Understanding Mood Disorders in Children

Abstract

Mood disorders include all types of depression and bipolar disorder, and mood disorders are sometimes called affective disorders. We will discuss newly developing two issues in affective disorders in children and adolescents. Those are the new diagnostic challenges using neuroimaging techniques in affective disorders and the introduction of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). During the 1980s, mental health professionals began to recognize symptoms of mood disorders in children and adolescents, as well as adults. However, children and adolescents do not necessarily have or exhibit the same symptoms as adults. It is more difficult to diagnose mood disorders in children, especially because children are not always able to express how they feel. Child mental health professionals believe that mood disorders in children and adolescents remain one of the most underdiagnosed mental health problems. We are currently trying to introduce the new diagnostic technique-machine learning in children and adolescents with MDD. We will discuss the current progress in the clinical application of machine learning for MDD. After that, we would also discuss a new challenging diagnosis-DMDD. We are still suffering from a lack of evidence when trying to treat the patients with DMDD. In addition, there are some debates about the diagnostic validity of DMDD. We will explain the current situation of DMDD studies and the future directions in the study of DMDD.