Depression and Deaf Adolescents: A review

Deafness is a heterogeneous condition with far-reaching effects on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Many regard themselves as members of a cultural minority who use sign language. They should not continue to be neglected in research on depression. The purpose of this article is to investigate depression among the deaf people based on researches results. We identified relevant studies by searching the computerized databases Science Direct, PsycINFO and Medline. Additional relevant studies were identified through the reference sections of studies found during the initial search. In this article we retrieved 11 articles, 8 of them indicated a higher degree of depression amongst deaf people in comparison with hearing ones. The remaining 3 articles showed no difference between two groups. In addition anxiety disorders and insomnia were the highest degrees after depression in deaf people. Mild levels of depressive symptoms are more prevalent in the deaf than in hearing students but more severe depression is not. Although there is no evidence in the literature to suggest that Deaf adults do not experience depressive symptoms, the typical methods of assessing depressive symptoms among the population are inadequate and unreliable.