The Study of Phenomenology, Family Factors, Functioning and Quality of Life in Childhood and Adolescent Depression

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Depression is a common psychiatric illness. The illness can present as asimple sadness to a major depressive disorder or even bipolar disorder. It is also found to affect childrenand adolescents. The aims and objectives of our study were, to assess the phenomenology, family factors,quality of life and functional status of children and adolescents with depression.Methodology: Subjects diagnosed with depression, before 18 years of age, were recruited in the study.Parents and children were interviewed. Demographic details were taken. Scales i.e. Children DepressionInventory, Family Assessment Device, The PedsQL core generic scale and Children's Global Assessmentscale were applied.Results: Females had slightly higher scores on CDI. On using Pearson’s correlation test significantcorrelations were found between the Family Assessment Device and PedsQL scale and CDI scale.Conclusion: In the population under study, the family functioning was found to be unhealthy in familiesof girls with depression, versus families in which boys had depression. Overall depressive features were lessin families with better affective responsiveness and affective involvement. In families who did not useproblem solving as coping, somatic complaints were more. Better expression of emotions and behavioralcontrol, was found in families having clear role definition