BMJ  2005;330:418 (19 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7488.418-a

Letter

Rethinking childhood depression

Consider what it means to be a child these days

EDITOR—What we, as clinical practitioners (or, as in my own case, former practitioner, now service coordinator), may need to learn is that the supposedly patently obvious is often obscured by our particular conditioned professional mindsets. The mindsets are influenced by the sociopolitics of healthcare delivery, and by, I suspect, an overly major focus on the individual (at the expense of the social and collective).

With regard to rethinking childhood depression,¹ children these days are getting much less regular physical exercise than they used to 20 or so years ago and fewer opportunities exist for exercise. The prescribing of antidepressant drugs has gone through the roof in the past decade. Children now don't have the opportunities for essential play, to be a part of a social support network, or to be part of a cogent extended or otherwise "family" (read, again, "social support network"). They also do not have a reasonably viable outlet, for any and all those of the above, conflicts and frustrations.

Something has to be very wrong, don't you think?

Kaiyu Community Based Activities Programme, PO Box 74, Mayfield, NSW 2304, Australia bicycle{at}kooee.com.au

---

Competing interests: KW is a former clinical nurse consultant (NSW Mid North Coast Area Health Services, Australia). She is the current secretary, Bicycle Federation of Australia. She is also the list owner of Physical Activity for Mental Health (http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/PhysicalActivityforMentalHealth/).

References

1. Timimi S. Rethinking childhood depression [with commentaries by Q Spender, P Wilkinson]. BMJ 2004;329: 1394-7. (11 December.)[Free Full Text]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Rethinking childhood depression

Sami Timimi
BMJ 2004 329: 1394-1396. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Childhood depression

Mick A Leach
bmj.com, 18 Feb 2005 [Full text]

Rethinking childhood depression: Consider what it means to be a child these days

Kate Walker
bmj.com, 27 Feb 2005 [Full text]