Depressive Disorder During Childhood and Adolescence in Japan

The aim of this study was to investigate the depressive condition among normal children and adolescents as well as psychiatric outpatient children. We have used the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) because this index has been most commonly cited and thoroughly researched. The psychiatric clinic-referred patients comprised 86 “depressed” and 181 “nondepressed” children 7-15 years old. The mean CDI score of the depressed group was 26.4 ± 7.02 and that of the nondepressed group 16.5 ± 7.97. The cutoff score for the CDI in Japanese juveniles was determined to be 22. The normal subjects (controls) were 1041 elementary school children (537 boys, 504 girls) in grades 2-6 and 543 junior high school adolescents (274 boys, 269 girls), ranging in age from 12 to 15 years. The mean CDI score of the elementary school children was 14.2 ± 6.90, and 13.3% of these children had a score higher than the cutoff score of 22. The mean CDI score of junior high school adolescents was 16.5 ± 7.60, with 21.9% higher than the cutoff score of 22. In both psychiatric and normal groups, Japanese children were found to be fairly depressed.