The Validity of the Diagnosis of Major Depression in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

This chapter concerns the question of whether, in children and adolescents, major depression can be discriminated from other forms of misery. Beginning with a description of the historical evolution of the question, it sets out the criteria by which a categorical depressive disorder could be validated and analyzes the empirical evidence for and against the hypothesis that there is indeed a distinct depressive disorder in childhood and adolescence. The chapter ends with a consideration of ``dysthymia,'' a classificatory wasteland into which many problems have been dumped.