Interventions for Depression and Mood Disorders

Abstract

Although anxiety, depression, and mood disorders share some common origins, characteristics, and symptoms, there are differences in how treatment is conceptualized, developed, and implemented. A distinguishing developmental difference is that, while anxiety is a normal experience in all persons, depression does not have this characteristic. Although it is common for children, adolescents, and adults to have periods of “feeling down,” feeling “blue,” “sad,” or “having the blahs,” they are not chronic or severe and do not impair functioning to a significant degree. Often, they are situation specific and last only a few hours or days. Although anxiety has some specific developmental “markers” (e.g., stranger anxiety and separation anxiety in infancy), there are not similar developmental manifestations of depression and mood in children and youth. Of course, adolescence is a time when teens are frequently described as “moody” and irritable and may have more periods of unhappiness, but their functioning typically is not so impaired that intervention is needed. Apart from the teen years, there are not specific ages or circumstances in which mood problems are manifested in almost all children.