Though depression typically begins when individuals reach their late 20s, the Mayo Clinic states that the emotional disorder can occur at any age. Early detection of symptoms for this condition can also be beneficial to seeing to it that people receive the treatment they require.

New research, which appears in Archives of General Psychiatry, may prove helpful in identifying major depressive disorder in children.

In the study, researchers from Wayne State University used a technique to measure cortical thickness of 24 patients with major depressive disorder, 24 with obsessive compulsive disorder and 30 controls who did not have either condition.

Using their technique, the researchers found that patients with major depressive disorder had cortical thinning in five brain regions as well as greater thickness in their bilateral temporal pole. Among the patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, the only noticeable difference in their brains and those of the controls was a thinner left supramarginal gyrus.

According to the researchers, these findings might offer help to children who do not respond to any depression treatments, as it will allow medical professionals to look for subtypes of the emotional disorder.

Teenagers who suffer from depression may be able to receive treatment from private boarding schools.