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Lots of children and teenagers recover from a bout of depression on their own, without treatment. But sometimes this can take several months.

Depression can badly affect your child's development, both in their social life and in their school life.¹ The depression can also damage your family relationships, especially if your family doesn't understand your child's problems.

That's why it's important not to wait for a child or teenager to just grow out of it.² Getting the right treatment can help your child cope with this illness and get better faster. Treatment may also stop the depression fr om getting worse.

In rare cases, children may need to stay in the hospital if they are at risk of hurting themselves or if they need a special treatment.

Most children who have had depression are at risk for more bouts, either a few years later or many years later as adults. Doctors call this a relapse. Unfortunately, even though we know that treatment can help with one bout, we don't know much about whether it can stop depression from coming back again later. There hasn't been much research on this.

What will happen to your child depends partly on how bad the depression is. But here's what the research shows.³

• A bout of depression in children or teenagers lasts on average about seven months to nine months.^{1 4}
• Roughly 1 in 10 children get better without treatment within three months.
• A further 4 in 10 children get better within a year.
• But that means half of all depressed children still have the illness after a year.
• And up to 3 in 10 children are still depressed two years later.
• Treatment lowers the chance of depression lasting more than a year.

Here's what we know about what might happen to your child in the future.

• Among children who have had one bout of depression, 2 out of 5 get it again (have a relapse) within two years.⁵
• About two-thirds of depressed children will also get depressed as adults.⁵
• A third of depressed children and teenagers try suicide at some point.⁶
• Because young people with depression may also get depression as adults, they may also be more likely to try to kill themselves as adults. One study found that between 3 and 4 out of 100 people who'd had depression as a child or teenager ended up killing themselves.⁶
• Girls stay depressed for longer and have more relapses (they get depressed again).⁵
• And a few children go on to get another type of depression, called mani c depression, as they get older. (Doctors also call this bipolar disorder.) These are often children who have this condition in their family.⁷
• Relapses in depression and manic depression can be treated.

It's almost unbearable for parents to think that their child might feel so bad that they try to harm or kill themselves.

But thinking about suicide and trying it are common for children and teenagers who are depressed. A third of depressed young people try to kill themselves at some point.⁸

Depressed teenagers are at special risk. Younger children think about death, but they rarely act on it. Suicide in general is six times more common for young people ages 15 to 19 than for those ages 10 to 14.⁹

Girls are more likely to try suicide. In fact, they try it twice as often as boys. But among children who try it, boys are four times more likely than girls to actually die.⁹

If children say they are thinking about suicide, it's a clear sign that they need help. Their parents or caregivers need to take it very seriously.

For more, see Would my child try suicide?

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.