Preschoolers are often believed to "mask" their depression with behavior problems, stomach aches or other physical complaints because they can't express themselves verbally. But a new study has found that young children exhibit the same symptoms as depressed adults and older children.
As part of a five-year study of depression in preschoolers sponsored by the National Institutes of Mental Health, researchers interviewed the parents of 174 children between the ages of 3 and 5 1/2. The depressed children were much more likely to have anhedonia (lack of pleasure in activities), sadness, irritability and low energy than children who had no psychiatric problems or who had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or oppositional defiant disorder.
