Early Childhood Depression

Early childhood depression.

Although empirical evidence has recently validated clinical depression in children as young as age 3, few data are available to guide treatment of early childhood depression. Considering this gap in the literature, a novel dyadic psychotherapeutic model, Parent Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion Development, based on a well-known and effective manualized treatment for disruptive preschoolers, is...

Functional connectivity of the amygdala in early-childhood-onset depression.

OBJECTIVE Adult major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with reduced cortico-limbic functional connectivity thought to indicate decreased top-down control of emotion. However, it is unclear whether such connectivity alterations are also present in early-childhood-onset MDD. METHOD A total of 51 children 7 through 11 years of age who had been prospectively studied since preschool age, co...

Childhood Depression

Mothers depression in early childhood increases the risk of adolescent anxiety and depression.

Main results After controlling for poverty and marital relationship factors, maternal anxiety and depression during early childhood predicted high anxiety and depression symptoms at age 14. The effect was small, but increased with repeated exposure to maternal depression. Poverty, marital break-up and distressed marital relationships during the child’s first five years also increased the risk o...

ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION Treatment of Clinical Anxiety and Depression in Early Childhood

Despite symptoms of anxiety and depression being common in this age group, we have very few treatment options specifically targeted to young children. Treatment research that has included this age group has often also included much older children and has not reported the results separately for different age groups. Therefore, treatments that, superficially, appear appropriate for younger childr...