The IAA One Minute Blog

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued updated guidelines that call for a yearly depression screening for all adolescents.

New Guidelines

The AAP recommends depression screening for all children between the ages of 12 and 21.

The guidelines according to the AAP are intended to assist primary care “clinicians in the identification and initial management of adolescents with depression in an era of great clinical need and shortage of mental health specialists.”

In the first update to guidelines in 10 years, pediatricians are encouraged to talk to their young patients alone.

Most pediatricians use a self-reported questionnaire for teens to fill out, including information on whether or how often they are feeling down, depressed or hopeless, and whether they have little interest or pleasure in doing things. Sleep patterns are also examined.   

Currently, about 50 percent of adolescents with depression are diagnosed before reaching adulthood and as many as two in three depressed teens don’t get care, according to the AAP.

Signs and Symptoms

Childhood depression is different from normal “blues” and everyday emotions that occur as a child develops. Children with depression may display these symptoms:

• Change in eating habits
• Change in grades, getting in trouble at school or refusing to go to school
• Difficulty sleeping or concentrating
• Feeling angry or irritable
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
• Frequent sadness or crying
• Increased sensitivity to rejection 
• Loss of energy
• Low self-esteem
• Mood swings
• Physical complaints (such as stomachaches and headaches) that don’t respond to treatment
• Thoughts of death or suicide
• Withdrawing from friends and activities

When symptoms last for a short period of time, it may be a passing case of “the blues.” But if they last for more than two weeks and interfere with regular daily activities, your child may have a depressive disorder.

Depression in children can be caused by any combination of factors that relate to physical health, life events, family history, environment, genetic vulnerability, and biochemical disturbance.

As many as two to three percent of children ages six to 12 and six to eight percent of teens may have serious depression.  

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