Depression contributes to morbidity and mortality across the life course; depressive symptoms in childhood may have longer-term adverse effects on the psychosocial adjustment of adults. Although the frequency of depressive symptoms increases markedly in adolescence, we know much less about the context of child and adolescent depression.

Recently there has been a growing interest in the use of multidisciplinary approaches to help children and adolescents with depression. This has encouraged attempts to detect risk and protective factors for depression at multiple levels. Recent evidence supports a greater benefit for combined therapeutic modalities in the treatment of adolescent major depression. More research is needed into the causes and onset of childhood depression as well as into its prevention.

We invite authors to submit original research articles relevant to child and adolescent depression, from epidemiology through psychological aspects to clinical implications. We are also interested in review articles as well as papers dealing with prevention, early detection, and intervention studies.

Our special issue aims to be multidisciplinary in nature and it aims to cover the broad spectrum of research in child and adolescent depression. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Epidemiology of child and adolescent depression
• Risk and protective approach
• Gender differences in depression
• Substance abuse/misuse and depression
• Suicidal behavior/self-harm and depression
• Clinical treatment effectiveness trials: pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy and combined therapies
• Help-seeking, youth mental health awareness, prevention and early intervention studies
• Comorbidity
• Course of childhood/adolescent depression and outcomes
• Neurobiological and genetic factors

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/drt/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: