It is an unfortunate reality that the resources to support
mental health services in the United States fall far short
of the economic and human resources needed to address
mental health problems. It is even more unfortunate that
limits on these resources have contributed to conflict
among mental health professionals about the best way to
expend these limited resources. In particular, battle lines
have been drawn between proponents of prevention and
those who favor treatment (e.g., Albee, 1982, 1990).
With regard to adolescent depression, the battle between
proponents of prevention and treatment is one that
we cannot afford to fight. Services aimed at alleviating
the pain and misfortune associated with depression during adolescence must reflect a broad effort to provide coordinated
prevention and treatment programs. This position
is based on the assumption that no one approach to providing
services for adolescent depression will be sufficient
to address the problem. Although we fully expect that
primary prevention programs will be able to reduce levels
of depressed mood and perhaps deter the development of
some forms of depressive syndromes and disorders, they
will not provide a sufficient dose to interrupt the development
of depression in a substantial portion of the population.