Quieting a child's streaming tears on the playground might seem far easier than dealing with a sobbing adult. But what about a child who also doesn't enjoy playing anymore, who suffers from chronic stomach aches, or even threatens to kill herself?

    While a number of studies in recent years have found toddlers -- and even babies -- can suffer from major depressive disorder, doctors have debated whether preschool depression was an isolated blip in a child's development or a sign of future problems.

    But according to a new study published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, preschoolers can suffer from major depression, and those children are likely to face depression again in elementary school.

    Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis periodically interviewed the parents of 75 children aged 3 to 6 who were diagnosed with major depressive order. When compared to 146 non-depressed children, the preschoolers with depression were four times more likely to have depression one or two years later.

    "These results underscore the clinical and public health importance of identification of depression as early as preschool," the authors wrote.

    The authors pointed out that major depressive disorder in elementary school children is usually difficult to treat, making the need to catch depression early even more urgent.

    "It takes quite a combination of risk factors, including genetic predisposition and environmental and familial factors, to depress a normally jubilant toddler," Rahil Briggs, a professor at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, wrote to ABCNews.com.

    "Children's early experiences become the lenses through which they later view the world. We must be very conscious of their well being during this formative time," Briggs wrote.

    安慰一個操場中大哭的小孩遠比流淚的成年人容易，但如果遭受肚子疼或者致命威脅的小孩呢？

    近年來許多研究發現小孩甚至嬰兒都能承受較大的壓抑，醫生們在對學前壓抑是孩童期成長的孤立標志還是將來問題的表現還存在爭議。

    根據星期一發表在普通精神病學文章中的一項新研究，學前期孩子能承受很大的壓抑的在初中也能面對壓抑。

    路易斯華盛頓大學的研究人員采訪了75位3-6歲孩子的家長，這些孩子被診斷為重要精神壓抑混亂癥。發現：與146位沒有該癥狀的孩子比，這些學前兒童在1-2年后更傾向于有壓抑癥的概率是他們的四倍。

    這些結果強調了早于幼兒園時期，壓抑癥確認臨床和公共健康的重要性，作者寫到。

    作者指出：初中生患重大壓抑混亂的通常更難治療，這樣早期治療壓抑癥就顯得更加需要。

    導致樂觀的孩子變得消沉的因素是由遺傳、體質衰弱、環境因素及家庭影響結合形成的。紐約奧利醫療中心的Rahil Briggs教授在ABCNEWS.com中寫到。

    中國早期試驗成為后來觀看世界狀況的鏡頭，我們在這形成時期非常關注。briggs寫到。