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.Abstract Teaser