Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 5/2012

01-05-2012 | Original Paper

Depressive disorders in school children of suburban India: an epidemiological study

Authors: Sukanto Sarkar, Vinod Kumar Sinha, Samir Kumar Praharaj

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 5/2012

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

There is a dearth of research on the prevalence of depressive disorders in children from suburban and rural areas in the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, the present study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of depressive disorders and the associated risk factors in the primary and secondary school children in suburban India.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional, school-based epidemiological study involving 1,851 children from standard I to VII age group. Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children (K-SADS-PL), a semi-structured interview was used to diagnose depression in this sample.

Results

Using K-SADS-PL, prevalence of depressive disorder was 3.13% (n = 58); major depressive disorder was diagnosed in 15 (0.81%), dysthymia in 28 (1.51%) and depressive disorder NOS in 15 (0.81%). Age (OR 1.396, CI 1.121–1.738), class attendance (OR 0.251, CI 0.103–0.613), family history of psychiatric illness (OR 0.204, CI 0.069–0.605) and birth complications (OR 0.128, CI 0.029–0.558) emerged as significant predictors of depression; the model explained 24.1–32.3% of the variance in this sample.

Conclusion

The present study confirms the findings from previous studies that childhood depression is a distinct diagnostic entity affecting a significant number of children and adolescents.
Literature
1.
Schulterbrandt JG, Raskin A (1977) Depression in childhood: diagnosis treatment and conceptual models. Raven Press, New York
2.
Weller EB, Weller RA, Fristad MA (1984) Historical and theoretical perspectives on childhood depression. In: Weller EB, Weller RA (eds) Current perspectives on major depressive disorders in children. American Psychiatric Press, Washington, pp 1–18
3.
Weller EB, Weller RA, Fristad MA (1984) Assessment and treatment of childhood depression. In: Weller EB, Weller RA (eds) Current perspectives on major depressive disorders in children. American Psychiatric Press, Washington, pp 27–35
4.
Akiskal HS, Weller ES (1989) Mood disorders and suicide in children and adolescents. In: Kaplan HI, Sadock BJ (eds) Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry, vol 2, 5th edn. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
5.
Angold A (1998) Childhood and Adolescent depression II. Research in clinical population. Br J Psychiatry 140:23–29
6.
Harrington R, Fudge H, Rutter M, Pickles A, Hill J (1997) Adult outcomes of child and adolescent depression: psychiatric status. Arch Gen Psychiatry 47:465–473CrossRef
7.
Alpert JE, Faver M, Vebelacher LA (1999) Pattern of axis I comorbidity in early-onset versus late-onset major depressive disorder. Biol Psychiatry 46:202–211PubMedCrossRef
8.
Beardslee WR, Salt P, Porterfield K (1993) Comparison of preventive interventions for families with parental affective disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32:254–263PubMedCrossRef
9.
Edelbrock C, Achenbach TN (1980) A typology of child behaviour profile patterns: distribution and correlates for disturbed children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 8:441–470PubMedCrossRef
10.
Rutter M, Tizard J, Whitemore K (1970) Education health and behaviour. Longman, London
11.
12.
Roberts RE, Attisson C, Forenblatt A (1998) Prevalence of psychopathology among children and adolescents. Am J Psychiatry 155:715–725PubMed
13.
Fleming JE, Offord DR, Bongle MH (1989) Prevalence of childhood and adolescent depression in community: Ontasio Child Health Study. Br J Psychiatry 155:647–654PubMed
14.
Simonoff E, Pickles A, Meyer JM (1997) The Virginia twin study of adolescent behavioral development: influences of age sex and impairment on rates of disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry 54:801–808PubMedCrossRef
15.
Cohen P, Cohen J, Kasen S (1993) An epidemiological study of disorder in late childhood and adolescence. Age-and gender-specific prevalence. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 34:851–867PubMedCrossRef
16.
Olsson GI, von Knorring AL (1999) Adolescent depression: prevalence in Swedish high-school students. Acta Psychiatr Scand 99:324–331PubMedCrossRef
17.
Bhargava SC (2000) A study of depressive disorder in children. Indian J Psychiatry 42:38–39
18.
Shenoy J, Kapur M, Kaliaperumal VG (1998) Psychological disturbance among 5- to 8-year-old school children: a study from India. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 33:66–73PubMedCrossRef
19.
Choudhury P, Srinath S, Grimaji S, Seshadri S (1995) A study of childhood onset affective disorder. NIMHANS J 13:97–100
20.
Malhotra S, Nitin G, Gagandeep S (1999) Retrospective study of affective disorders in children attending a child psychiatry clinic. Indian J Med Res 109:71–75
