According to a number of studies including the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry up to 2.5 percent of children and up to 8.3 percent of adolescents in the U.S. suffer from depression.
If you believe your child is suffering from depression, talk to your doctor or mental health provider. A test for depression will usually involve a question and answer session with your child. A Diagnosis is usually based on their medical history and symptoms, so your doctor will need to talk to the child first.
Psychiatric Depression Tests
There is no clinical test for depression, but there are a number of psychiatric tests and questionnaires to measure depression. The two main methods used in psychiatry come from guidelines published by the American Psychiatric association and the international guidelines provided by the World Health Organization.
1. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Published by the American Psychiatric Association it is a classification system based on all the known recorded symptoms associated with a particular mental condition. Your doctor will ask your child if they have certain symptoms, depending on their answers, they should be able to identify what the condition is.
2. International Classification of Diseases.
Developed by the World Health Organization and used for a whole range of illnesses including mental illness this method is based on the known symptoms associated with a particular mental illness.
Diagnosing Depression in Children
A test for depression is more difficult with children then with adults. Children are usually less capable of expressing their feelings and will express their moods in a more physical way. Some may be withdrawn and tearful, others may become irritated and hyperactive.
Secondly depression can go unrecognized by families and physicians as signs of depressive disorders in young people are often viewed as normal mood swings typical of adolescence. Also health care professionals can be slow to ‘label’ a child with a mental illness diagnosis.
However early diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders are critical to healthy emotional, social, and behavioural development.
A test for depression usually involves asking the child if they suffer from certain symptoms which are commonly associated with depression. These may include
• Tiredness, headaches, stomach aches or vague physical complaints which appear not to have a tangible cause.
• Insomnia, sleeping irregularly, too often or not enough
• Changes in weight
• Irritable, sulky, being quite and introverted
• Loosing interest in favourite activities or hobbies
• Decline in school performance and exams
• Poor self esteem or regular feelings of worthlessness
• simply appearing unhappy much of the time
• major changes in weight
• contemplating suicide
If depression is diagnosed then it is important to find out what form of depression your child is suffering from.
Depressive disorders include a number of different types. These include major depressive disorder (unipolar depression), dysthymic disorder (chronic, mild depression), and bipolar disorder (manic-depression).
Comments on this entry are closed.