Diagnostic criteria in childhood depression.

Comparison of diagnoses of childhood depression from four sets of criteria (i.e., Research Diagnostic Criteria, DSM-III, and those of Poznanski and Weinberg) used with 65 children referred to a psychiatric clinic showed complete agreement in 56 (86%) of the cases. The major disagreement resulted from differences between the clinician's rating of dysphoria based on the child's nonverbal behavior and the child's and parent's verbal report of no dysphoria. Analyses of the essential symptoms of depression among the four criteria sets indicated that the nonverbal rating was most strongly associated with a diagnosis of depression and the best predictor of the severity of depression.