Depression in Children; Children and Depression; Sad Children
Written by:
Petros Skapinakis, MD, MPH, PhD, lecturer of Psychiatry in the University of Ioannina Medical School, Greece.
Eva Gerasi, postgraduate student in the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Ioannina, Greece.
First version: 22 Jul 2008.
Latest revision:
29 Jul 2008.
Abstract:
Depressions are rather rare in children, and usually are caused by traumatic events such as bereavment or stress in school.
Question:
What about depression in children? Is it possible for children to have depression? Tell me more about sad children and depression.
Answer:
Depression as an illness in children appears to be relatively rare. Depressed mood by contrast is associated with a wide variety of childhood problems, ranging from bereavement and physical illness to stressful life events including school bullying and pressure of schoolwork.
Depressive illness has an equal sex distribution and is usually treated by methods involving the family rather than by individual pharmacological treatments, except in the more severe cases.
Childhood problems such as bed-wetting or school truanting were previously often regarded as masked forms of depression, but are now considered to be separate from depressive illness.
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