Learning Center Articles

Development Implications

• Childhood depression
  • Symptoms
    • < Age 3: Feeding problems, tantrums, lack of playfulness and emotional expressiveness
    • Ages 3 to 5: Accident proneness, phobias, excessive self-reproach
    • Ages 6 to 8: Physical complaints, aggressive behavior, clinging behavior
    • Ages 9 to 12: Morbid thoughts and excessive worrying
  • Precipitated by a loss
  • Focus of therapy: Alleviate symptoms and strengthen coping skills
  • Parental and family therapy
• Adolescence
  • Symptoms include
    • Anger, aggressiveness
    • Running away
    • Delinquency
    • Social withdrawal
    • Sexual acting out
    • Substance abuse
    • Restlessness, apathy
  • Best clue that differentiates depression from normal stormy adolescent behavior
    • A visible manifestation of behavioral change that lasts for several weeks.
  • Most common precipitant to adolescent suicide
    • Perception of abandonment by parents or close peer relationship
  • Treatment with
    • Supportive psychosocial intervention
    • Antidepressant medication
• Senescence
  • Bereavement overload
  • High percentage of suicides among elderly
  • Symptoms of depression often confused with symptoms of neurocognitive disorder
  • Treatment
    • Antidepressant medication
    • Electroconvulsive therapy
    • Psychotherapies
• Postpartum depression
  • May last for a few weeks to several months
  • Associated with hormonal changes, tryptophan metabolism, or cell alterations
  • Treatments
    • Antidepressants and psychosocial therapies
  • Symptoms include
    • Fatigue/Irritability
    • Loss of appetite
    • Sleep disturbances
    • Loss of libido
    • Concern about inability to care for infant
• Transient depression
  • Symptoms at this level of the continuum are not necessarily dysfunctional.
    • Affective: The “blues”
    • Behavioral: Some crying
    • Cognitive: Some difficulty getting mind off of one’s disappointment
    • Physiological: Feeling tired and listless

June 10, 2020