Depression Among Kids

Yes. Childhood depression is different from the normal “blues” and everyday emotions that occur as a child develops. Just because a child seems depressed or sad, does not necessarily mean they have depression. But if these symptoms become persistent, disruptive, and interfere with social activities, interests, schoolwork and family life, it may indicate that he or she has the medical illness called depression. Keep in mind that while depression is a serious illness, it is also a treatable one.

In the last twenty years alone has depression in children, been taken very seriously. The child suffering from depression may pretend to be sick, refuse to go to school, cling to a parent, or worry that the parent may fall ill and die. Older children may sulk, get into trouble at school, be negative, grouchy and feel misunderstood.

Unfortunately, these disorders often go unrecognized by families and physicians alike. Signs of depressive disorders in young people often are viewed as normal mood swings typical of a particular developmental stage. In addition, health care professionals may be reluctant to prematurely “label” a young person with a mental illness diagnosis. Yet early diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders are critical to healthy emotional, social, and behavioral development.

For example, instead of communicating how bad they feel, they may act out and be irritable toward others, which may be interpreted simply as misbehavior or disobedience. In addition, children and young adolescents with depression may have difficulty in properly identifying and describing their internal emotional or mood states. Research has found that parents are even less likely to identify major depression in their adolescents than are the adolescents themselves.

Early medical studies focused on “masked” depression, where a child’s depressed mood was evidenced by acting out or angry behavior. While this does occur, particularly in younger children, many children display sadness or low mood similar to adults who are depressed. The symptoms of depression in children vary. It is often undiagnosed and untreated because they are dismissed as normal emotional and psychological changes that occur during growth. The primary symptoms of depression revolve around sadness, a feeling of hopelessness, and mood changes.

For children between the ages of 3 through 5, the most common emotional signs of depression are sadness, a detached or far away look, a timid or fearful appearance, displays of anger and aggression, shyness, a spacey look, irritability and moodiness. Young children who are depressed may have physical symptoms that are unexplainable such as headaches, stomach aches, cramps, nausea, failure to thrive, wetting the bed, asthma, tiredness, difficulties getting to sleep and nightmares. They may display angry and aggressive behavior, such as hitting or fighting, or may suddenly start lying or stealing.

Adolescents are more likely to verbalize their negative beliefs about themselves than are younger children. The depressed adolescent may express the perception that they are not liked or accepted by their peers and they are unloved by their family. They may perceive that they are unable to fit in with their peers. This may be associated with self-derogatory thoughts and verbalization regarding their intelligence, physical appearance, or attractiveness to others. While the recovery rate from a single episode of major depression in children and adolescents is quite high, episodes are likely to recur. In addition, youth with dysthymia disorder are at risk for developing major depression. Prompt identification and treatment of depression can reduce its duration and severity and associated functional impairment.

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