Treatment for depression in children and adolescents

In the management of depressive states in children and adolescents a distinction should be drawn between: General antidepressive treatment, as exemplified by the attitude and approach adopted by the physician and by close reference persons towards the depressive child. Indirect antidepressive treatment consisting in: counselling of the parents or treatment for them (psychotherapy, psychotropic medication), family therapy, or admission of the child to a home; learning and teaching hygiene: preventing the child from becoming overtaxed as a result of his difficulty in learning and his impaired performance, recourse to conditioning procedures, demotion to a lower class at school, or transference to another school; initial and follow-up psychotherapy or cognitive therapeutic procedures in cases of 'endogenous' depression. Direct antidepressive treatment (sleep deprival, phototherapy, antidepressants).