by Sandra Hong
NARR:
Depression caught Amy Parrilla by surprise three years ago. She was 14 at the time, and she says it seemed like her family was falling apart. Her parents were constantly fighting with each other and with her little brother and her father lost his job. Parilla says she started crying all the time and doing badly in school. She say it's hard for her to pinpoint what exactly started her depression.
TAPE: Amy
It's like a feeling you have ... I know it came to me out of nowhere. That's what I thought, at least, it just comes out of nowhere. And it hits you.
NARR
Parrilla is 17. She is also Puerto Rican and Cuban. The CDC reports
a third of Latino teens report feeling depressed, that is, feeling
so sad or hopeless that they've lost interest in their everyday
activities for more than two weeks. One in four teens on a whole
report feeling the same way. Parilla doesn't think her being Latina
had anything to do with her becoming depressed. She does say it was
hard for her to ask for help, and her parents and teachers didn't
seem to notice she needed it.
TAPE: Parilla
They saw that my grades were falling but they just thought I wasn't
really studying well or anything. They didn't think it was me,
emotionally, not getting the help I need.
NARR:
Dr. Jennifer Havens agrees with Parilla. Havens is director of
child psychiatry ay New York Presbyterian and says factoring race
into depression really isn't helpful. Anyone can get depressed, and
many people find it difficult to get help, she says. But Dr. Havens
also points out that minority populations often are exposed to
stressful situations that could lead to depression, which include
recent immigration, violence and poverty. Poverty, for example,
afflicts 12 percent of the total population, but that number is
double among Latinos, according to census figures.
TAPE: Havens
I think there's stressors that tend to be concentrated in ethnic
minorities ...
But it's not an inherent characteristic of someone's cultural or
ethnic group
NARR:
Havens also says its not possible to conclude from studies alone
that Latino teens are suffering from higher rates of depression.
For instance, one of Havens' collegues conducted a study of New
York City schoolchildren six months after the Sept. 11 attacks that
showed more Latino children reported feeling anxious and depressed
than any other group.
Havens says it's possible that such a study might simply
misinterpret regular feelings of sadness among Latino youth as
depression or anxiety, thus overestimating the problem among
Latinos.
TAPE: Havens
I don't know what that means. I don't think anybody does. I mean,
maybe it's easier for Hispanics to express emotions than white
people or African Americans. But that's not science.
NARR
But Dr. William Arroyo says it's significant that different groups
might express depression differently. However he describes it more
as a function of culture, and less about race.
Arroyo is the director of children's services for the Los Angeles
County Department of Mental Health and a psychiatry professor at
the University of Southern California.
He says he and others have noticed subtle differences in the ways
depression is expressed among Latino patients, particularly among
recent immigrants, which can include symptoms of headaches, stomach
aches and other physical pains.
Arroyo says the differences don't require a radically different
approach to treatment, but it could help in diagnosis.
TAPE: Arroyo
I don't mean to convey it's a whole other ball of wax, but there
are subtle differences. Because it's well known that different
cultures across the world express pain in different ways.
NARR
Arroyo says this doesn't answer the question why more Latino teens
are depressed, but it does indicate a need to better understand the
mental-health needs of Latinos and improve access to treatment. LA
county currently is studying ways to do just that.
Others agree that lack of awareness and resources prevent many
minorities from getting the help they need.
Dr. Donna Holland Barnes is a psychiatric researcher at Howard
University in Washington DC and founded the National Organization
for People of Color Against Suicide five years ago after her own
son committed suicide. Holland Barnes, who is black, says the
barriers to treatment often can be blamed on the very same
stressors that led them to become depressed in the first place.
TAPE: Barnes
We have high rates of homicide in our communities, we have high
rates of unemployment, we have high rates of racism and
discrimination. We have so many other social problems that we're
dealing with to the point that mental problems has not been a
priority.
NARR:
Holland Barnes says education is the first step in reducing
depression among minority teens. And in order to get more teenagers
help, she says, both patients and professionals need to be aware of
the connections between race and depression.
For Columbia Radio News, I'm Sandra Hong