Thursday, June 26, 2008

Anxiety and depression in children

A long-term study of 900 families in Norway followed children from 18 months through to adolescence looking into the causes of childhood anxiety and depression. 10-20% of all children and young people will, in the course of growing up, display enough symptoms of anxiety and depression to qualify for a diagnosis. Maternal distress symptoms, family stress and a lack of support in the child's pre-school environment all led to an increase in depression and anxiety symptoms at 12-13. Girls were more likely to develop emotional problems at 12-13 than boys. They were more likely to churn problems over and could be more vulnerable as they go through puberty earlier than boys. Timid and shy children were at a greater risk of developing depression and anxiety. Timid/shy children who were inactive were at three times the risk of developing depression and anxiety than timid/shy children who were active.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/06/23/family-stress-ups-childs-risk-of-distress/2485.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Depression is known to have been a very important factor in the increase of the suicide cases. Half of the people who commit suicide are known to be depression patients. The most controversial issue related to this is that antidepressants are not showing satisfactory results in people who go through suicidal tendencies due to depression. In many cases the suicidal tendencies experienced due to depression worsens in the patient after he or she is given antidepressants like xanax valium .

John Gale said...

Thanks for this interesting comment Steaphan