Narrative Review. This page provides the verified citation, abstract, and full-text PDF for the journal article.
Clinical boundary: Screening does not establish a diagnosis or determine cause, bipolarity, or suicide risk. Immediate danger or risk of harm requires urgent local emergency or crisis support.
Publication Details
- Author: Christian Jonathan Haverkampf
- Journal: The Journal of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Communication
- Publication date: 2023-12-31
- Volume, issue, pages: 12(4), 91–100
- Article type: Narrative Review
Recommended citation: Haverkampf, C. J. (2023). Early Warning Signs of Depression in Adults and Adolescents: A Clinical Review. The Journal of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Communication, 12(4), 91–100.
Abstract
Depression commonly becomes recognizable through an accumulation of changes rather than one unmistakable event. Earlier recognition may reduce the interval during which sleep, motivation, concentration, relationships, and daily functioning deteriorate, but ordinary sadness, grief, developmental change, stress, and medical illness must not be recast automatically as a depressive disorder. This narrative review examines early signs in adults and adolescents, including differences in presentation, recurrence, irritability, somatic complaints, withdrawal, functional decline, and suicide risk. A clinically useful signal is a sustained deviation from the person’s own baseline that persists across settings, clusters with changes in mood or interest, and carries functional or safety consequences. In adolescents, irritability, school disengagement, altered peer contact, risk behavior, and unexplained physical complaints may be prominent, although none is specific. Screening instruments can structure inquiry and follow change, but they do not determine cause, bipolarity, or risk and must be followed by clinical assessment. A useful early-warning plan translates personal prodromes into observable markers, named supports, review intervals, and explicit thresholds for escalation. Early recognition is therefore best understood as a longitudinal, revisable clinical inference rather than a checklist exercise.
Keywords
depression; adolescents; adults; early signs; recurrence; screening; suicide risk; differential diagnosis
Full Text
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This journal article is educational and research-oriented. It is not a personal diagnosis, treatment plan, medication instruction, crisis service, or substitute for assessment by a suitably qualified clinician who knows the person’s circumstances.
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Website copy first made available on 26 August 2026. The journal citation retains the article’s issue date.