Abstract
Childhood depression often gets undiagnosed and gets untreated because many parents do not know what the symptoms are like and they get assumed to be normal psychological or normal emotions. Mood change is an important sign that should get looked out for. The participants for this study are college students. A hundred college students were used to conduct this experiment. Equal number of female and male participants was chosen for the experiment. Medical consultation was a problem cited by participants. The experiment revealed that childhood depression affects boys as much as it affects girls. Proper sensitization needs to get carried out to prevent or reduce cases of childhood depression. Keywords: Childhood depression, psychological emotions, mental health, mood change, Medical consultation
Literature Review
Childhood depression had not been taken seriously until the past twenty years. Childhood depression has been faced by myths claiming that it does not exist. Studys show that when major depression hits it could last for about a week or two. However, throughout a child’s life it could take place more than one time (Shaw, Krause & Chatters, 2004). Studies conducted showed that not all children seem to display the obvious reasons of childhood depression such as withdrawing socially, fear of rejection, anger or being irritable, display of fatigue, crying uncontrollably, low concentration in tasks, physical ailments such as having headaches (Rice, Harold & Thapar, 2002). The children that pass undiagnosed display of symptoms, are the assumed ones. They display these symptoms during different settings at different times. These types of children continue to perform well in environments that are well structured. Childhood depression has been said to result to suicide as a result of violent history, sexual and physical abuse. Childhood depression has been showed in previously conducted studies to affect boys below the age of ten. However, girls have shown to get depressed more by the time they are sixteen years (Harrington et al., 1998).
Studies conducted have shown that childhood depression diagnoses can get also affected by separation of parents or from parents as well as relatives that they are close to. The loss of someone that the child loved can cause childhood depression. Stressful situation in the lives of children could lead to childhood depression and pass of as undiagnosed. If the child views the world in a negative way childhood depression can set in. Moving towns or being moved to a new school can lead to misdiagnosis of childhood depression. Family history of experiencing mood disorders could get passed to children, study has shown due to existence of psychiatric conditions in the family too. Failure in academics or sports could lead to undiagnosed childhood depression (Weich et al, 2009).
Underlying conditions of misdiagnosis have shown to cause childhood depression since they pass off undiagnosed. For example, children suffering from obesity could get childhood depression while in the first place they have a metabolic problem causing them to get overweight. Early diagnosis of childhood depression is important because some cases of undiagnosed depression lead to changing shape of the brain. Also untreated depression can lead to disrupted sleep, which in turn lead to fatigue and tiredness that cannot get explained. When depression goes untreated, it causes loss of weight or a gain in the same. Persons can get very irritable (Hazell et al, 1995).
Treating childhood depression is hard because it involves change of lifestyle such as exercising more and eating healthy. Psychotherapy helps them respond well depending on the period a child has had it. Some children have had to get put on medication and this has led to prolonged use of anti depressants. However, even if they do recover when they are young, later in life they might start using them when they are under stress or just anxious. Parents should check with teachers and their doctors regularly to evaluate the mental health of their children. Guardians are advised to give close attention to the duration of depressive behavior so that they can determine if the children are just having a bad day or something more (McLeod, Weisz & Wood, 2007). Caregivers are also, advised to take children for a full medical check to ensure that the child is practically healthy. Caregivers are advised to take their children for an evaluation that is comprehensive if the symptoms displayed by the child cannot get accounted for in any medical condition. They are advised to get checked for mood disorders. Then the last step it to ensure that the child gets effective treatment. Effective treatment is inclusive of family therapy and individual therapy to get root of depressing issues (DeWalt & Hink, 2009).
Study has shown there is unending debate about antidepressants being given to children after a case in 2004 when a thirteen year old boy was given antidepressant pills by a psychiatrist that led him to commit suicide three days later after taking the pills. The arguments are if the pills given to depressed children are necessary or not. Some parents have said the pills have worked while others are against them. The pills have side effects that are said to make situation worse for the depressive kids (Hazell et al, 1995). Some parents wished the symptoms were never discovered due to thought of having to give their children antidepressants recommended by the psychiatrist. The study has shown that the pharmaceutical industry has had to print warning signs in black box on the label of the antidepressant drugs cautioning users that the drug could lead to suicidal behavior. Doctors have been urged to consider unconventional therapies, the doctors have resulted to closely monitoring the patients and prescribe very low doses. People have argued that the antidepressants have helped adults a great deal but when it comes to children the dispute is big (Luby, 2009). Adequate research need to get conducted about the effects of the widely advertised antidepressants on children. Childhood depression is highly treatable however, some resist treatment and many options are availed to them (Simeon et al, 1990). It gets advised to seek the opinion of more than one doctor to receive a better review of one’s condition because their opinions could slightly differ and save lives of people. Thanks to technology that keeps evolving everyday and hence providing better medical solutions for various diagnoses related to depression. Also helping children to cope with situations and allowing them to play outside can reduce the cases of childhood depression. For example a child who has speech problems could result to staying indoors and watch television rather than play outside with children who mock him or her. The likelihood that such a child can develop childhood depression is very high (Emslie et al, 1997).
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