Psych · Child and adolescent psychiatry — depression
Child and adolescent depression
Also known as Adolescent depression · Paediatric major depression · Youth MDD · Childhood depression · CAMHS depression · Teen depression fluoxetine · TADS depression · Juvenile unipolar depression
Exam-exhaustive fellowship reference on child and adolescent depression — DSM-5-TR/ICD-11 developmental criteria (irritable mood), epidemiology, multi-informant assessment with private youth interview plus family and school, suicide and self-harm risk, organic and bipolar differentials, stepped care, fluoxetine dosing and activation monitoring, CBT/IPT-A/family work, TADS ADAPT TORDIA IMPACT evidence, GLAD-PC/NICE/RANZCP/AACAP framing, Gillick competence and disposition. Distinct from adult major-depressive-disorder and youth-self-harm-and-suicide topics. FRANZCP-primary, globally tagged.
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10 MCQs with explanations
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Red flags
Meet the patient
A 15-year-old is brought in by her father because her grades collapsed and "she's become impossible". She has not seen a friend in six weeks, sleeps until 2pm at weekends, and snaps at everyone. Her father wants to know why she is so angry. She has not said a word in the waiting room.[6][18]
Send the father out. Everything that matters — the ideation, the vaping, the group chat that turned on her, the paracetamol she counted last Tuesday — arrives in the ten minutes after the door closes. The single highest-yield act in youth depression is seeing the young person alone.[6][10][14]
You have read the opening of this topic. The complete unit — every section and its primary-source references — is part of the Psychiatry Fellowship fellowship atlas.
References24Show ledgerHide ledger
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- [3]Goodyer I, Dubicka B, Wilkinson P, et al. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and routine specialist care with and without cognitive behaviour therapy in adolescents with major depression: randomised controlled trial BMJ, 2007.PMID 17556431
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- [10]Zuckerbrot RA, Cheung A, Jensen PS, et al. Guidelines for Adolescent Depression in Primary Care (GLAD-PC): Part I. Practice Preparation, Identification, Assessment, and Initial Management Pediatrics, 2018.PMID 29483200
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- [20]Cox GR, Callahan P, Churchill R, et al. Psychological therapies versus antidepressant medication, alone and in combination for depression in children and adolescents Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2014.PMID 25433518
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- [22]Loades ME, Midgley N, Herring GT, et al. In Context: Lessons About Adolescent Unipolar Depression From the Improving Mood With Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Therapies Trial J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 2024.PMID 37121393
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