European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 5, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Depressed Roums Yjean Marbella Ulmore Sun  Carria White can t identify an exact moment when it happened when she Lunod from sunny la depressed when she won from happily Riding and showing horses 1o wondering Al would happen if she drank bleach. It started gradually la s like you re standing in the allow end or a poof and you Star i walking to the deep a says Carrie a loth Grade student at a private tool in Baltimore it started around seven la Grade d by the fall of eighth Grade inc Light started to go i it bogged Down. The Winter of eighth Grade i was in a deep end of Iho Pool "  Al any age especially irom Somona so Jung. Bui As experts increasingly Are finding such ords and the depression behind them indeed can Sorrio from Iho mourns Al babes Eyen at age 7 or 8 they can lath  to holding their breath or jumping in Iron i a car is of. Robinson Munoz chief of the University of dryland Hospital s child psychiatric unit where Mare Jan Hall of the patients have been Admi led for Epie Sion about 2 to cent to 3 percent of children and teen Gers in the United. States Are believed to be seriously pressed studies have found with some particular soups such As teen age Girts showing even higher lies. The most common of mental illnesses,1 spress Lon Al flicks an estimated 5 percent of the population Al Large. An additional 1 percent suites irom panic depression a condition characterized by wild food swings. Researcher at the University of Missouri found 2.5 a cont of Iho children they studied were depressed Dye another study by a researcher in new Yoffy kind thai As Many As 7 percent of 13  old Iris Are depressed la has Only been in recent years that the idea that Hildren could oven be depressed has gained wider acceptance. I think people Are becoming More aware it can exist i Chitron says or. Paramjit Joshi. Who Heads the of alien clinic for depressed children that opened in july i Johns Hor Jons Hospital in Baltimore if you look for you find  spoiling potentially depressed youngsters and Leen Gers can be difficult. Many of the symptoms 6t expression. Such As changes in sleeping and eating Havior and mood swings Lor example mimic Baste Ardon variety i owing pains. What teen Ager for Sample has aval gotten through adolescence without ome sort of behavioural changes and mood swings la s much easier to Mako the distinction it the child shaved Belore Joshi says if the child has always can a pain it s harder to Tella lot of people will ust think they re being obnoxious agrees registered nurse Sally Mink who Saks with the Baltimore based support group Drada or depression and related Alt Active disorders is social Nobut there Are ways of distinguishing a tween obnoxious teen age behaviour and depression change is probably the Mam thing to look Lor. The Aan Agor suddenly can t get enough sleep or us an i sleep Al All. With these kids you d see a big Hange in their grades maybe or they can t once Trale they Don t derive pleasure anymore they Lon l like to hang around theft friends anymore " to help teachers and other adults who work with Hildren spot possible signs of depression before the How to recognize signs of depression in Young people Baltimore Sund expressed children and adolescents frequently display the seme symptoms As adults such As feelings of hopelessness for example and thoughts of or attempts Al suicide. The difference especially with very Young children is they May not be Able to articulate their problem As Well As adults. A study of 95 depressed children and 92 depressed adolescents conducted by the new York state psychiatric Institute found the following As the most commonly exhibited symptoms of depression irom 51 percent to 97 percent of the subjects displayed these qualities inability to Lee pleasure and Lack of interest. Decreased concentration irritability Ami anger. Fatigue. Negative sell esteem insomnia. Social withdrawal. Suicidal ideas.  and inappropriate guilt. Anorexia. The research published in the archives of general psychiatry in october 1987. Also found some differences in symptoms depending on age group. The children in the study whose average age was 10, were More Likely to exhibit these symptoms depressed appearance complaints about sleeping agitation separation anxiety. Phobias hallucinations the adolescents in the study with an average age of 15, were More. Likely to exhibit these symptoms1 inability to feel pleasure. Feo Fang of hopelessness sleeping Loo much weight change. Use of afro nor and illegal drugs gel to a Lile threatening Point Mink is distributing a video featuring Carrie while and her doctors speaking about her depression. Some adults wonder however what children could be depressed about. But such thoughts hit at the Root of a Basic misunderstanding about depression in Genera and childhood depression in particular clinical depression not the occasional blues that everyone lapses into on occasion need not be related to an incident like the loss of a loved one or instance. It s not in relation to something around you Joshi. Says. It s like developing  while Many people oils de the medical Field think depression is an All to your mind kind of problem experts say there Are physical biochemical and genetic explanations in Many cases. Depressed persons have been shown to have lower Levels of some brain chemicals for example. Other researchers have identified a genetic Marker or genetic defect on one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes that is related to developing manic depression. From 60 percent to 80. Percent of persons with this Marker ultimately  disorder according to the study which involved researchers at the University of Miami Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of technology. We have indirect evidence that this is a brain disease says or. Raymond Depaulo director of the Alfe calve disorders  Hopkins Hospital. We re closing in on under standing depression irom a mechanical Point of View such physical reasons for depression would explain Why some children and adolescents would suffer from the disease even if they have had non trauma la childhoods. Smi events such As death divorce and abuse do contribute to depression among youngsters triggering episodes of depression that can be debilitating if not created. One of the major causes has to do with losses through deals or through separation or divorce says or Alicia j. Guttman medical director of the child and1 adolescent psychiatric clinic Al inc University of Maryland Hospital. There can be a Lack of parental availability because of alcohol or drugs the effect of stress and loss on children is not entirely Clear. The question is where does bereavement end and major affective disorder Start Joshi says. If left untreated depression can be life threatening. The vast majority of suicides an estimated 60 percent to 60 percent of them result from depressive illness. Among the Young suicide has been increasing the suicide Rale in the United states among people 15 to 24 years old has risen Iso percent in the past 20 years and suicide is second Only to accidents As Tho most common cause of death among adolescent boys. And while Only an estimated 1 percent to 6 percent of those Solf in licked deaths Are considered Cluster or copycat suicides the problem is a big one. When it happens in s very traumatic for a Community says James mercy a sociologist who has studied Cluster suicides among youth Lor the Federal centers for disease control in Atlanta we compare it to n Tornado s Hilling the Community it s a crisis of tremendous proportions. There s a potential in a Cluster ,. Lor it is  but depression can be treated treating depressed children in fact is much like treating depressed adults therapy especially family therapy and in More severe cases anti depressant drugs 11 s. 1989 the stars and stripes Page 15