Childhood and Adolescent Depression

Question: Write an essay on Childhood and Adolescent Depression? Answer: Introduction: With the increasing awareness and sensitivity on mental health problem many researchers are trying hard to find context specific solutions in treatment. Mainly the depression among adolescents and children is considered important due to problem in diagnosis and difficulty in treatment course. The following 2 articles present this account in critiqued manner. Article#1 Bhatia, Shashi K. and Bhatia, Subhash C. (2007). Childhood and Adolescent Depression, American Family Physician, 75(1):73-80. Summary of article#1 The current paper (Bhatia and Bhatia, 2007) presents a critique of incidence of psychological problems among adolescents and children, their importance, assessment and therapies in terms of significant impact and overall a sensitization for a holistic intervention. While many types of important depression are found among a relatively lower proportion of children as well as adolescents, the effect of such depression on children are negatively manifested in a number of life aspects such as developmental growth, performance in education, maintaining relationship with family members and even up to a suicide level. Even some of the risks are biomedical in nature in addition to psychosocial type of risks among adolescent and children. In this line a number of determinants play significant role in aggravating to those risks. They could be abuse experienced by children, enhanced level of young age sex illnesses and life with increased stress level. While the procedure and criteria to diagnos tic this kind of depression among adolescents and children continue to be similar to those among adults, one may find differences in symptom expressed at various stages. This is more conspicuous in developmental phase and even it is often difficult to get expression by adolescent as well as children in terms of their internal level mood. This paper calls for devising safer and more effective type of diagnosis as well as treatment specifically employing proper assessment of risks among the children and using therapies based on scientific evidences. In critiquing the therapies and diagnostic process available across medical system, the authors supports the therapy of cognitive behavior in case mild depression among children and even up to moderate depression, however given the condition of its unavailability it is suggested to use antidepressant in tackling these kind of problems. In the same line of examining the therapies, the article recommends the use of antidepressants for severe type of depression side by side the cognitive behavior therapy. It also infers that use of tricyclic type of antidepressants could be ineffective in addition to major side effects on childrens life. Since in this situation the effectiveness of some serotonin based inhibitors is considered limited, the use of fluoxetine could be useful as a therapy to tackle depression in children. And since some amount of risk towards suicide is anticipated from use of most antidepressants, there is need of education and awareness among parents and necessary monitoring should be considered as proper intervention. For this reason required amount of safety, convincing endeavors with patients and continuous monitoring by doctors should be in place to tackle such emergency situations. Reaction to article #1 The paper is found to be very meaningful for work in school psychology, counseling, or teaching mainly due to the clear illustration of the paper in terms of incidence of psychological problems among adolescents and children, their importance, assessment and therapies in terms of significant impact and overall a sensitization for a holistic intervention. The merit of the paper lies with the systematic assessment of factors behind the depression among children and adolescents and the possible treatment for context specific problems. This also signifies the preparatory activities associated with possible suicidal problems during the therapy process. I agree with the authors point of view that the treatments schools be decided by the physician based on the contexts such as step by step procures and necessary precautions before the process such as awareness to parents, discussion with patients and doctors continuous monitoring. While the strengths of this article lies with the systematic analysis of problems associated with depression among children and he treatment recommendations, some amount of limitations of the article lies with the generalization across population. The article thus concludes that there is a need to understand the factors behind the depression among children as the expression is difficult. Also the treatment should be added with necessary preparations from doctors taking into confidence the parents, guardian and patients at the same time. This article also for this reason develops new ideas to the body of literature. Article#2 Clark, Molly S.; Jansen, Kate L. and Cloy, J. Anthony (2012). Treatment of Childhoodband Adolescent Depression, American Family Physician, 86 (5): 442-448. Summary of article#2 This article (Clark et al. 2012) presents make a detailed illustration of relevance of depression related disorders among adolescent and children versus that in adults, in addition to a critique of medical and technical problems associated with diagnosis and required treatment among adolescents and children compared to adults. Hence the authors provide inputs for practitioners and at the same time contribute the greater body of knowledge for better intervention for children and adolescent with such depression related problems. It has been well accepted across medical fraternity as well as in general that many important depression related disorders among adolescents and children lead to visible