ISSUES IN THE TREATMENT OF DEPRESSED CHILDREN

Basic research into the cognitive, behavioral, familial, and physiolog ical disturbances associated with depressive disorders during childhoo d is reviewed. Implications for the development of a treatment program are discussed and a comprehensive treatment model is proposed. The pr oposed model includes intervention strategies for the child, parents, family, and school. The child component consists of intervention strat egies for the affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological dist urbances that are evident from the existing research. The parent train ing component is designed to address disturbances in parenting due to cognitive disturbances and skills deficits. The family therapy compone nt emphasizes changing interaction patterns that communicate schema-co nsistent maladaptive interactions. A school consultation component is proposed in which school personnel support the skills training through prompting use of the skills and reinforcement of the use of the copin g skills.