t thoughts of death or suicide.
Most depressed individuals will experience several, though not necessarily all, of these indicat ing factors. Epkins and Meyers (1994) have pointed out that depressed persons are often also angry and hostile and likely to exhibit both internalizing and externali zing behaviors. Dolgan (1990) states that children particularly at-risk for depression include children of divorce, children with hospitalized or chronically ill siblings (or children with these problems themselves), children with hyperactivity and attention deficit dis orders, mildly mentally retarded children, and children of lower socioeconomic status. Adults at risk for depression (and PTSD) are those who have experienced early traumas, including losses of loved ones or significant others, abuse, other types of victimization including rape), and so forth (Hall & Henderson, 1996).
Adults and children who are suffering from depression also exhibit anhedonia (a failure to "have fun"), lowered Self-esteem, pathological guilt, impairment of school or work activities, complaints of fatigue, psychomotor retardation,
difficulty with vegetative functions (e.g., sleep dis orders), morbid reactions and/or suicide attempts, and irritability, frequent weeping, and non-organic somatic complaints (Dolgan, 1990; Furman & Bender, 2003; Shorter & Tyrer, 2003). Goldberg (1994) has suggest ed that abused children are significantly more likely to be depressed as adults than their non-abused peers. Similarly, research suggests that PTSD is also quite common among victims of child sexual abuse (Hall & Henderson, 1996).
A number of specific tests and instruments have
been developed that are used by professionals in iden tifying depression. The work of Aaron Beck in this area is often cited as significant; Beck (1967) theorized that depressed individuals feel as they do because they commit characteristic errors in logic, distorting what happen...