Kids at risk

MEDIA INVITATION

The impact of depression on the entire family

Do depressed parents raise depressed children? This is one of the questions to be discussed at an upcoming conference entitled Depression in the Family: Preventative and specific interventions to treating parents and children, being organized by the Division of Child Psychiatry of McGill University. Several internationally renowned experts in the field will discuss their clinical and research experiences involving depressed parents and their children at the event, scheduled for Friday, April 7.

According to Statistics Canada almost 1.5 million Canadians suffer from serious depression. Depression is an illness that can affect anyone at any time, and it is among the leading causes of disability worldwide. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 depression will rank second only to heart disease as the leading cause of disability worldwide.

Surveys show that parents, siblings and children of severely depressed patients have a 10%-15% risk for depression compared to a 1%-2% risk in the general population. Children of depressed parents are at especially high risk; up to 50%-75% of children are likely to become depressed if both parents are suffering from this illness.

With childhood depression on the rise and increasing faster than the rate of adult depression, extensive research has been conducted over the past ten years that deals with protecting children from depression.

Guest speakers:

William R. Beardslee, MD, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of two books on the topic, When a Parent is Depressed: How to Protect Your Children from the Effects of Depression in the Family and Out of the Darkened Room: When a Parent is Depressed: Protecting the Children and Strengthening the Family. Dr. Beardslee's career has focused on prevention and intervention strategies for depressed families. He is recognized as a champion for the mental health and human rights of children.

Laura H. Mufson, PhD, is associate professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry, Columbia University, and director of clinical psychology, New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Mufson has developed an application of interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents that has shown effective outcomes in both clinical and school settings. Other research interests include studies of the offspring of parents and grandparents with psychiatric disorders.

Eric Fombonne, MD, is professor of psychiatry, McGill University, head, Division of Child Psychiatry, McGill University, and director, Department of Psychiatry, the Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre. He also holds a Canada Research Chair in Child Psychiatry.

The conference will be presented in English and French with simultaneous translation.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT A PRESS CONFERENCE, this is an educational conference aimed at professionals who are working with children, and their families. For more details on the conference check out our website.