Beyond Tantrums 04/29/2010
 Being in the early formative stages of life, it is but natural to see your child's unpredictable moods and behaviors as nothing more than normal parts of his growth spurts. As challenging as it is to put up with these, it is easy to chalk up his erratic behaviors to immaturity. At this stage, drawing the line differentiating normal from what isn't could be especially tricky. And despite their youth and lack of exposure, it is a fact that kids too could be stricken with bipolar disorder. To clue you in on how bipolar could manifest among kids, take note of these three common behavioral indicators: His mood changes are just too much. By this, your child could have displayed any of these troubling behaviors: crying for extensive periods, acting too silly, and being unnaturally perky at certain times and then tipping over to extreme gloominess the next. He has sleep troubles. Bipolar kids tend to either oversleep or sleep too little. Nevertheless, despite the latter, they still manage to remain as energetic as ever. He displays inexplicably negative behavior. Besides mood changes, most kids with bipolar disorder tend to be mischievous and prone to acting for no justifiable reason. by: Maricel Modesto Add Comment The Blessed Curse That Is Giftedness 03/30/2010
 Giftedness is a blessed curse. Born with heightened abilities and behaviors diversified from what most people consider normal isn't exactly a grand merit if you look at it from the vantage point of the gifted person concerned. Is giftedness worth celebrating? Yes and No. Yes: Until now, I can't help but be amused by the wealth of ideas that just sprout out of nowhere. Elucidating the mental process responsible for my contriving them has always been a great mystery even to myself. I can provide a vague idea how these are made possible, but in truth nothing I would say could even come close to identifying that inexplicable compulsion that possesses me every time I concretize my concepts. No: Seeing beyond the surface and understanding matters in an aberrant way is a painful burden in itself, particularly because they involve existentialist issues concerning life, people, and relationships. Existential depression, in my experience, is very manageable. Maturity and my belief in God are the saving graces that kept me from slipping. But the loneliness and profound sadness that come with realizing that your gifts always hold you more responsible than most people are the bitterest pills I still struggle to swallow. by: Maricel Modesto Nurture Your Child\'s Mental Health 03/24/2010
 Raising your child to be a mentally healthy individual isn't a protective assurance against the challenges/ turbulences that lie ahead. However, if he grows up to be mentally frail, he becomes an easy prey for depression, anxiety disorders, and the adverse effects of mental traumas. Only in nurturing his mental health can he be equipped with that all-important faculty of special mental self-defense, allowing him to bounce back after each hardship and imbibe life lessons, needed to make him the strong and fulfilled individual he ought to be. Being resilient characterizes all mentally healthy individuals. With it, we're assured of having the needed coping mechanisms for facing hard situations and keeping a positive mindset despite life's many obstacles. Resiliency comes with the ability to effectively regulate one's emotions. This means being able to understand and express our emotions well, hence, keeping us from getting bogged down with debilitating emotional ruts resulting from relationship conflicts. A sound mental health is a progressive exercise that should begin during the early childhood days where innocence serves as the most important factor for good learning. Thus, there is no better time to get your child started on developing his mental health than today. by: Maricel Modesto When Kids Worry 02/12/2010
 Kids worry too, just like us adults. What they worry most about are things or situations related to age and peers. Kids frown over grades, exams, friends, and the changes in their bodies. To help your kid conquer pre-teen worries, it is your job as a parent to guide him with these concerns. The following are some quick tips on how you can help your kid deal with his worries: * Know what's bothering him. Take advantage of opportunities when you can find out what's happening with your kid, may it be at school or with his friends. This way, it will be easier for you to understand what's on his mind. * Let him know that you care. Showing interest with your child's concerns can definitely help your kid feel understood and supported. So whenever he tries to open up, always be available and be generous with reassuring comments. * Be a role model to your child. What better way to help your child deal with his worries than being a good role model on how you handle stress and worries yourself. By showing your kid that you respond to setbacks with optimistic thoughts, you let him know that problems are not forever and that they are temporary. by: Rcon Pascua Help Your Kid Deal With Bullies 02/09/2010
 Bullies can be hard for your child to deal with, especially if the bullying happens at school. Your child may suffer from depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem if bullying persists. As a parent, it is your responsibility to help your kid deal with bullies. How? Read on: * Listen intently. Make time to talk to your kid and listen to what he feels about the bullies at school. By being there for him and understanding his worries, your child will comfortably open up with you more often. * Suggest strategies. Teach your child the power of silent treatment. Generally, bullies will stop teasing when they see that their targets are ignoring them. Also, teach your child to simply walk away whenever teasing happens. * Talk to the teacher. If teasing and bullying persist, it is best to go to your kid's school and talk to his teacher about it. This way, another adult will keep an eye on the situation. by: Rcon Pascua If you are worried that your child might be depressed, talk to your doctor. Diagnosis is