“To determine psychopathological features of depression and mechanisms of its formation in children aged 7-11”
(research supervisor – Doctor of Medical Sciences E.A. Mikhailova, 2010−2012 yrs)
Object of study: depressive disorders in children, aged 7-11 years.
Objective: to improve the diagnostics of depressive states in children of an early age on the basis of studying their psychopathological characteristics, neurophysiological and neurohormonal parameters.
Methods: clinico-psychopathological, a set of psychodiagnostic methods (G.Shmishek`s characterological questionnaire, Luria`s Memory Words Test, J.Buckom`s "Home-Tree-Person Test, the Lusher test, and a depression definition test), neurophysiological methods (cerebral neurodynamics study), biochemical methods (serotonin and 5-OIAA content, melatonin levels in the daily urine).
Theoretical and practical results: the structure of depression in children aged 7-11 years is defined at the symptomatic, nosological and syndromological levels. Certain psychological - emotional, personality and cognitive features, important in the diagnosis of depression, were singled out in children. A neurophysiological model of depression, based on the factor analysis of EEG parameters of Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, was worked out, which is a prerequisite to emotional disturbances. Melatonin reduced level is an evidence of its deterrent, hindering nature, regarding emotional and behavioral disorders that accompany stress. The symptoms highly informative in the diagnosis of depression in children at an early stage of the affective disorders were identified and classified. The concept of depression formation in children of an early school age was substantiated. The results obtained establish that the most relevant are stress and morphofunctional factor (reduction of parameters in EEG frontal leads, uniform response of the right and left hemispheres in emotional-cognitive and cognitive-reducible factors of neurogenesis), confirming the key role of emotional stress in formation of depression in children.
Novelty: clinical, neurophysiological, neurohormonal criteria for depression development were first defined in children aged 7-11 years. An algorithm of the differential diagnosing various variants of depression was worked out.
Effectiveness: prevention of the depression and suicidal behavior recurrence, inhibition of age- related mechanisms of social and psychological maladjustment in children.
Fields of application: pediatric psychiatry and neurology, social pediatrics, school medicine, and psychology.
