Prevalence of Subclinical Depression among College Students: A Review

INTRODUCTION - Early adult stage is the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, presents significant challenges like the chance to manage one’s life and affect more independent roles. A number of them adjust with these challenges and a few couldn’t manage these stressors which can cause the mental health problems. Among these problems depression is very common, and it is very difficult to detect in early stage, which often identified as a minor or subclinical depression. SD patients were in a mean position between non-depressive and depressive patients with regard to social isolation and physical destruction; women were overrepresented in the depressive and sub-depressive groups” (Schnieder et al. 2000). Study suggests the prevalence rate of subclinical depression was very high, which need urgent attention for identification and treatment. If it is ignored or left untreated long term effect may be appear in the form of major or severe depression. METHOD - A comprehensive systematic search of published literature and journal articles from Google Scholar, Pub Med, MEDLINE and EBSCO was taken. Search strategy specific to each data repository was used. During initial search 642 titles were retrieved and finally 38 empirical researches were selected based on the inclusion criteria. RESULT - Total 38 articles were selected, out of 38 approx 36 studies shows the rate of prevalence of Subclinical depression among college students and some studies based on impact and factors associated with subclinical depression. CONCLUSION - It is very important that health care providers, counselors, teachers and parents should pay special attention for early detection and treatment of subclinical depressive symptoms in early adults.