Diagnosis and management of depression in children and young people: summary of updated NICE guidance
Abstract
#### The bottom line Depression affects around 2.8% of children under the age of 13 and 5.6% of 13-18 year olds.1 Effective treatment is important because persistent depression is associated with serious complications, including poor school performance and social functioning,2 recurring depression in adulthood,3 and suicide.4 This article summarises recommendations from the updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on depression in children and young people.5 The update had a narrow remit—only recommendations on the choice of psychological therapy and the combination of antidepressant treatment with psychological therapy were considered. NICE recommendations are based on systematic reviews of best available evidence and explicit consideration of cost effectiveness. Where the evidence was minimal, recommendations in the original guidance were based on the guideline development group’s experience and opinion of what constitutes good practice. Changes to the original recommendations were based on evidence from updated systematic reviews on clinical and cost effectiveness. Evidence levels for the recommendations are given in italic in square brackets. ### Assessment and detection
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Several clinical guidelines recommend that psychological treatments are still considered the mainstay of treatments for depression and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.
“Currently, several clinical guidelines recommend that psychological treatments are still considered the mainstay of treatments for depression and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.10,15”
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Cipriani, A., Zhou, X., Del Giovane, C., Hetrick, S. E., Qin, B., Whittington, C., Coghill, D., Zhang, Y., Hazell, P., Leucht, S., et al. (2016) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)30385-3 · Cited by 734 · see citing works
Zhou, X., Teng, T., Zhang, Y., Del Giovane, C., Furukawa, T. A., Weisz, J. R., Li, X., Cuijpers, P., Coghill, D., Xiang, Y., et al. (2020) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30137-1 · Cited by 367 · see citing works
Thienemann, M., Murphy, T., Leckman, J., Shaw, R., Williams, K., Kapphahn, C., Frankovich, J., Geller, D., Bernstein, G., Chang, K., et al. (2017) · Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1089/cap.2016.0145 · Cited by 149 · see citing works
Zhou, X., Guo, J., Lu, G., Chen, C., Xie, Z., Liu, J., & Zhang, C. (2020) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113002 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Yuan, S., Zhou, X., Zhang, Y., Zhang, H., Pu, J., Yang, L., Liu, L., Jiang, X., & Xie, P. (2018) · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · doi:10.2147/ndt.s152747 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Li, S., Xu, Y., Zheng, L., Pang, H., Zhang, Q., Lou, L., & Huang, X. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.789305 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
- Authors
- Hopkins, K., Crosland, P., Elliott, N., Bewley, S., & On behalf of the Clinical Guidelines Update Committee B
- Affiliations
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (GB)
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Hopkins, K.
- Venue
- BMJ
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2015-03-04
- Volume
- 350
- Issue
- mar04 9
- Pages
- h824-h824
- ISSN
- 1756-1833 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4249385209
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 9.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- BMJ (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- depression, children and young people, NICE guidelines, psychotherapy, antidepressants, depression diagnosis, depression treatment, cost-effectiveness, suicide risk
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Antidepressive Agents, Child, Depressive Disorder, Humans, Psychotherapy, Severity of Illness Index, Practice Guidelines as Topic
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