Notes/30 Key Points from May 16, 2011 Presentation in Toronto by Dr. Stan Kutcher

1. YOUTH DEPRESSION & CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT YOUTH DEPRESSION
NOTES TAKEN BY GISELLE SIGNORONI, MSW, RSW
FROM PRESENTATION BY DR. STANLEY KUTCHER
MAY 16, 2011 SSLI TORONTO
Emotional Dissonance and Looking at our Lexicon
30 Key Points

2. Mainstream views about
adolescence get in the
way of understanding
adolescence.
The current construct
does NOT fit what we
know about adolescence
which covers the period
of from ages 12-13 until
ages 23-25.

3. It is so important for teens to be in
environments that help the frontal
cortex develop since adolescence
is a time during which we are like
a turbo charged car driven by an
inexperienced driver.
We could be building supportive
housing rather than prisons.
Neurons that fire together WIRE
together.

4. We are digital
immigrants while the
adolescents of today are
digital natives.

5. Our Mood lives somewhere in
the brain but not just in one
place.
Our Mood is a driver of social
interaction and it translates
into adaptation. It enhances
adaptation in us and in our
species. It is like social cement.
Our Mood is like the
temperature in our home. It is
always oscillating and there
are three settings: daily,
monthly, yearly.
Our Mood is responsive to so
much more than simply our
“emotional” stress.

6. Besides and beyond
prevention and promotion
we have the responsibility to
identify mental illness in our
adolescents and link them to
accessible and appropriate
services.

7. The first step towards
innovation is EMOTIONAL
DISSONANCE.
If you were born with a fully
developed brain you would
never get out.
Mental health is so much more
interesting than our pancreas.
It is our own body heat that
keeps us warm when we put
on a jacket. “Distress” is a sign
of adaptation either of us or of
the environment.

8. We are in urgent need of a
rich and useful lexicon to
describe brain adaptations
to life events.
The word “depressed” does
not allow us to differentiate
and understand experience.

9. Whereas “distress” has a
precursor, depression has no
“cause”. Depression is a
functional impairment.
A “diagnosis” is NOT a label.
People are not Campbell’s’
Soup. A “diagnosis” is an
educated opinion that predicts
outcomes and directs
treatment. A diagnosis may
and should change as new
information becomes available.

10. When treatment is available diagnosis
increases. When funding is available
diagnosis increases. Go figure. There
are social issues surrounding ALL
diagnosis.
There is no single route to one
predictive outcome.
Harm can be caused by biological
AND psychological treatments.
Different people have different
thresholds for intervention.
What is good for you is different than
what is good for me.

11. A placebo does not mean NO
treatment because a placebo is
PART of the environment.
TRIALOGUE as well as
dialogue.
Be humble about what we
know and don’t know.
Treatment is about getting
well, staying well, and not
getting sick again.

12. When it comes to
preventing suicide, the issue
is not what works. We
already know how and what
to do. The issue is putting
what we know into place.

13. H UMAN CONNECTION IS THE KEY
TO IMPROVING THE HUMAN
CONDITION.