Introduction

Thesis Statament:

Topic: Depression among College Students

The Jed Foundation's JED Campus advisors, Erica Riba, LCSW and Diana Cusumano,

LHMC, NCC will talk about depression in college students today and how the JED Campus

program and other outside resources can help those who are struggling and learn skills to
reach out to others.

Attending college can be a stressful time for many students. In addition to coping with

academicpressure, some students have to deal with the stressful tasks of separation and

individuation fromtheir family of origin while some may have to attend to numerous work

and family responsibilitiesIn this context, many college students experience the first onset

of mental health and substance useproblems or an exacerbation of their symptoms. Given

the uniqueness of college students, there is aneed to outline critical issues to consider when

working with this population. In this commentary,first, the prevalence of psychiatric and

substance use problems in college students and thesignificance of assessing age of onset of

current psychopathology are described. Then, theconcerning persistent nature of mental

health problems among college students and its implicationsare summarized. Finally,

important aspects of treatment to consider when treating college studentswith mental

health problems are outlined, such as the importance of including parents in thetreatment,

communicating with other providers, and employing of technology to increaseadherence. It

is concluded that, by becoming familiar with the unique problems characteristic of

thedevelopmental stage and environment college students are in, practitioners will be able
to betterserve them.The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that of all illnesses,

depression is the leading causeof ill health and disability worldwide. According to the latest

estimates from WHO, more than 300million people are now living with depression.

Depression and anxiety are prevalent problems in colleges across the country. During college,

students experience many firsts, including a new lifestyle, friends, roommates, exposure to a

new culture and experiences. Students may struggle if they can't manage these firsts. If

students aren't prepared to cope, they can become easily susceptible todepression and

anxiety. Depression is a medical condition that can affect a student's ability to work, study,

interact with peers, or take care of themselves. Symptoms of depression may include:

difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much, appetite changes, withdrawing from participating in

activities once enjoyed, feelings of sadness, hopelessness, unhappiness, and difficulty

concentrating on school work. Symptoms of depression can also leads to thoughts of suicide.

Article Summary

Background: Mental health problems in college and their associations with academic

performance are not well understood. The main aim of this study was to investigate

to what extent mental health problems are associated with academic functioning.

Methods: As part of the World Mental Health Surveys International College Student

project, 12-month mental health problems among freshmen (N = 4921) was

assessed in an e-survey of students at KU Leuven University in Leuven, Belgium.

The associations of mental health problems with academic functioning (expressed in

terms of academic year percentage [or AYP] and grade point average [GPA]) were

examined across academic departments. Results: Approximately one in three

freshman reports mental health problems in the past year, with internalizing and

externalizing problems both associated with reduced academic functioning (2.9-4.7%

externalizing problems with individual-level academic functioning was significantly

higher in academic departments with comparatively low average academic

functioning. Limitations: Limited sample size precluded further investigation of

interactions between department-level and student-level variables. No information

was available on freshman secondary school academic performance. Conclusions:

Mental health problems are common in college freshman, and clearly associated

with lower academic functioning. Additional research is needed to examine the

potentially causal nature of this association, and, if so, whether interventions aimed at

treating mental health problems might improve academic performance.

Analysis

The current study showed that most Filipino college student participants could recognize symptoms

of depression. Correct recognition however, was lower as compared to western studies on mental

health literacy on adolescents which made use of similar methodologies (Jorm et al., 2000; Loureiro

et al., 2013). This supports the notion that Asians and those from non-western countries have lower

rates of mental health literacy as compared to westerners (Loo et al., 2012). A notable observation

from the study is that quite a big number of Filipino college students that failed to recognize

depression attributed the problem to daily life problems which includes emotional, psychological,

social, academic/ school-related, loss or personal problems as well as stress. Loureiro et al., (2013)

explained that such nonspecific terms that describe changes in mental health in general but does not

necessarily pertain to a mental disorder. “Normalizing” symptoms of a mental disorder can become

a problem as it may delay helpseeking and evidence-based treatments from professionals and may

even aggravate the mental illness (Jorm, Angermeyer & Katschnig, 2000). The lack of mental health

programs in communities and even in academic institutions in the Philippines may have some

influence on how students understand mental health conditions. Regardless of the students’
recognition or failure to recognize depression in the given story, a huge percentage of them still

suggested that they will seek help if ever they experienced the same problem as the character in the

vignette. This promising number of help-seeking intentions was however attributed most to seeking

help from people who are biologically related and/ or those who are familiar to the students such as

their family, friends. This supports previous reports that Filipino students seek help more from their

family and friends rather than professionals in dealing with their problems (Que-Legaspi, Reyes &

Datu, 2014). Surprisingly, counselor was among the most popular nominations by the Filipino college

students to where help can be sought. This however may be due to the fact that the participants

themselves were aware that the survey was given being done by people from the counseling office

which may have caused some bias in their answers. Despite the fact that most of the Filipino college

students were able to recognize depression, factors to which they attribute as likely causes of such

gives us an insight on the depth of their understanding of the mental illness. Filipino college students

commonly attribute daily life problems such as stress, emotional, social, interpersonal, academic and

personal problems to likely cause depression. Previous studies have reported that such trend has

been common to adolescents and even adults (Loureiro, 2013). Other factors that are seen to cause

depression by Filipino college students are trauma-related problems, childhood problems and recent

death of a loved one. According to mental health experts, such factors are predisposing factors in

developing mental illness and are considered triggers rather than causes of mental disorders (Jorm,

Angermeyer & Katschnig, 2000). Biomedical causes of mental illness are mostly unrecognized by the

public (Jorm et al., 2000). Such trend has also been observed in this study as evident in the low

number of Filipino college students that nominated genetic factors, chemical imbalance in the brain,

viral infection and allergic reaction as likely causes of depression. There were some mixed opinions

on what sort of mental health first-aid strategies to use when students PADAYON SINING: A

CELEBRATION OF THE ENDURING VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES Presented at the 12th DLSU Arts

Congress De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines February 20, 21 and 22, 2019 encounter a

person who may be showing signs of depression. The most notable ones have to do with the
suggestion for a depressed person to keep busy in order to forget his/her problems; telling a

depressed person to get his/her act together and asking a depressed person if he/she is suicidal.

There were more Filipino college students who expressed that such actions were more helpful than

harmful and quite a number of them also noted that such actions were neither helpful nor harmful

CONCLUSION

The study provided us with evidences that Filipino college students are able to recognize

symptoms of depression however, there are still many who would tend to normalize the

situation by attributing the problem to daily life problems. Filipino college students have still

quite insufficient knowledge in terms of the causes of depression, referring mostly to

triggers and predisposing factors rather than biomedical causes of depression. They are also

able to recognize the need for help from other people when they detect symptoms of

depression. They endorse seeking help from professionals such as counselors, psychologists

and psychiatrists but recommend that help be sought primarily from family and friends.

There are discrepancies between Filipino college students’ ideas on effective first aid

strategies for depression and those that are recommended by professionals. They have

different beliefs on who they think can help a depressed individual. They also endorse

certain products and treatments which they think are effective in managing depression.

Some of those products and treatments are not evidence-based interventions. They have

different notions on preventive strategies for depression. Some of which are not

recommended by professionals. Lastly, Filipino college students hold personal and perceived

stigma towards depressed individuals.

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