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Background: Previous studies analyzed the clinical validity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for screening primary depressive disorders (major depression and dysthymia). Other psychiatric disorders with depressive symptomatology (e.g. adjustment disorders with depressive reaction) have not been a research focus to date. This study aims to examine the utility of the CBCL scales Anxious/Depressed and Affective Problems in screening both primary depressive disorders and other disorders with depressive symptomatology. Methods: The two samples consisted of 1445 outpatients and 698 inpatients aged 11–18 who were referred for child and adolescent psychiatric services. The predictive power of the CBCL scales was examined using ROC-analysis. Results: Both CBCL scales showed small to medium predictive power when screening for primary and other depressive disorders in clinically referred outpatients (AUCs = .694 − .780). Within the inpatient sample, only primary depressive disorders were detected with small predictive power different from chance level (AUCs = .625 − .673). Both CBCL scales did not differ significantly with regards to predicting depressive disorders. Limitations: A limitation of this study is the lack of reliability checks for consensus classification process of the ICD-10 diagnoses. However, comparable prior work using structured interviews resulted in similar AUC values, supporting our findings. Conclusions: In outpatient samples, the CBCL is suitable for screening other depressive disorders in addition to primary depressive disorders. This is not the case for inpatients due to a misclassification number of 40%; thus using CBCL scales screen for depressive disorders in such populations warrants caution.

I am not a psychologist, sociologist, or philosopher, and my goal this evening is not to pass on weighty truths about the human condition. But I have been in radiology now for 43 years, and I would like to frame my remarks in light of my experiences and also with the hope that nonradiologist spouses and significant others with us this evening may better understand some of the challenges we face together. Each one of us has a story about when he or she decided to become a radiologist. I was in the middle of a class exercise on performing physical examinations when the instructor said to me, “Okay, Thrall, now look in the left ear.” The problem was, I had seen nothing in the right ear that motivated me to want to look in the left ear. My life flashed before me, and I had this acute depressive reaction where all I could see were miles and miles of ears stretching until the end of time. As luck would have it, shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity to visit the Department of Radiology at the University of Michigan, where I was going to medical school. I noticed several things. First, the radiologists actually seemed to be happy. Moreover, it was quite clear that the radiologists were highly respected by the referring physicians for their knowledge and their ability to discern subtle findings amidst the hades of gray (apparently some peo

Existing hypotheses for an evolutionary function of depression are insufficient, primarily because they fail to show convincingly the advantages that might compensate for the high evolutionary costs of its features, such as general passivity, decreased appetite and sex drive. In this article, it is shown that depression may have the function of motivating a period of reduced activity after a major loss. It thus allows for time out to update the cognitive structures for altered circumstances, and avoids dangerous actions based on the use of inadequate cognitive maps. This cognitive map hypothesis provides a viable evolutionary explanation for the high incidence of depression reaction, in spite of its apparently unfavorable characteristics. The article discusses how this hypothesis may also shed light on the occurrence of clinical depression, proposing that it is caused by a failure to update complex conceptual cognitive structures. Finally, recommendations for the treatment of depression that derive from this hypothesis are presented.

Introduction How parents cope with cancer in their child may influence psychological functioning with time. Differences in coping in couples may impact psychological distress negatively. Method In a longitudinal controlled study parents of pediatrie cancer patients completed the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (measuring psychological distress), and the Utrecht Coping List (a Dutch standardised coping list, measuring active problem focusing, palliative reaction pattern, avoidance, social support seeking, depressive reaction pattern, expression of emotions and comforting cognitions) shortly after diagnosis (Tl) and 12 months (T2) later. Results On T1 differences in couples in their use of palliative reaction pattern and expression of emotions correlate for fathers with psychological distress (P Conclusion Differences in the use of coping in couples results for fathers in more psychological distress shortly after diagnosis and for mothers one year later.

One hundred rural African pregnant women, selected at random from antenatal clinic attenders have been screened for conspicuous psychiatric disturbance. Twenty-four per cent of these women were judged to be notably ill in a psychiatric sense. This number is thought to be excessively high, although a control study is required to settle this, but in any case is in excess of the prevalence rate for psychiatric disorder in the East African population generally. Depressive reaction were the most common pattern of disturbance, and this is in keeping with the recent realization that depression is a frequent disorder in the rural African. Unfavourable social, economic and domestic patterns inherent in the present transition between traditional and urbanized patterns of life appear to be significant in precipitating many of these psychiatric disorders. If modern antenatal care is to play a complete role in preventing the hazards of pregnancy, it must take account of the traditional beliefs and anxieties of rural African women, and seek to deal with these as they arise.