EDITED BY
David Shaffer, F.R.C.P.(Lond),
F.R.C.Psych.(Lond)
Bruce D. Waslick, M.D.

As has been the case with many psychiatric disorders, research
in pediatric mood disorders required a definition of generally accepted
operationalized criteria to make major progress. Before
the publication of DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association
1980), prevailing attitudes toward the diagnosis of mood disorders
in children and adolescents ranged from the disbelief that
these disorders existed prior to later adolescence to overinclusion
of many different types of emotional and behavioral disturbances
as reflecting masked depressive reactions. Masked depressions
could be diagnosed in youths manifesting hyperactivity,
aggressive behavior, or delinquency if the children or adolescents
at times displayed depressed affect and showed depressive or
pessimistic themes on projective tests (Cytryn and McKnew
1972).