DISCRIMINATING DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY IN YOUTH - A ROLE FOR DIAGNOSTIC-CRITERIA

Objective: To test the hypothesis that anxiety and depression in youth , as in adults, become increasingly discriminable when youth meet crit eria for an emotional disorder. Method. The study uses cross-sectional data at two points in time from a large (n = 776) community sample of youths, aged eight to twenty. Associations between major depression a nd five anxiety disorders (overanxious, obsessive compulsive and separ ation anxiety disorders, and social and simple phobias) are examined b y symptom scale and diagnosis. Results: Anxiety and depression are mod erately correlated, and substantially comorbid by diagnostic category. Symptoms are more discriminable among youths with diagnoses of at lea st one emotional disorder than among those without. A single factor ac counts for symptoms among the non-diagnosed but multiple factors are r equired for the diagnosed group. Conclusions: Anxiety and depression a re discriminable among youth who meet criteria for a specific emotiona l disorder but more highly associated among youths without such a diag nosis. This suggests that in youth, as has been shown in adults, depre ssion and anxiety become increasingly discriminable as emotional psych opathology becomes more severe.