A key brain region involved in emotion is smaller in older children diagnosed with depression as preschoolers, and predicts risk of later recurrence, according to researchers. Pathological guilt can be a symptom of clinical depression, as well as other psychiatric disorders including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder. One expert said it's relatively easy to spot the problem in children because they excessively blame themselves for things they've done -- and haven't done.