Psychiatria Danubina, Vol. 28 No. 4, 2016.
Conference paper
HOW TO PREVENT DEPRESSION? CURRENT DIRECTIONS AND FUTURE CHALLENGES IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC MEDICAL CONDITIONS
Anna Felnhofer
; Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Oswald D. Kothgassner
; Division Clinical Psychology at the Medical Directorate of the Vienna General Hospital – Medical University Campus, Vienna, Austria; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Claudia Klier
; Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Abstract
With its high rates of chronicity and concomitant
economic costs to society, depression ranges among the most
prevalent mental disorders. Several trials have succeeded in
demonstrating the beneficial effects of early depression
prevention programs for otherwise healthy children and
adolescents. However, comparable programs for children and
adolescents with a medical condition are still scarce. This
paper discusses the situation of chronically ill children and
adolescents who are at risk of developing comorbid depressive
symptoms using the example of three conditions frequently
encountered in pediatric psychosomatic medicine: diabetes,
epilepsy and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Each patient
group is introduced with regards to specific risk factors and
correlates of depression. Also, existing customized depression
prevention programs and according research trials are
presented. Reviewing the body of literature, it becomes
apparent that risk factor research and depression prevention
are still in their infancy for these three patient groups. While
new risk factor models and biomarker approaches emerge as
a promising rationale for depression prevention, research is
called upon to include randomized control trials as well as
longitudinal designs in order to achieve more optimally
tailored preventive interventions for children and adolescents
with chronic medical conditions.
Keywords
children; depression; diabetes; epilepsy; inflammatory bowel disease
Hrčak ID:
177180
URI
Publication date:
12.12.2016.
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