21.
Malhotra S, Kohli A, Arum P (2002) Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in school children in Chandigarh, India. Indian J Med Res 116:21–28PubMed
22.
Srinath S, Girimaji SC, Gururaj G, Seshadri S, Subbakrishna DK, Bhola P et al (2005) Epidemiological study of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders in urban and rural areas of Bangalore, India. Indian J Med Res 122:67–79PubMed
23.
Tharoor H, Kar N, Shameera Jagdisha (2002) Profile of childhood depression in a south Indian clinic population. Indian J Psychiatry 44:9–11
24.
25.
Malhotra S, Das PP (2007) Understanding childhood depression. Indian J Med Res 125:115–128PubMed
26.
Kaufman J, Birmaher B, Brent D (1997) Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL): initial reliability and validity data. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36:980–988PubMedCrossRef
27.
Gupta I, Verma M, Singh T, Gupta V (2001) Prevalence of behavioral problems in school going children. Indian J Pediatr 68:323–326PubMedCrossRef
28.
Dalal M, Kapur M, Subbakrishna DK (1991) Prevalence and pattern of psychological disturbance in school going adolescent girls. Ind J Clin Psychol 17:83–88
29.
Sarkar AP, Kapur M, Kaliperumal VG (1995) The prevalence and pattern of psychological disturbance in school going middle childhood children. NIMHANS J 13:33–41
30.
Kashani JH, McGee RO, Clarkson SE, Anderson JC, Walton LA, Williams S, Silva PA, Robins AJ, Cytryn L, McKnew DH (1983) Depression in a sample of 9 year old children: prevalence and associated characteristics. Arch Gen Psychiatry 40:1217–1223PubMedCrossRef
31.
Anderson JC, Williams S, McGee R, Silva PA (1987) DSM-III disorders in preadolescent children: prevalence in a large sample from the general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry 44:69–77PubMedCrossRef
32.
Costello EJ, Angold A, Burns B, Erkanli A (1996) The Great Smoky Mountains study of youth: goals, designs, methods and the prevalence of DSM-III-R disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 53:1129–1136PubMedCrossRef
33.
Bhola P, Kapur M (2003) Child and adolescent psychiatric epidemiology in India. Indian J Psychiatry 45:208–217PubMed
34.
Krishnakumar P, Geeta MG (2006) Clinical profile of depressive disorder in children. Indian Pediatr 43:521–526PubMed
35.
Kovacs M, Gatsonis C (1994) Secular trends in age at onset of major depressive disorder in a clinical sample of children. J Psychiatr Res 28:319–329PubMedCrossRef
36.
Brumback RA, Staton RD, Wilson H (1980) Neuropsychological study of children during and after remission of endogenous depressive episodes. Am J Psychiatry 50:1163–1167
37.
Kovacs M, Feinberg TL, Crouse-Novak MA, Paulauskas SL, Finkelstein R (1984) Depressive disorders in childhood. A longitudinal prospective study of characteristics and recovery. Arch Gen Psychiatry 11:229–237CrossRef
38.
Kendler KS (1995) Genetic epidemiology in psychiatry. Taking both genes and environment seriously. Arch Gen Psychiatry 52:895–899PubMedCrossRef
39.
Mitchell J, McCauley E, Burle PM, Mass SJ (1988) Phenomenology of depression in children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1:12–20CrossRef
40.
Ferro T, Carlson GA, Grayson P, Klein DN (1994) Depressive disorders: distinctions in children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33:664–670PubMedCrossRef
41.
Garber J, Hilsman R (1992) Cognition, stress, and depression in children and adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin North Am 1:129–167
42.
Marton P, Connolly J, Kutcher S, Korenblum M (1993) Cognitive social skills and social self-appraisal in depressed adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32:739–744PubMedCrossRef
Metadata
Title
Depressive disorders in school children of suburban India: an epidemiological study
Authors
Sukanto Sarkar
Vinod Kumar Sinha
Samir Kumar Praharaj
Publication date
01-05-2012
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 5/2012
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0383-7

Other articles of this Issue 5/2012

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 5/2012 Go to the issue

Original Paper

Prevalence of externalizing behavior problems in Sri Lankan preschool children: birth, childhood, and sociodemographic risk factors

Original Paper

Unemployment among patients with newly diagnosed first-episode psychosis: prevalence and clinical correlates in a US sample

Original Paper

Alcohol use and mental distress as predictors of non-response in a general population health survey: the HUNT study

Original Paper

Generating small-area prevalence of psychological distress and alcohol consumption: validation of a spatial microsimulation method

Original Paper

Coping strategies and social support as predictors and mediators of eating disorder carer burden and psychological distress

Original Paper

Associations between DSM-IV diagnosis, psychiatric symptoms and morning cortisol levels in a community sample of adolescents