like it will continue to be a problem that is not correctable by drugs or counseling. We need to stop treating the symptoms and actually treat the problem. Turning a blind eye will not make it go away.

My 16 yr old is depressed, on medication and therapy. He has improved tremendously in one yr and ready to go off meds. However, w/ both girls and boys, we need to instill gratefulness. Many of these teens have everything, yet they want more. When a person wants more, there's no satisfaction; therefore, anxiousness or sadness takes over and in many cases, depression. Also, we tell our teens they can have anything they want. Not so. Unfortunately, life is not fair. We need to instill in them to strive to be better but be grateful for what one has achieved. I know. As an adult, I suffered a bout of depression for four years and until I learned that, things did not get better. One needs to be content w/ life in general and not worry so much about external situations... (Try telling that to a teen; but we must.)

how stupid are these teens... if they would witness how children of third world countries live and then look at themselves maybe they will appreciate more... maybe they will get involved with programs that help others....stop the focus on me,me,me... how about focus on "how can I help others" or even help my mom or my dad or my grandmother etc... get the picture?.... depression is bull @!$%#... everyone is depressed at some point... get over it. DO SOMETHING GOOD. get of the frigging drugs ..they will never help you... only you can help you

It's time for scientific/medical community to up their game. Yes, depression is a mental illness. Yes, it is a chemical imbalance. Unfortunately, most don't realise/don't treat the physical damage that depression causes to the brain itself. Sometimes therapy works, sometimes it doesn't. In some cases, therapy can actually make things worse. The medications aren't there to make you happy, they are a replacement for lost brain chemicals and/or to regulate body chemicals. As a nurse and someone who has battled depression for 10 years, I can tell you first hand that there are no easy answers. Helping others, focusing on the good things in life are fine, but they're not the answers either. The physical side of the disease needs to be treated before any real improvement/cure.

I read here on MSNBC that there is a soil bacteria called vaccia, I think, that has actually been linked to boosting the serotonin levels in people....yes, playing/gardening in the dirt.

This was a very interesting artical. As I write this my 15 year old daughter is sitting in a hospital struggling with major depression and is still finding ways to hurt herself. I have read some of the responses to this artical and agree to most of them. Girls have it much harder as they grow up wheather it be peer pressure or a chemical inbalance we as parents need to do all the research possible to find out where the root of the problem is from. This is my daughter second time away and this time away has shown me and my husband there is more for us to learn.