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Some people just
always seem to have the "blahs." These may be the
students that we think of as being depressed over
the long term. They may always seen "down in the
dumps" even if there's nothing particularly
depressing going on in their lives, and when asked,
may tell you that they've "always" been this way.
Or maybe they always seem "cranky" or slightly
irritable. While symptoms in children may appear a
bit different than in adults, the key features here
are the duration of the depressed mood and the
presence of at least two of the following symptoms
we associate with the depressed
mood:
- change in
appetite/eating habits,
- change in
sleeping habits,
- low energy or
fatigue,
- poor
self-esteem,
- poor
concentration or difficulty making decisions,
and
- feelings of
hopelessness
By now, you
will probably recognize the above as signs of
depression.
But what
happens to children with dysthymia? Do
the symptoms progress into full-blown depression or
do they remit? In some cases, they do evolve into
Major Depression.
Hayden and
Klein (2001) assessed 86 patients with early-onset
dysthymia (i.e., prior to age 21) over a 5-year
period. They found that a number of factors
predicted outcome. Dysthymia was more likely to
evolve into depression in cases where there was a
family history of dysthymia, a history of poor
childhood relationship with parents, childhood
sexual abuse, cluster C features, neuroticism, a
history of anxiety and eating disorders, and/or
chronic stress.
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* Cluster C
personality disorders constitute the
anxious/fearful set of personality disorders, and
include Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder,
Avoidant Personality Disorder, and Dependent
Personality Disorder.
I do not know
the original author of the "SAD FACES
+ GWV" mnemonic.
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