Children aged just five are suffering with depression

Thousands of children in Britain are showing signs of suffering with depression and some are aged as young as five, according to new NHS guidelines.

The National Institute for Care and Health Excellence (NICE) say that as many as 80,000 children and young people suffer from severe depression. This figures comprises of more than 8,000 children under 10 years old and NICE say that care and support for these vulnerable people must urgently be revamped and improved.

To help this happen, a quality standard has been released by NICE which discusses improving diagnosis of depression and better management of those aged between 5 to 18 who have the condition.

Many factors are being highlighted as being reasons behind an increase in mental health problems amongst children in the last decade.

For example, cyber bullying connected to more social media use is one major issue which seems to rear its ugly head on a weekly basis and it is a worrying common occurrence that some children even feel depressed enough to take their own lives.

On top of this, a breakdown in family units is being blamed and an increasing number of parents splitting up – often before the child has reached secondary school. In fact school is believed to be another factor behind more cases of depression with tests, exams, coursework, etc. all amounting to extra pressure.

Dr Gemma Trainor, Nurse Consultant, Greater Manchester West Foundation Mental Health Trust, and member of the specialist committee which developed the guidance said: “I have over 30 years of direct clinical experience of children and young people presenting with symptoms of depression. In that time, there have been many changes and trends; over the past ten years, the increase of primary school-age children presenting with depression is a particularly worrying phenomena.”

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns for charity Young Minds, said: “Modern childhood has become really stressful: there are family breakdowns, increasing pressure from school with testing from a very early age, and then the really significant factor in recent years is social media.”

She added: “It used to be the case that while some children might have a hard time at school, they could go home and switch off. Now there isn’t that escape, children are on devices all the time. As well as the problems with cyberbullying, we have developed this culture where even young children are trying to create a brand, based on how they look – which can make girls especially feel very anxious – and about how many Facebook friends they have.”

Those who had assessed children showing signs of depression commented they did not typically fit in with others, had difficulty making friends and were more withdrawn.

Physical symptoms included a diminished appetite, feeling tired often, poor sleeping habits and complaining of having aches and pains.

Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb commented: “Young people’s mental health is a priority for this Government and we have committed £54 million over four years into talking therapies specifically for children and young people through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.”

Manage daily stresses or it could impact your long-term mental health

Next time you get ‘cut-up’ in traffic, argue with your partner, or come into conflict with a work colleague – think about the way you respond to these daily challenges thrown at you. A new study published online in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that our emotional responses and reactions to the stress involved with daily life, could provide a forecast into the state of our long-term mental health.

Susan Charles, professor of psychology & social behaviour, and colleagues at the University of California, wanted to construct a study that could help to give answers to a long-standing question: Do everyday irritations add up to make the straw that breaks the camel’s back, or do they make us stronger and ‘inoculate’ us against later tribulations?

In order to try and obtain some answers to this intriguing question, the researchers extracted information from two national surveys (Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) and National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE)), analysing the possible connection between a person’s daily negative emotions and their mental health ten years later.

The study subject’s overall levels of negative emotions were able to be used to determine psychological distress; feeling worthless, hopeless, nervous, and/or restless. After ten years, researchers looked at whether a diagnosis of an emotional disorder such as anxiety or depression was made for each person.

Participants’ negative emotional responses to daily stressors — such as problems at work or home — predicted psychological distress and self-reported emotional disorder ten years later.
The results were based on data from 711 participants – both men and women – ranging from 25 to 74 in age.

Charles and her colleagues argue that their findings show that mental health outcomes are not merely restricted to major life events that happen to us, they are formed by apparently trivial/minor emotional experiences that come our way.

“It`s important not to let everyday problems ruin your moments,” Prof Charles said. “After all, moments add up to days, and days add up to years. Unfortunately, people don`t see mental health problems as such until they become so severe that they require professional attention.”

Can daffodils be used to help depression?

Everybody loves to receive flowers; a colourful bouquet of flowers can help to cheer people up in times of feeling low, or can simply prove useful for decorative purposes around the home. However, scientists at the University of Copenhagen are now claiming that a particular species of South African daffodils may actually help to treat depression.

They say that the daffodils contain compounds that can travel to the brain and pass through the blood-brain barrier. This is a defensive wall composed of cells that block certain substances from reaching the brain from a person’s bloodstream. Glucose is one substance that is able to get through this barrier, but a lot of drugs fail to do so and this has posed many problems for experts who are looking to create effective medication to treat such conditions like depression.

Professor Birger Brodin from the University of Copenhagen assisted in the research process and he claims he and his team have found that the two South African flowers Crinum and Cyrtanthus, were both able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier. He commented, “Several of our plant compounds can probably be smuggled past the brain’s effective barrier proteins. We examined various compounds for their influence on the transporter proteins in the brain. Our results are promising, and several of the chemical compounds studied should therefore be tested further, as candidates for long-term drug development.”

We should not get too carried away about this news though, and it could be a long time before any medication has been developed based on a daffodil’s properties. Professor Brodin acknowledged that the results do show promise, but that a lot more work needs to be done in the future to understand more about the plant’s compounds. He concluded, “This is the first stage of a lengthy process, so it will take some time before we can determine which of the plant compounds can be used in further drug development.”