usually based on the medical history and symptoms, so your doctor will need to talk to the child. Treatment consists of talking therapies (such as counselling or psychotherapy) and antidepressants. Simply talking about the problems to family and friends is often a major step towards recovery. Although children might not find this easy at first, it's essential to help them understand why they became depressed, how they can deal with the underlying problems in their life, and how they can develop a more positive view of their world. This usually involves some sort of psychotherapy. Like adults, children with depression can't just 'snap out of it' or 'pull themselves together'. It's a long-term problem with episodes of depression lasting, on average, eight months. While the majority of depressed children are back to normal after a year or two, at least half are likely to become depressed again within a couple of years. Children usually respond fairly quickly to treatment. Antidepressants are rarely needed but may be useful in some cases. Most children can be treated at home, or as a hospital outpatient, so rarely need to stay in hospital. If you're worried that your child might be suicidal, talk to your doctor immediately - and try talking to your child too. Children, serotonin and suicide 01/21/2010
Controlled trials show that psychosocial treatments such as cognitive behaviour therapy1 and interpersonal psychotherapy are effective in mild to moderate paediatric depression. However, effectiveness in severe depression (when symptoms are serious and last more than six weeks in at least two of three contexts - home, school, peers) is questionable.2 This raises the question of drug treatment. Tricyclic antidepressants are not more effective than placebo in children and adolescents.3They are cardiotoxic, particularly in overdose, and are therefore not recommended. A meta-analysis of data from published and unpublished randomised controlled trials (practically all company-sponsored) that evaluated a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) versus placebo in patients aged 5-18 years concluded that only fluoxetine had evidence of effectiveness.4 A recent randomised trial funded by the US National Institute of Mental Health also showed response rates were higher with fluoxetine (61%) than placebo (35%) or cognitive behaviour therapy (43%) in severely depressed adolescents when global clinical improvement was considered. Combined fluoxetine and cognitive behaviour therapy worked best (71%).2 SSRIs are less toxic and have fewer unwanted effects than tricyclic antidepressants, but it has been suggested that, paradoxically, SSRIs may induce suicidal behaviour in the young. Ascertaining whether this is true is not easy because depression also increases the risk of suicide. So far, data are contradictory. On the one hand, pharmacoepidemiological and ecological studies suggest that increased use of SSRIs may have resulted in a reduction in youth suicide and that SSRIs are not found more often than expected in young suicide victims. On the other hand, a review5 by the US Food and Drug Administration of 24 controlled trials involving more than 4400 children and adolescents showed a robust if small (2%) short-term increase in the incidence of suicidality (suicidal thoughts, attempts) in those receiving antidepressants, mostly SSRIs, compared with placebo. There were no suicides. The mechanisms underlying increased suicidality are unclear. SSRIs, particularly paroxetine5, can induce akathisia, agitation and irritability (so-called 'activation'). Symptoms of 'activation' may be an indicator of increased suicide risk. Like other antidepressants, SSRIs can also trigger manic switches. This is a rapidly evolving field in which new data are becoming available all the time and clinicians need to change their practice accordingly, considering that the balance between benefit and harm is neither simple nor static. Conclusions derived from clinical trials may not apply to individual patients for methodological, genetic, physiological, psychosocial and cultural reasons. Also, the weight given to the evidence may vary in line with changes in personal and social values. Electroconvulsive therapy is a case in point.6 (Ironically, electroconvulsive therapy could become an increasingly attractive treatment option for youth depression due to concerns about antidepressants.) Hence, clinical practice should be guided by a careful appraisal of benefit and harm based on best evidence, clinical experience, and the needs, circumstances and wishes of each individual patient. SSRIs have been widely used 'off-label' from the early 1990s, but none is formally approved for paediatric depression in Australia. The data about effectiveness are not great. The risks are small, but real. Conversely, depression is a serious illness that produces much personal suffering and can lead to social problems, poor physical health and suicide. Given a high recurrence rate, the effects of depression can be particularly harmful during childhood and adolescence, the stage when personality, professional and social skills are developed.Yet, youth depression is often ignored, not diagnosed, and not treated. For example, an Australian national household survey showed that of all depressed adolescents, 11% had seen a GP or paediatrician, 17% had used mental health services, and only 3% had been prescribed antidepressants.7The current evidence suggests that psychosocial treatments, not medication, should be used in mild and moderate depression, but they are no panacea.2 Delivering them can pose challenges because clinicians may lack skills and confidence in using these therapies. Psychosocial treatments may also be unavailable in public sector services or be difficult to access because of cost, long waiting lists, or lack of services (for example, in rural areas). Further, depressed young people may be more reluctant to become engaged in these treatments because of anger, lack of motivation or insight, and demoralisation. Fluoxetine has a place in the treatment of severe depression in the young.2,4 Fluoxetine and cognitive behaviour therapy should be the preferred option because the combination may be more effective and may reduce suicidal risk.2 When treatment with SSRIs is begun, the patients (and their families when appropriate - for example in younger adolescents) must be informed of the risk of increased suicidal thoughts and attempts, and adverse effects, so that they can detect 'activation', a manic switch, or an increase in suicidality, as well as discussing practical ways of dealing with them and enhancing patients' safety. This may require a reduction of the dose, because the adverse effects are dose-related. It is imperative to review patients often and monitor them closely for adverse effects, particularly during the first few weeks of treatment. Teenage Depression 01/15/2010
