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Ethical Viewpoints Assignment – Worksheet

Research Question

See Step 1: Find it! (The research question for your topic goes here.)

Viewpoint 1

See Step 1: Find it! (The first viewpoint for your topic goes here.)

Direct Quotations

See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 1 article go here. Include quotation marks.)

T.R.A.P. Evaluation

See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to evaluate your article.)

MLA Citation

See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 1 article goes here.)

Viewpoint 2

See Step 1: Find it! (The second viewpoint for your topic goes here.)

Direct Quotations

See Step 2: Quote it! (Your direct quotes from the Viewpoint 2 article go here. Include quotation marks.)

T.R.A.P. Evaluation

See Step 3: Evaluate it! (Answer the TRAP questions to evaluate your article.)

MLA Citation

See Step 4: Cite it! (Your MLA citation for the Viewpoint 2 article goes here.)

Reflection

See Step 5: Reflect on it! (Your assignment reflection goes here.)

Ethical Viewpoints Assignment

Research Question

Should schools screen children and teenagers for signs of mental illness and suicidal tendencies?

Viewpoint 1

Mental health screening can help professionals and parents identify children at risk for depression and suicidal urges.

Direct Quotations

• “An estimated 11.4% of the U.S. adolescents, or about 2.8 million people, had at least one “major depressive episode” in a 12-month period, according to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.”
• “Worrisome symptoms may be attributed to normal stresses of adolescence or “typical” teen mood swings, when in reality they signify suffering that is neither normal nor typical. As a result, many depressed teens struggle with suffering that can lead to poorer physical health, school failure, social difficulties and, for some, suicide.”
• “Opponents of screening are wary of over diagnosis and overtreatment. We must carefully distinguish clinical depression from normal sadness and avoid medicalizing and medicating the turbulence of adolescence. Not all depressed teens need medication. Parents and providers must be guided by the specific experiences of each teen, not by media messages or overly simplistic conceptualizations of sadness and stress.”
• “Adolescents often have difficulty articulating suffering, particularly if it involves fear and stigmatization. Even in clinical settings they may feel incapable of broaching the subject themselves. It is up to clinicians to ask the right questions, and routine screening can pave the way for these crucial conversations.”
• “We have integrated medical and mental-health care more closely and have moved away from the artificial segmentation of emotional and physical health. Fewer teens suffer in silence, and the care they receive is continually improving, all because we started asking these important questions.”

T.R.A.P. Evaluation

T: This article was published on April 11, 2016 in the Wall Street Journal, which is within the past three years.

R: There is a lot of stigma surrounding the issue of mental health but in this article, the research presented encourages universal screening for early signs of depression in order to start treatment in adolescents that would greatly benefit from it. The number of people who encounter impactful depressive incidents is only increasing with time according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Within the number of adolescents who go through the effects of depression, less than 50% are correctly diagnosed since most of their symptoms are thought to be typical behavior for a moody teen thus, it leads to some teenagers’ symptoms to progress and sometimes even lead to suicide. There is the fear of over diagnosing and over treatment, but it is believed that differentiating clinical depression from typical sorrow will help avoid resorting to medicalizing the anguish of these teens since not all instances of depression require medication. Most adolescents struggle with communicating their suffering effectively and that is why asking the right questions and establishing routine screening is up to the clinicians in order to start having clear communication that leads to crucial consultations. Less and less teens are suffering in solitary and the care they receive is only going to continue to improve just because people started asking these critical questions.

A: The experts in this article are Richard J. Chung, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the American Academy of Pediatrics

P: According to a 2014 survey, the number of teenagers who experience major depressive incidents has been increasing in these past years. There are two methods for screening that have been proven effective in not over diagnosing and making sure to catch overlooked symptoms as well as recognizing false alarms.

MLA Citation:

Chung, Richard J., and Allen Frances. “Should all Teens be Screened for Depression?” Wall Street Journal, 11 Apr, 2016, pp. R.5, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org.

Viewpoint 2

No: Misdiagnoses Are All Too Common–And All Too Damaging

Direct Quotations:

• “For one thing, no screening method is discriminating enough to distinguish between normal sadness, which is very common in teens, and clinical depression, which is very rare”
• “Many (probably most) teens deemed depressed by general screening will have normal sadness or transient and self-limited mild depression, not requiring diagnosis or treatment”
• “Mislabeling a teen as mentally ill can carry huge consequences. It changes the way he sees himself and how others see him. An accurate diagnosis provides enough treatment benefit to counterbalance the harms of stigma, but an inaccurate one harms without helping.”
• “Routine screening also puts pressure on primary-care doctors, who don’t have the time or training to distinguish depression from other possible diagnoses. As a result, they are quick to overprescribe antidepressants”
• “Screening would worsen the already-existing cruel paradox that we massively over treat people who are essentially well, while we shamefully neglect the people who are really sick (600,000 of whom are homeless or in jail for lack of adequate community services).”

T.R.A.P. Evaluation

T: This article was published on April 11, 2016 in the Wall Street Journal, which is within the past three years.

R: It is believed that in teens, clinical depression is harder to tell apart from the normal sadness teenagers experience. Most adolescents go through mild depression which does not require a diagnosis or medical treatment.  Teenagers symptoms differ week to week which is why it is tough to accurately diagnose them and misdiagnosing them can lead to scrutiny in how they view themselves or how others view them. Having to regularly screen so many adolescents may lead primary-care doctors to over prescribe antidepressants since they don’t have the extensive training in telling apart depression from other mental health diagnosis.

A: The experts mentioned in this article include Allen Frances, a professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences of Duke School of Medicine.

P:  According to this article, after an update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which combined two very different types of depression, the amount of people on antidepressants have significantly increased. The amount of Americans on antidepressants has increased which has been influenced by the pharmaceutical companies exploiting the new updated loose definition of what depression is.

MLA Citation:

Chung, R. J., & Frances, A. (2016, 11 Apr). Should all teens be screened for depression? Wall Street Journal Retrieved from https://sks-sirs-com.dcccd.idm.oclc.org

Reflection:

Having gone through many years of depression, I started out agreeing with the topic that schools should help in the screening of mental health tendencies in teenagers because I felt that I could have been helped sooner in my journey. After completing this assignment, my opinions have definitely shifted. I still agree that teens who suffer with mental and emotional health should be helped but screening all teenagers in school, who moods change daily and adapt to situations, would lead to tremendous amounts of misdiagnoses and would lead to further stigma of being diagnosed with depression, anxiety, or other mental health diagnosis. What I learned about myself through this research is, although it sounded amazing to try to help everyone, I didn’t stop to think about the negative repercussions that may come about so I learned that sometimes it is best to slow down and not just be driven by the “big picture”.  I completely understand the opposing side because I now understand how misdiagnosing teenagers could have severe consequences and that screening teenagers in school would only make things worse since our mental health department is already well under funded and would make screening less effective. I agree with them that we should focus on bettering the teenagers who have already been properly diagnosed and their care before we can think about the big picture of helping screen all teenagers. I think a question that would generate deeper thinking about this subject would be, “Should parents be screened before having children and take mental/emotional health courses?” because I feel like it is unfair to leave it up to teenagers to deal with repercussions of horrible communications between parents. If parents were educated in mental and emotional health, I feel that we could avoid a lot of the events that lead to teenagers being depressed.