Depression in children and adolescents

Abstract

In recent years, the situation of child and adolescent psychiatry in Poland has dramatically deteriorated. 24-hour psychiatric wards dedicated to minors are overcrowded and it is almost exclusively patients who are a direct threat to their own health or life that are hospitalised. About 20% of children and adolescents have symptoms of various mental disorders, of which 10% (about 400,000) require specialist care. Depression is one of the most common health problems among children and adolescents and its prevalence increases with age and puberty. Depression can be chronic, with constant severity, or recurrent, when symptoms return in the form of mild, moderate or severe episodes. The mood disorders occurring in the developmental period carry many negative consequences in the emotional, social and educational functioning of the patient. They increase the risk of self-destructive behaviours, suicide, abuse of psychoactive substances, as well as later difficulties in many areas of life during adulthood.