problems. These in turn have impact over various life conditions at physical level in addition to social and emotional development. The most important factors that are behind the elevated risks of these depressive disorders generally range from family level to individual level situations. At fa mily level the factors such as depression in family history, conflict between parents contribute to the depressive disorders among children and the adolescents. The individual level factors such as negative type of thinking by children and adolescents, poor relationships among their peer groups, inadequate quantity and poor quality of skills to cope with depressive conditions all play the role of enhancing factors behind the depressive symptoms of children as well as the adolescents. Given that there are some similarities in the criteria for diagnosis of depressive disorder among children with that in adults identified by the medical system there are clear differentials visible in terms of expression of symptoms in varying contexts and follow up there after. The exception is seen more among children as compared to adults in terms of formers inability to fully express sad mood rather in the form of irritability in the situation of sad state or in depressed mood circumstance. Even the loss of weight among adolescent and children too is often taken into consideration for use in case of failure by the physician in reaching at correct milestones for weight. Given that there are differential conditions and problem in symptomatic express and other medico-technical issues, it is suggested for better treatment options, one must consider a host of factors such as severity of the depression the child is experiencing, probability of suicide behavior, the stages of development in addition to social and other environmental factors of the adolescent and children. Some psychological and psychiatric treatments may also work better in children contexts, such as therapy of cognitive behavior modifying and even interpersonal treatment could work well in case of such patients (children and adolescents) experiencing mild quantity of depression. In addition some sort of adjuvant type of treatments for children with moderate up to severe amount of depression may be recommended by med ical fraternity for better result. Some medical researchers as the current author too suggest for applying pharmaco-therapy for the patients mainly the adolescent and children when one observe moderate and even severe type of depression problems. The use of antidepressants such as Tricyclic types may not necessarily is found to be effective for such children patients and affected adolescents context. Given that there boxed type warning in case of antidepressants to be triggering any possible increase in risk of committing suicide, necessary care need to taken in advance for proper assessment options, continuous monitoring, safety type of planning in addition to adequate and in-depth education and awareness to family members of the patient during the course of treatment. Reaction to article #2 The current article is really comes out to be a meaningful one mainly in terms of its relevance in school level psychology, counseling, and also teaching. This is because of a detailed illustration of significance this paper lays in terms of incidence of depression related problems among adolescents and children, their incidence, diagnosis assessments and treatment option to get significant effect of intervention that can be replicated. The merit therefore lies with this article by its systematic assessment of causal factors in depression disorders in children and adolescents followed by possible treatment option in context specific problems. This paper also sensitize about preparatory options associated with possible suicidal case during the therapy process. I fully agree with authors viewpoints about the treatments being decided by the physician examining the contexts such as step by step procures and required cautions before the process such as rendering education and awareness to family members, discussion with patients and continuous monitoring system in place. While the strengths of the paper is visible in its systematic analysis of problems associated with depression among children and the treatment recommendations, some limitations may be realized on the generalization across population. The authors thus conclude that there is a need to take full cognizance of factors of depression among children as the expression may vary and difficult to record. Conclusion: Since the mental health problem has been universally considered important it is worth to make study on this topic and mainly the depression among adolescents and children as there are problem at various stages of treatment. Both the papers are similar in terms of problems in diagnosis and difficulty in treatment course among adolescent and children. Hence they recommend a number of preparatory activities before treatment and take different options in vary contexts of severity of depression. . The following 2 articles present this account in critiqued manner. Overall both these articles provide lot of technical inputs for practitioners and also contribute a lot to the greater body of knowledge on children and adolescent with depression related problems. Reference 1. Bhatia, Shashi K. and Bhatia, Subhash C. (2007). 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Reivich, Karen; Gillham, Jane E.; Chaplin, Tara M. and Seligman, Martin E. P. (2012). From Helplessness to Optimism: The Role of Resilience in Treating and Preventing Depression in Youth, Handbook of Resilience in Children, June: 201-21411. Richardson LP, McCauley E, Grossman DC (2010). Evaluation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item for detecting major depression among adolescents. Pediatrics. 126(6):1117-1123.