Depression
Depression in Childhood
There is often the image of happy-go-lucky children, but this may not always be the case. However, children can experience depression. There are some similarities and some differences in depression in adults and children. Children aged seven to seventeen may resemble adults in terms of their depressed mood, inability to experience pleasure, fatigue, concentration problems and thoughts of suicide. They differ because the rates of suicide attempts are higher, they may experience more guilt, more frequent early waking, more weight loss, loss of appetite and early morning depression than adults. Depression in children is also recurrent. Children who have had a major depression are likely to continue to show significant depressive symptoms four to eight years later. Estimates of the amount of children experiencing depression depend on the country, sample used and age of children.
Depression can also be inferred from some behaviours, such as acting aggressively and misbehaving, which would not be used in adults as showing an underlying depression. Depression has been found to occur in less than 1% of pre-school age children, 2 – 3% of school age children, but 7 – 13% of adolescents. In adolescence, females outweigh males by a ratio of 2:1 in experiencing depression, but prior to the age of 12, boys are more likely to experience depression.
There is a problem with diagnosing depression due to the presence of other factors. Up to 70% of children with depression will also have an anxiety disorder or significant anxiety symptoms. Depression is also common with children with conduct disorders or attention deficit disorders.
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