Social Worker Shares Stats on Childhood Depression

Brian Quinn, a clinical social worker specializing in childhood depression and bipolar disorder, recently met with parents at Kings Park's Mary DeRose Parent Resource Center to discuss what he sees as a definitive increase in emotional disorders affecting children.

At the same time, he's not sure medication is the answer.

“I’m not anti-drug, it’s about getting the right drug,” said Quinn. “Bottom line, you want to make sure the person you are seeing is not treating symptoms but treating the illness.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 2.5 percent of all children and 8.3 percent of all adolescents suffer from some type of clinical depression, and about one in four teens meet the criteria for bipolar disease.

So how do you tell if your child has regular adolescent angst or a depressive illness, an anxiety disorder or is bipolar?

When it comes to depression, Quinn said if a child has five or more of these symptoms for two weeks, you are probably looking at a depressive illness: Loss of interest or pleasure, weight loss/gain or failure to gain weight, sleep disturbance, agitation or lethargy, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. Quinn said it’s common for depressed kids or adolescents to become irritable.

“It’s often said that children don’t get sad, they get bad,” he said.

However, depressive illness is more than one episode of depression. A bout of depression can happen if a child experiences loss – it could be a pet or grandparent or even a divorce. But Quinn said for it to be an illness, it has to be persistent and last for two weeks to a month and be present every day. There are many ways in which childhood depression differs from adults, and duration is one of them.

“In adolescents and kids, these depressions can be very long-lasting – the average length of one of these depression is six to 12 months," he said. Quinn said to look at family history because depression and bipolar do run in families.

Christine Rossner is the co-creator of the Mary DeRose Parent Center, which put the seminar together. She said parents brought up the idea of the seminar at a Council of Schools meeting.

“I do think people are identifying depression more as an illness and getting a better understanding of the brain being an organ that needs to be taken care of in the same way as the heart, lungs and every other vital organ in the body,” she said.

When looking into family histories, Quinn said to look for a history of suicide, alcoholism, high achievement or creativity – these things can indicate bipolar disorder in a family.

When it comes to bipolar disease in kids and teens, Quinn said that according to the Journal of Affective Disorders, it has increased 4,000 percent since 1994-95, and he believes the most effective treatment for bipolar is lithium. However, he says there is a definite stigma about this drug that was invented back in 1817 – that it is for those who are especially mentally ill.

“It’s an effective antidepressant, it prevents suicide, it promotes growth in certain parts of the brain and it reduces early death from heart disease,” explained Quinn.

Quinn said the average age of onset for bipolarity is between 15 years old and 19 years old. For depressive disorder, the average onset is the late 20s.

“Earlier age of onset for depression means the child will be more likely develop bipolar,” said Quinn.