ABSTRACT
William Parry-Jones has written an excellent historical review of childhood depression. Childhood melancholia was described by H. Maudsley, and at that time it was thought to be a constitutional defect, which might be linked to inherited syphilis. In the 1940s, psychoanalytic writers began to explore childhood depression, particularly focusing on deprived and institutionalized children. The understanding of childhood depression was greatly helped by recognizing the concept of "masked depression". Renauf Kovacs and colleagues have provided a detailed description of Childhood Depression and Dysthymia. In 1986, Kovacs wrote at length about problems inherent in the presentation of childhood depression, because children may not be able to experience or describe symptoms such as self-denigration, worthlessness, hopelessness, or feeling of guilt, self-blame, and shame. J. Bowlby and others were involved in the development of family therapy, which included attachment theory and systems theory. Family therapy focuses on altering interactions and sets out to improve the functioning of the family as a unit.
