Some years ago, Rene Spitz identified a syndrome among infants in institutions that he called anaclitic depression, or depression associated with the loss of an attachment figure.
Infants suffering from this syndrome - always in response to being separated from their mothers in the second half of their first year of life – often had sad faces and were weepy, underweight, listless, unresponsive and withdrawn.
Moreover their development was delayed in almost every way.
And we will see, infants who are 6 months of age and older also display many depression like symptoms when they are permanently separated from a parent who dies.
In addition infants who are neglected, abused, separated from attachment figures, or otherwise raised in a stressful unaffectionate manner sometimes develop a related condition called failure to thrive.
They failed to grow normal, lose weight, and become seriously underweight for their age.
In some cases, an organic or biological cause such as an illness or heart defect can be found.
More intriguing are those cases in which the cause seems to be emotional rather than physical.
Infants who fail to thrive also often show many of the symptoms of depression, as well as delays in their cognitive and social development and bizarre such as drinking from toilets.
Depression in Infancy II
