Determination of the diagnoses of depression, suicide attempts, pregnancy, human immunodefficiency virus (HIV), and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in adolescents and young adults

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to determine the frequency of diagnoses of depression, suicide attempts, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), Human Immunodefficiency Virus (HIV) and pregnancy, in data collected from 2523 medical records of adolescents between the ages of 10 to 16 years old, and 17 to 25 years old, attended at University Hospital (University Hospital / State University of Londrina). Between the ages of 10 to 16 years old, the diagnoses and gender identification were: depression (6 female, 8 male); suicide attempts (2 female, 2 male); HIV (2 female, 1 male); STDs (8 female, 1 male); and pregnancy (n=227). As for the ages of 17 to 25 years old, the diagnoses and gender identification were: depression (46 female, 7 male); suicide attempts (11 female, 2 male); HIV (19 female, 9 male); STDs (90 female, 22 male); pregnancy (n=2074). These results suggest the increase of studied diagnoses at ages ranging from 17 to 25. Risk behavior started prematurely, around the ages of 10 to 16 years old. These results suggest the use of interventions that increase self-esteem and give proper attention to prevention by means of education and early detection, prior to high school.