Can People Of All Ages Develop Depression, And How Does Depression Manifest Itself At Different Ages?

— -- Question: Can people of all ages develop depression, and how does depression manifest itself at different ages?

Answer: Yes, people of all ages do suffer from depression. I think we're beginning to see more and more that different kind of behaviors that we saw in childhood and adolescence, now clearly fit diagnostic criteria for depression, or bipolar disorder.

The kinds of behaviors that children might have that can get easily confused with depression or mania, include things like attention deficient disorder, and conduct disorder, and other things that we're now recognizing.

So the diagnosis can sometimes be difficult. Certainly, in adulthood, we're very familiar with the very common illness of depression.

And as people age. One of the things that we often see is a syndrome that could be called pseudodementia.

In other words, people might look like they're losing their memory or their cognitive function, but what really is happening is that they're experiencing a depressive episode.

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