1. Depression in College Stephen Schueller Northwestern University
Future Technology to Preserve College Student Health and Foster Wellbeing (Student Health) Workshop
July 30, 2015

2. Mental Health in College ACHA Spring, 2014
Felt very sad: 72.0%
Felt overwhelmed by all you had to do: 86.4%
Felt very lonely: 59.2%
Felt so depressed that it was difficult to function: 32.6%
Felt things were hopeless: 46.4%
Seriously considered suicide: 5.2%
Attempted suicide: 1.3%
Diagnosed or treated for depression: 12.0%
All reported within the past 12 months. Nationally representative sample of 79,266 students at 140 schools.

3. Age-of-Onset
Median AOO is 29-43, but we see consistently low risk through the early teens and a roughly linear increase therefore through middle age.

4. Impact of Depression Factors affecting academic performance
Stress: 30.3%
Anxiety: 21.8%
Sleep difficulties: 21.0%
Cold/Flu/Sore Throat: 15.1%
Depression: 13.5%
Depression students have lower GPAs, academic persistence and achievement
Social and emotional difficulties predict school attrition
20 percent have considered withdrawing from school because of these problems

5. What to Do About it?
Prevention
Treatment
Screening

6. Prevention
Muñoz, Beardslee, & Leykin report that 22 to 38% of MDEs could be prevented with current methods
We identified 35 RCTs of depression prevention (Muñoz, Schueller, Barrera, Le, & Torres, 2014)
3 targeted undergraduate students
Seligman et al., 1999: APEX Program: CBT
Seligman, Schulman, & Tyron, 2007: APEX Program: CBT
Vazquez et al., 2012: Relaxation Training and CBT
None of those were in the highest group of prevention.

7. Treatment Effective treatments exist but demand is outpacing supply
Nearly 2/3rds of college students meeting diagnose for depression don’t get help
From 2010 to 2012, waiting lists nearly doubled at colleges with over 25,000 students (from 35 to 62 students)
Nearly 23/rds of college students meeting diagnose for depression don’t get help

8. Screening
Wang, Chen, Chen, Li, Harari, Tignor, Zhou, Ben-Zeev, & Campbell, 2015

9. Screening
Saeb, Zhang, Karr, Schueller, Corden, Kording, & Mohr, 2015

10. Depression Depressed Mood Fatigue or loss of energy Loss of interest
Guilt/worthlessness
Weight change
Concentration difficulties
Sleep difficulties
Suicidality
Change in activity