[Nancy Shute, NPR, Apr 6, 11] Teenagers are more likely to be depressed if they spend a lot of time listening to music, while teens who read a lot are less depressed, according to new research.

So does that mean that My Chemical Romance is bad for your health? Or that multiple replays of “The Catalyst” by Linkin Park will push an adolescent from moodiness to mental illness?

Not necessarily. The researchers didn’t try to nail down cause and effect. But the fact that depression is a major health problem for teenagers, affecting 1 in 12 of them, makes it’s easy to see why the researchers thought it was worth looking into.

Pediatrician Brian Primack, at the University of Pittsburgh who was the lead author on the study, says it’s more likely that depressed teenagers are turning to music for solace, rather than music being the cause of the mental illness. “They don’t feel like doing anything,” Primack says. “They don’t have a lot of energy, and this is a place where they can go and they don’t have to perform.” Continue lendo →