Depression in pediatric chronic illness. A diathesis-stress model.

Depression in pediatric chronic illness has been receiving increasing attention in recent years. Studies to date have typically focused on characteristics of illness as the major determinants of the development of depression, but characteristics of the child have received less attention. This review suggests that a diathesis-stress model can be a fruitful heuristic that would incorporate illness characteristics and attributes of the child and environmental effects in an overall framework to guide future research and treatment.