Clinical Pediatrics 51(10) 964 –971 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission:

Adolescent depression is common with point prevalence estimates of 3 % to 9%1,2 and lifetime prevalence of major depression during adolescence ranging from 15% to 24%.1,3 Untreated depression has been linked to seri-ous outcomes, including missed school, work impair-ment, poorer general health, unwanted pregnancy, antisocial behavior, smoking, binge drinking, and recur-rent depression during adulthood. Most significantly, depressed adolescents have higher rates of suicidal ide-ation as well as completed suicide, the third leading cause of death in 15- to 24-year-olds.4-9 Although there are several effective treatments for adolescents,10,11 only a small percentage of adolescents with depression receive any treatment, including only 28 % of those with suicidal ideation or behavior.12 One reason for this discrepancy is that although adolescents with depression are often seen in primary care offices, many cases of depression may not be identified by pedi-atric professionals because of time constraints or lack of confidence in making a psychiatric diagnosis, despite the belief that diagnosing depression is of great impor-tance.13,14 A further problem is that even when adoles-cents are identified as depressed, they are not always treated by the primary care physician (PCP), referred to mental health professionals, and/or able to access men-tal health care.15 Much of the research data on adolescent depression does not focus on minority populations, despite the rap-idly growing numbers of children from racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, particularly Hispanics/ Latinos.16 There is paucity of available data regarding psychiatric diagnoses of minority children as compared with their white counterparts.17,18 The limited available investigations have demonstrated mixed results as to whether there are decreased, equivalent, or increase