TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2006//
TI  - Assessment of depressive symptoms in Japanese school children and adolescents using the Birleson Depression Self-Rating Scale
JO  - International journal of psychiatry in medicine
A1  - Denda, Kenzo
A1  - Kako, Yuki
A1  - Kitagawa, Norihiko
A1  - Koyama, Tsukasa
SP  - 231
EP  - 241
VL  - 36
IS  - 2
N2  - OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents in the general Japanese population using a depression self-rating scale and determine whether this prevalence varies according to age, gender, or region. METHOD: The Birleson Depression Self-Rating Scale for children (DSRS) was used to examine the extent to which depressive tendencies were present among 2,453 elementary and middle-school children (6 to 15 years old) in two cities in Japan. RESULTS: The mean DSRS score was high at 8.75 +/- 5.66. A significant increase in score was observed with increasing age. There were no significant differences between regions. Using a DSRS cutoff score of 15 points as a risk of depression, the scores of 14.9% of the subjects exceeded the cutoff. CONCLUSIONS: As determined using the DSRS, a high proportion of Japanese children and adolescents have depressive tendencies.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0091-2174
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -