Five-year-olds treated for depression in the UK

[Manzareh]

Children as young as FIVE are being treated for depression and anxiety. One healthcare trust has a patient undergoing therapy aged just TWO years old.

The disturbing trend has been highlighted in NHS figures which found rising numbers of youngsters suffering in homes where there is unemployment, financial problems or drug abuse.

One trust which covers Southampton and Portsmouth has had 378 children below 16 undergoing therapy - with one patient aged two.

Nationally, one in 10 children aged between five and 16 has a clinically diagnosable mental health problem.

NHS Solent clinical psychologist Barbara Inkson said: "Levels of emotional disorders are rising."

Mental health workers in Sussex are working with about 330 under-11s suffering from anxiety and depression.

Sarah Brennan, chief of charity Young Minds, said:
i
It is vital that we invest in children and young people's mental health to prevent them suffering entrenched problems as adults.
i



The figures also found that prescriptions for Fluoxetine, more commonly known as Prozac, have risen 26 per cent in Oxfordshire and 13 per cent in Berkshire from April to September last year.

Young Minds, said it wants more treatments based in school and the community rather than in mental health units, which it says can be intimidating for children.

Sarah Brennan added: "Intervening early when a child or young person starts struggling to cope is proven to reduce the likelihood of that young person developing much more severe and entrenched mental health problems."

[faye]

these statistics are dreadful. i remember when i got back to oz in 1980, i saw high statistics in australia, for youngsters under psychiatric care.

last night there was a program about the effect of advertising, where the guy showed children icons from products that we consume, to see if they recognised them. when he put up the symbol for coca cola and mc donalds, the kids went wild. they started poking at the symbol yelling and jumping around. it was scary. kids so brainwashed on utter garbage.

[IamDZJ]

Studies show that a person is exposed to 3000 advertisements in one single day. I wonder what it would feel like to live in a healthy society such filth or war does not exist.
Never mind.
.

[faye]

to the age of 12, we had no tv, and the kids played around the parks, canals, paddocks and at each others homes until evening meal, about 6.30.
so we were very active, not indocrinated with all that crap and optimistic for the future.
these days, with all the rubbish food, terrible imagery children are exposed to via those games, tv, videos and internet and so little exercising, they are suffering.
i think one needs exposure and access to nature and sunshine as part of a healthy lifestyle, too.

[Manzareh]

I agree, children sitting at home all summer on the Internet/tv/games consoles.. I remember growing up climbing trees, doing every imaginable sport full ov energy on a new adventure everyday, we used to knock for each other n if your best friend wasnt home youd search the dens and variour spots till you find each other, now 12 year olds pick up the mobile phone n dial each other..Kids seem so lathargic and soulless, its not natural,I'm not surprised kids are depressed they are truelly bein brain damaged by the media,tv,music etc

[کیش]

^^^

Not to mention how every other child is on prescribtion ADD medications which Zones them off.

When I was growing up I was at the park until dusk. Nobody does that anymore too much

[faye]

also, we had a future to look forward to. these days the job oppotunities are not so good yet the kids have more knowledge of what is happening in the world and know how grim it is, in many ways and places.
they also have to be scared of strangers and as teens they know that the elders will use them, as cheap labour, if they can, or just as consumers for their products.
the older generations are not doing a good job of looking after the world, so who can they look up to?
i can see lots of good things too, as an older person, but from a youngsters view, i imagine that is how it must look.

[khushal]

ignorance is bliss

[faye]

how so khushal? i would call it ignorance that is creating this situation for these children.

[khushal]

well if these kids didnt have all the pressures that adults are putting on them and letting them be free spirited kids as you were when you were a kid(back in the dinosaur days), they wouldnt have worries. keep them ignorant, keep them worry free.

[faye]

some are pressured to be 4 year old geniouses. i have seen that.
a lot of issues arise from malnourishment khushal. studies have been done, where they changed the junkfood diets of children to a wholesome one and there are behavioural improvements. the chemicals in drinks and foods can also make kids cranky or overexcited.
mothers do use the tv and probaly now the internet, as babysitters. my sister in law, used to sit the kids in front of the tv, to keep them quiet, right from a very early age.