The Nature and Study of Depression in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Depression is a serious mental health problem in children and adolescents. It has been estimated that nearly 1 of every 6 youngsters admitted to psychiatric hospitals in the United States had an intake diagnosis of a depressive disorder (Silver, 1988). Depression is also one of the most frequently found psychiatric disorders among suicidal children and adolescents [Reynolds and Mazza (Chapter 24)]. Over the past two decades, the study of depression in children and adolescents has become an area of extensive research in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and related disciplines. The range of research domains, from neuroendocrinology to cognitive deficits, suggests an enormous interest on the part of professionals in the nature, evaluation, and treatment of depression in young people. What is most impressive is that the vast majority of research on depression in children and adolescents has been conducted since the mid-1970s. This delay in our focus on depression in young people may be in part a function of the long-term psychodynamic perspectives of depression as nonexistent in children or normative in adolescents. In particular, the notion or myth of adolescent turmoil overshadowed for many professionals the validity of depression as a form of psychopathology in this age group (Offer & Schonert-Reichl, 1992).