Depression in Children

It’s a general misconception that depression can only affect teenagers and old people. Recently it has been found that even children are largely affected by this major chronic mental disorder of depression. It’s little hard to believe but it’s a fact that even babies can suffer of depression. We always have heard that children suffer of anxiety but the truth is they are also vulnerable to depression with the same probability as we all do.

As compared to grown up people, babies have to suffer a lot as they are unable to express their feelings or discomfort. It all depends on parents that how well they judge the problems of their baby. Symptoms of depression by baby are quite different than those of general symptoms. They may not be able to eat, sleep or play properly. Most of the time, hey keep on crying without any appropriate reason. Children of growing age will not feel comfortable with their friends or relatives; they may show anxiety and unusual behavior all the time. Children while being neglected or discouraged may develop major symptoms of depression that can even lead to some dangerous act.

Children with such symptoms should immediately be taken to psychologist. Parents have to understand that their child needs some extra care and affection while they are being suffering from such symptoms. A brief assessment of depression syndrome for your child would be done by depression inventory. Finally the child psychologist will decide what kind of treatment that child should be given. In some major cases, a child has to be sent to pediatrician so as to find out the exact cause behind depression. Most commonly found reason behind a child’s depression is the family environment. Chaos and disputes among parents is the chief cause of such symptoms in their child. Hence it’s prime duty of parents to understand psychological behavior of their child and behave accordingly.