Provided by David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
Surgeon General of the United States of America
Chapter 3: Children and Mental Health
Overview of Mental Disorders in Children
Depression and Suicide in Children and Adolescents
Causes
Family and Genetic Factors
Much of the research on children and adolescents with
depression has been conducted with those who attend mental health clinics and
with patients who tend to have the more severe and recurrent forms of
depression, and thus they may not be representative of all children and
adolescents with depression. With this limitation, research has shown that
between 20 and 50 percent of depressed children and adolescents have a family
history of depression (Puig-Antich et al., 1989; Todd et al., 1993; Williamson
et al., 1995; Kovacs, 1997b). Family research has found that children of
depressed parents are more than three times as likely as children with
nondepressed parents to experience a depressive disorder (see Birmaher et al.,
1996a, 1996b for a review). They also are more vulnerable to other mental and
somatic disorders (Downey & Coyne, 1990). Conversely, estimates of the
proportion of depressed parents who have a depressed child or adolescent vary
from approximately one in six to just under a half (Hammen et al., 1990). It is
not clear whether the relationship between parent and childhood depression
derives from genetic factors, or whether depressed parents create an environment
that increases the likelihood of a mental disorder developing in their children
(see below).
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