Depression in late teens linked to high school drop out

In 2015, an estimated three million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the U S had experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year

Older teens struggling with depression are more than twice as likely to drop out of high school as peers without that mental illness or those who recovered from a bout of depression earlier in life, Canadian researchers say.

Understanding that current or recent depression raises dropout risk may encourage schools to put a higher priority on mental health services, the study team writes in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“This is the first study of its kind to look at depression symptoms in the year before dropout,” lead author Dr. Veronique Dupere, associate professor at the school of psycho-education at the University