Presentation on depression in children and adolescents

1. Child Nodal centre
Institute of mental health and neurosciences
Kashmir
Psychosocial programme UNICEF
NASIR GEELANI

2.  Depression is a mood state characterized by of sadness,
loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self
worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness,
and poor concentration.
 Depression can be long lasting or recurrent.
 It can substantially impair an individual’s ability to
function at work or school or cope with daily life.
 At it’s most severe, depression can lead to suicide.

3. How is it different from adults and how to recognize?
 The symptoms and duration of depression in
children is very different from that of adults
 The co morbidities with other disorders is very
high

4. Markers
 Physical complaints
 Academic decline
 School absenteeism
 Irritability, complaining
 Unexplained crying
 Social isolation
 Poor communication
 Extreme rejection sensitivity
 Difficulty in relationships
 Substance abuse

5. Mood
Anxiety age
Regression gender
Academic difficulties family
Aggression development
Technology use

7.  Observations to be made throughout interaction
 Verbal interviewing
 Behavior + thought + feelings

8. Sadness
 Do you feel sad?
 How often do you feel sad?
 When do you feel sad?
 How bad does it get?
 What is the worst it has ever been?
 How long does it last?
 When you feel sad, what do you feel like doing?
 When you feel sad, is there anything that helps you to feel better?
 How often do you cry?
 When you feel like crying, what comes to your mind?

9.  Irritability
 When you first open your eyes in the morning, how do you feel?
 How often do you feel irritated?
 What does it take for you to feel irritated?
 When you feel irritated, how long do you feel like that?
 Is there anything that makes the irritated feeling go away?
 When do you lose your temper?
 What happens when you lose your temper?
 Do you ever feel like hurting yourself or someone else?
 Do you ever feel like breaking/damaging things?

10.  •Physical appearance Cooperative behavior
 •Gait & posture Psychomotor activity
 •Exploratory behavior Involuntary movements
 •Playfulness Behavioral evidence of emotion
 •Relatedness Repetitious activity
 •Eye contact Disturbances of attention
 •Behavioral organization Speech

11.  Recognizing Basic human emotions and being able to
name them.
 Trainees will be given cards with pictures of different
human emotions and they have to name them.
 This will help them teach children how to recognize
basic human emotions accurately.

13.  Giving participants sheets , where they have to
write their thoughts about some events.
 The sheets will have incomplete sentences about
their day to day life and a pictorial space “called
thought bubble “ where they will write their
thoughts.