ABSTRACT
Over recent years, there has been an intense interest in the concept of
depression in childhood. The issue is particularly complex because sadness
and tears are common parts of all children’s lives and so cannot form any
true basis for a diagnosis of a depressive illness. In addition, the term itself
has become so much part of common usage that it has begun to lose value
as a description of a particular illness process. Even within professional
circles the word ‘depression’ is used synonymously to describe three discrete
levels (Kadzin 1990):
Depressed mood
A state of profound unhappiness and sense of dejection (dysphoria) that is
more than normal sadness. The person cannot see any real bright spots to his
or her life, and there is a loss of emotional involvement with either other
people or activities. Often it is associated with negative styles of thinking
about the young people themselves (giving rise to feelings of failure and
guilt) or about the future (giving a sense of hopelessness). Figure 10.1 shows
how such thoughts create a wider shift in mood, which then becomes
attributed to all aspects of life. The presence of some such feelings is a
normal reaction to a distressing event, but they are in proportion to the
importance of the event, and the overall intensity is not great.
