MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER

Major Depressive Disorder is also referred to as clinical depression and is a significant medical condition that can affect many areas of a child's life.

Instead of sadness in children and adolescents, you may see that they are irritable for no apparent reason.  In older teens and college students it is more common to experience a depressed mood or a loss of interest and /or pleasure in things that one used to enjoy doing. 

Some, but not all, of the symptoms for this disorder, are:

• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt

• Difficulty thinking or concentrating

• Somatic complaints (complaints of aches and pains throughout the body)

• Inability to make decisions

• Suicidal ideation or suicide plans or attempts

• Recurrent thoughts of death

• Increase or decrease in appetite

• Changes in one’s weight

• Changes in one's sleep patterns