DR. PETER JENSEN: Well, that's correct. In very young children, the child may not verbalize like an adolescent would be able to describe his or her feelings. An so for younger children, the parent has to observe changes in mood that more are exhibited by the child being more tearful, crying, loss of interest in maybe the child's normal activities. But there might also be vegetative or bodily changes, like changes in weight, sleeping more or sleeping less. But predominantly in children, irritability, and pronounced and prolonged sadness, easy crying would be the major signs.
In adolescents, all of those same things might be present. But adolescents get very good at hiding depression. And so frequently we find that an adolescent can be very depressed, but has to feel like they've got to put on a show to keep up the image, either around their parents, particularly around their peers. And so the parent will have real difficulty getting kind of an inroad and talking with the adolescent and finding out what's going on because the adolescent might be basically incommunicado and might be very depressed. But again, if it looks like the child's depressed, if there's easy, frequent irritability or tearfulness, talking about death or suicide, loss of interest in normal activities, decline in grades, staying alone in one's room for long periods of time- these would all be some of the warning signs.
LISA CLARK: Suffering from delusions may also be an indicator.
DR. PETER JENSEN: That wouldn't be very common one for depression, per se, unless it was a very, very severe case of depression that we sometimes call a psychotic level of depression. That would be uncommon. But it can occur.
LISA CLARK: How long does a depressive episode last for a child? Is this a lifelong thing? Is it measurable in terms of months, years?
