Depresja dzieci i młodzieży – zjawisko i perspektywy pomocy
Child and teendepression – the phenomenon and the prospect of help

Summary/Abstract: Depression, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is a more and more frequent illness of the contemporary man. According to some predictions, at the current increasing rate of falling ill with depression, by 2020 it might become the second biggest cause of deaths amongst adults. The growing scale of the problem does not refer to adults only, but is increasingly affecting children and teenagers. The lack of precise and explicit research into statistics about depression amongst children and teenagers causes considerable divergence. It is estimated that in the case of children, morbidity amounts to 2%, while it varies from 8% up to 20% amongst teenagers. In percentage terms it does not seem alarming, but if you look at the issue in numbers, according to GUS data for 2014, the number of children (aged 0 to 12) totals 100,500,however, amongst young people (aged 13–18) the number reaches about 1,345,000. Facing such numbers, one should admit that this is not a marginal phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to depict the character of depressive disorders amongst children and teenagers, giving general the features of depression and concentrating in particular on the ones typical of children and teenagers. It will allow us to create the profile of a young man stricken with such disorders. Moreover, the author will try to portray basic mistakes, especially those of home environment, in identifying and in the approach to people suffering from depression and he will also frame the vision of specific forms of support, which are necessary in the struggle with depression.

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