Current Issue April 2012 | Vol. 21, No. 2
Current Topic
April 2012
Child and Adolescent DepressionStuart J. Goldman, MD and Frances J. Wren, MD, Guest Editors
The childhood depressive disorders, in aggregate, affect approximately 15% of all children and adolescents by the age of 18. The toll on individuals and families is immense. As a field we are evolving from a static, linear descriptive concept of the depressive disorders to a broader developmentally informed, transactional model of understanding. Our knowledge of biological vulnerability, expressed through genetic, temperamental, and developmental risk, and its transactions with the environment is ever-expanding. Recent work on emotional regulation gives a powerful new lens through which to view the evolution across childhood and adolescence of the lived experience and clinical presentation of depression.
