ABSTRACT
Depression is particularly difficult in this regard 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. However, cause of depression is far from being a simple deficiency of central monoamines. The drugs that alter amine levels do produce immediate increases in monoamine transmission, but positive changes to mood take weeks to appear. Electroconvulsive therapy is a well-established treatment for severe depressive illness in adults, particularly if there is active suicidal thinking or marked psychotic features. It is rarely used with young people because its early forms prompted concerns about its impact on developing brain. Depressive illness is a debilitating, and often recurrent problem, which exerts influences far beyond the immediate ways that it affects the individual.
