Depression in Children and Adolescents

• The age of onset for the first depressive episode in children and adolescents is usually between 13 to 15 years.
• Depressed mood symptoms occurring most days for at least a year indicate Persistent Depressive Disorder (P-DD).
• A history of depression during school years increases the risk of suicidal behavior later in life.
• Youngsters with depression onset before age 15 and a recurrent episode before age 20 are likely to have severe depression as a teen and poor psychosocial outcomes.
• Depression is equally common in preadolescent boys and girls, but the rate is higher for girls after about age 13.
• The increased risk for depression in adolescent girls is attributed to their tendency to use ruminative coping styles to deal with stress.
• Adolescent girls with a history of interpersonal stress and lack of social support may be at higher risk for depression.
• A recent study found that in transition from adolescence to young adulthood, depressive symptoms were highest for Hispanic and Asian ethnic/racial groups.
• Double depression occurs when Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is superimposed on Persistent Depressive Disorder (P-DD).
• Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent co-occurring disorder with dysthymic disorder.
• The central feature of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) is chronic, severe persistent irritability.
• A false statement about DMDD is that it cannot coexist with a diagnosis of MDD.
• Social withdrawal interferes with normal youth development of interpersonal relationships.
• Drug overdoses and wrist cutting are the most common means for adolescents who successfully complete suicide.
• Effective courses of treatment for DMDD are unknown.
• Depression occurring in youngsters without loss or rejection supports the psychodynamic theory of depression.
• The attachment theory of depression focuses on parental separation and disruption of a bond as predisposing factors.
• The behavioral theory claims that depression is related to a lack of response-contingent positive reinforcement.
• Depression-prone individuals tend to make internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events.
• Negative perceptual and attributional styles/beliefs associated with depressive symptoms are depressogenic cognitions.
• Information-processing biases displayed by depressed individuals are based on poor faulty memory systems.
• The "cognitive triad" refers to a depressed individual's negative outlook about one's self, the world, and the future.
• Self-control theories view youngsters with depression as having difficulty organizing their behavior in relation to long-term goals.
• The single best predictor of a child's risk for major depressive disorder is a family history of depression.
• Children of depressed parents have a higher rate of physical injuries.
• Brain activity in youths with depression is less active than normal in regions associated with sensory processes.
• Under-involvement is NOT a typical characteristic of families of children with depression.
• Depressed children, compared to nondepressed, experience more severe stressful events and more daily hassles in the year preceding the depression.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy for Adolescents (IPT-A) are the most successful treatments for major depressive disorder.
• Cognitive therapy focuses on helping youth become more aware of pessimistic and negative thoughts, as well as causal attributions of self-blame for failure.
• Fluoxetine (Prozac) is the only SSRI currently FDA-approved for treating depression in children.
• Due to increased suicide risk with SSRIs, the FDA has mandated warning labels on medication and patient education guides.
• Boys are more commonly diagnosed with bipolar disorder than girls - this statement is false.
• Regarding bipolar disorder, boys display more manic behaviors than girls.
• Children/adolescents displaying numerous and persistent hypomanic and depressive symptoms can be classified as having cyclothymic disorder.
• Bipolar II disorder is the diagnosis a child is least likely to receive.
• Insomnia is NOT a common symptom of bipolar disorder that is present for years before an initial manic episode.
• Mental retardation is least likely to co-occur with bipolar disorder in young people.
• Bipolar disorder appears to result from a genetic vulnerability in combination with environmental factors.
• Brain imaging studies in adolescents with bipolar disorder point to abnormalities in parts of the brain that regulate emotion.
• Lithium is the first choice in the treatment of bipolar disorder in general.
• Valproate causes weight gain and is used to treat bipolar disorder.
• Alcohol abuse is more frequently found in bulimia nervosa compared with anorexia nervosa.
• Anorexia has a higher prevalence rate than bulimia - this statement is false.
• Compensatory behaviors are always present in bulimia nervosa, but not binge eating disorder (BED).
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder is most commonly comorbid with eating disorders.
• Amenorrhea was removed as a criterion for anorexia nervosa because females with all anorexia nervosa symptomology and those with all symptomology but amenorrhea were psychologically identical.
• The sociocultural model posits that the idealization of thinness and portrayals of slim role models in the media contribute to widespread body dissatisfaction.
• BN in DSM-5 has two subtypes, purging, and non-purging - this statement is false.
• Laxative use is an indicator of the most severe psychopathology in females with eating disorders.
• Anorexia nervosa is extremely rare in African American females.
• The two forms of anorexia nervosa are binge eating/purging and restricting.
• Exposure treatment involves treatments based on imaging, watching, or actually doing phobia-related activities.
• Obsessions are defined as intrusive unwanted thoughts, images, or impulses that can be experienced as aversive, alien, or frightening.
• Panic attacks are defined as the likelihood from 0% to 100% that doing a task would result in a panic attack.
• Panic is NOT an example of a psychosocial problem.
• Perceived danger is defined as the perceived likelihood, from 0% to 100%, of a harmful outcome resulting from a given action.
• Anticipated panic is defined as the likelihood from 0% to 100% that doing a task would result in a panic attack.
• In vivo exposure involves when people directly perform their avoided activities.
• The hippocampus is of interest to PTSD research because of its association with conditioned fear and associative learning.
• Cognitive treatments for PTSD focus on changes in the person's understanding of the trauma and its meaning in their life.
• Depersonalization refers to "out-of-body" experiences.
• PTSD and ASD DO NOT differ on exposure to a threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.
• Skills-based treatment for PTSD does not focus on the trauma as much as other treatments.
• Derealization refers to the perception of the unreality of being in a dreamlike state.
• Exposure to an event is a required diagnostic criterion that distinguishes trauma and stressor-related disorders from other DSM disorders.
• The areas involved in fear conditioning and extinction are regions where neuroimaging studies of PTSD have primarily focused.
• Prevention attempts to prevent psychopathology; treatment attempts to treat psychopathology once it develops.
• The dual representation model of memory in PTSD suggests that sensory representations are overrepresented.

Explore the onset, symptoms, and risk factors of depression in children and adolescents. Understand the impact of early depression, gender differences, and the influence of stress and coping mechanisms. Learn about the increased risk of depression in adolescent girls and vulnerable groups as they transition into adulthood.