Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:12:21.265Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Classification and Diagnosis of Depression in School Phobia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Israel Kolvin ,
Thomas P. Berney  and
Surya R. Bhate
Israel Kolvin*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, Nuffield Psychology and Psychiatry Unit for Children and Young People, Fleming Memorial Hospital, Great North Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 3AX
Thomas P. Berney
Affiliation:
Prudhoe Hospital Northumberland and Nuffield Psychology and Psychiatry Unit, Newcastle upon Tyne
Surya R. Bhate
Affiliation:
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead and Nuffield Psychology and Psychiatry Unit, Newcastle upon Tyne
*
∗ Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Fifty-one school phobic children, aged nine to fourteen years, were assessed for psychiatric diagnosis; this revealed the presence of two clinically meaningful sub-groups—depressed and residual school phobic. A wide range of symptoms were studied to identify those which might prove useful in diagnosing adult-type depression in childhood and early adolescence, both in terms of frequency of symptoms in the depressed group and the extent of the distinction between the two groups. Eleven such key symptoms were identified and based on these, a formula for diagnosing adult-type depression was evolved. The validity of several different ways of classifying the above cases were explored; these covered: kind of disorder; type of onset; adolescence versus pre-adolescence; and sex of the child. However, on only one dichotomy—depression versus absence of depression—were there many significant discriminants. Affective symptomatology of more recent onset was contrasted with pre-morbid personality traits, usually associated with school phobia. There was no evidence to support the concept of ‘masked depression’ in childhood.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 4 , October 1984 , pp. 347 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1966) The classification of children's psychiatric symptoms: a factor analytic study. Psychological Monographs, 80. (No. 615).Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M. (1980) What is child psychiatry epidemiology the epidemiology of? In Studies of Children (ed. Earls, F.) New York: Prodist.Google Scholar
Berg, I. (1974) A self-administered dependency questionnaire (SADQ) for use with the mothers of school children. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berney, T. B., Kolvin, I., Bhate, S. R., Garside, R. F., Jeans, J., Kay, B. & Scarth, L. (1981) School Phobia: a therapeutic trial with clomipramine and short-term outcome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 110–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, G. A. & Cantwell, D. A. (1979) A survey of depressive symptoms in a child and adult psychiatric population. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 18, 587–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, G. A., Cantwell, D. A., (1980) Unmasking masked depression in children and adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 445–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Cattell, R. B. (1965) The role of factor analysis in research. Biometrics, 21, 405–35.Google ScholarPubMed
Cytryn, L. & McKnew, D. H. (1974) Factors influencing the changing clinical expression of the depressive process in children. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 879–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, S. B. G. (1965) Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory Manual. London: University of London Press.Google Scholar
Feighner, J. P., Robins, E., Guze, S. B., Woodruff, R. A., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frommer, E. A. (1968) Depressive illness in childhood. British Journal of Psychiatry, special publication no 2, 117–36.Google Scholar
Garside, R. F. & Roth, M. (1978) Multivariate statistical methods and problems of classification in psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 53–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glaser, K. (1968) Masked depression in children and adolescents. Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development, 1, 345–55.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972) The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Maudsley Monograph No. 21 London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hewitt, L. E. & Jenkins, R. L. (1946) Fundamental patterns of maladjustment: the dynamics of their origin. In Education, Health and Behaviour, Michigan Child Guidance Institute.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. G. (1975) The Role of Diagnosis in Psychiatry. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Kolvin, I. & Nicol, A. R. (1979) Child Psychiatry. In Recent Advances in Clinical Psychiatry, 3rd ed. (ed. Granville-Grossman, K.) London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Ling, W., Oftedal, G. & Weinberg, W. A. (1970) Depressive illness in childhood presenting as severe headache. American Journal of Disturbed Children, 120, 122–4.Google ScholarPubMed
McConville, B. J., Boag, L. C. & Purohit, A. P. (1973) Three types of childhood depression. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 18, 133–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearce, J. (1977) Depressive disorder in childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 18, 79–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Puig–Antich, J. (1980) Affective Disorders in Childhood. A Review and Perspective. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 3, No. 3, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research diagnostic criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 773–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinberg, W. A., Rutman, J., Sullivan, L., Penick, E. C. & Dietz, S. G. (1973) Depression in children referred to an educational diagnostic centre. Journal of Paediatrics, 83, 1065–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.