Young grouping go through many different feelings and moods as they're growing up and parents are ofttimes unsure about whether this is normal or whether they should do something. Young grouping can see depressed for every sorts of reasons and their depression can vary from having 'moods' and feeling a bit 'down' or 'blue' for a little while, to feeling overwhelming sadness and hopelessness. Some will even see suicidal. Most teen grouping have mood swings and times when they see very unhappy in adolescence, but it is essential to be alive that up to 24% of teen grouping suffer a major sad sickness long a few weeks to a few months at whatever time. Being 'down' most of the time is not normal. Depression in teen grouping is ofttimes not recognised. The type of hold and hold teen grouping obtain can attain a real difference. Although it is ofttimes difficult to communicate with someone who is feeling very low and words may not come easily, it is essential that you don't ignore your child's feelings or leave them to deal with their situation alone. Knowing that friends and family really care and are willing to give hold can be the first vital step in getting better. Why Depression is a Problem? 01/12/2010
Depression in children has long been an overlooked health problem. While it is fairly well known to the general open that clinical incurvation is common (sometimes referred to as \"the common algid of noetic illness\"), moving 10 to 15 % of the grown population at some point in life, it is not commonly known that incurvation in childhood is also a field health problem. In fact, incurvation in children is arguably more significant of an supply that is grown depression. For example, most 5% of children at any given time suffer from clinical depression; this naturally occurs during critical phases in child development, and not exclusive crapper show itself with behaviors and feelings not commonly viewed as conception of a \"depression,\" but crapper interfere with the connatural developmental processes of childhood. Depression in children can, if untreated, affect edifice action and learning, social interactions and utilization of connatural person relationships, self-esteem and chronicle skill acquisition, parent-child relations and a child's significance of bonding and trust, crapper lead to center abuse, disruptive behaviors, violence and aggression, legal troubles, and modify suicide. According to the dweller Academy of Pediatrics, slayer is the 3rd directive drive of death among children and adolescents, just behind accidents and violence. Moreover, sad intellection crapper become conception of a child's developing personality, leaving long-term effects in place for the rest of a child's life. Childhood incurvation is a earnest difficulty that demands a earnest treatment approach. However, one obstacle to eliminating incurvation in children is first to discern it for what it is. Often children's activity problems are exclusive brought to professional tending when they are obvious: they may drive classroom disruption, expulsion from school, edifice failure, or trauma to themselves or others. These behaviors may be seen as symptoms of ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, \"truancy,\" \"delinquency,\" or other vague problems and never recognized to be manifestations of an inexplicit sad disorder. It is important to watch if incurvation is a conception of the overall activity picture, because many effective therapies and interventions are available today. What Causes Childhood Depression? 01/07/2010
* Genetics – Studies hit shown that people who hit relatives with a history of depression are two to three times more likely to develop depression themselves. Children with downcast parents are also at great venture because of the transmitted unification as well as the venture of learned behavior. * Brain alchemy – Neurotransmitters such as serotonin and certain hormones such as the pronounce catecholamine cortisol hit been attendant to depression. Depression often occurs when the delicate balance of these brain chemicals is disturbed resulting in a generalized disequilibrium in other neurotransmitters. This chemical disequilibrium happens due to transmitted and personality vulnerabilities, stressful life events or a combination of these factors. * Stressful life events – Stressful life events such as loss of parent, divorce or separation of parents, family conflict, abuse or large life change such as changing schools crapper all trigger depression. * Learned helplessness and personality traits – The way your child views the world crapper influence their vulnerability to developing depression. Some children hit melancholic personalities, or are socially reserved or anxious by nature. These children are at greater venture for depression than outgoing, easily adaptable children who tend to view most situations in a positive light. Sometimes this behavior is learned from parents who may be overly critical, pessimistic or downcast themselves. Children crapper also hit life experiences that teach them they are not in control or that they are prone to failure. Abuse or parents with unrealistically broad expectations of their children crapper increase the chances that a child will develop a learned helplessness cognitive style. |
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