What Does A Depressed Child Look Like? - Bipolar Disorder and Seasonal Affective Disorder in Children

Written by HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer

Comorbid Depression in Children

Comorbidity means that certain disorders occur more often together than one would expect by chance. For example, diabeties and obesity. The concept of comorbidity is very important in psychiatry. It is very common that a person with depression will also have another childhood neuropsychiatric disorder.

In this situation, a child has a preexisting chronic psychiatric illness and then becomes depressed. The episode of depression occurs along with the other disorder so that the child actually shows signs of two or three psychiatric disorders at the same time. About 50% of children with depression also have conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder, 40% of children with depression have anxiety disorder, and 25% of children with depression have attention deficit disorder. Often the episode of depression will go away and leave the other psychiatric problem unchanged.

Bipolar Depression in Children

In this case, children have episodes of depression, some episodes of wellness, and also some episodes of mania, which is the opposite of depression. The depression looks pretty much the same as above. Sometimes children are depressed and manic at the same time. (Read more info abuot bipolar disorder in children)

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in Children

It has become clear in the last few years that some children have depression only in one season, usually winter. It starts to worsen in late October and reaches its peak in January. By March things are usually on the mend. This can be extremely disabling, as this is usually when the hardest school work is.

Approximately 3-4% of school-age children have SAD disorder. There are many studies to show that light boxes can help adults with this condition. There are also studies in which this technique is used in children. This usually means sitting in front of a specially made light box and doing something for about 30 minutes five times a week. These boxes are not hard to make or purchase. Unfortunately, children are sometimes not compliant with them. Another technique is a dawn stimulator, which is a light which gets steadily brighter, mimicing a spring or summer morning.

next: How to Help a Depressed Child
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