ABSTRACT
Even today, when the psychoanalytic position that depression in childhood (i.e., before puberty) could hardly exist (e.g., Malmquist, 1971) has been given up, there are two approaches for defining depressive disorders during that age period: On the basis of an empirical study, Carlson and Cantwell (1980) criticized the concept of masked depression, which nevertheless has been held in serious textbooks (Graham, 1986). This concept proposed that classical depressive symptoms in children are masked by age-related behavior problems (e.g., hyperactivity, aggression and somatic complaints, phobias, underachievement, and delinquency). Ling, Oftedal, and Weinberg (1970) argued this position in dealing with the coincidence of headache and depression in children. It has never been clear how such masking symptoms could be differentiated from nonmasking disorders of the same kind in nondepressive children. Later, this position was dropped in favor of the idea of age-related “associated features” versus “essential symptoms” of childhood depression (Cantwell, 1983) under which somatic symptoms were subsumed as well.
