Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Psychiatrically Disturbed Children

Of 102 systematically interviewed children, age 7 to 17 years, 28 met DSM-III criteria for depressive disorders and 14 for anxiety disorders. Because the adult psychiatric literature suggests overlapping symptomatology between these disorders, depressive and anxiety symptoms were compared in these groups of children. Depressed children, like depressed adults, reported many anxiety symptoms. However, anxious children, unlike their adult counterparts, never reported panic attacks and complained much less often of depressive symptoms. In contrast to adults with anxiety disorders, no child met criteria for a secondary depression. Longitudinal studies and validation measures for diagnoses of anxiety and depressive disorders are necessary for more definitive conclusions. This study suggests that there are more similarities between childhood and adult depressive disorders than anxiety disorders.