New Delhi: A recent imaging study led by a scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas explored early risk variables associated with children’s temperament, as well as a neurological mechanism that can predict whether a person is in adolescence and early adulthood. Will develop depression and anxiety in early adulthood.
The study, published October 26 in JAMA Psychiatry, followed a group of 165 people from four months to 26 years of age between 1989 and 1993. Dr. Alva Tang, assistant professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and corresponding author of the study, found that people who are more inhibited in childhood and who don’t respond generally to potential rewards as teenagers are more likely to develop Chances are higher. Depression compared to anxiety later in life.
Tang, who conducted research at the University of Maryland, College Park, before joining UT Dallas in August said, “The findings uncover different mechanisms in the brain and relate them to people at greater risk for developing various mental health issues. ” “These results may inform the development of prevention-oriented treatments tailored to the individual.
“When children are exposed to novel objects, people or situations, some respond positively and approach them without fear, while others respond with caution or avoidance. This discrimination defines uninhibited versus disrupted behavior. does.”
We know that inhibited children are more likely to develop anxiety disorders later, especially social anxiety, which begins in childhood through adolescence. starts later. But we know that people who have had an anxiety disorder are 50% to 60% more likely to develop depression later in life, so disrupted children should also be at higher risk of depression.”
Tang’s research is unique for its characterization of the subjects’ early temperamental exposures and the long duration of their study.
“To show any association with an increase in depressive symptoms over time, we would have to follow subjects for decades because the full-blown syndromes usually do not emerge until young adulthood,” she said.
As young children, subjects were classified as either obstructed or uninhabited. As teenagers, they did functional MRIs while completing a task to measure their brain’s response in anticipation of rewards—in this case, trying to win money.
“We looked at the ventral striatum, a well-studied brain region in terms of understanding depression in adults, to see whether it is associated with maladaptive processing in the brain’s reward centers,” Tang said. In response to potential monetary benefits, some study participants displayed a silent response in this brain region.
The researchers found that the link between inhibition at 14 to 24 months of age and an increase in depressive symptoms at ages 15 to 26 was present only in those who had reduced activity in the ventral striatum as adolescents. Anxiety had nothing to do with it.
“We found that behavioral inhibition was related to worsening depressive symptoms in adulthood. This supports the claim that this temperament shows a strong link to developing anxiety in adolescence, but in adulthood, it is more strongly associated with depression. However, not all inhibited children develop anxiety or depression,” Tang said. “It was particularly disrupted children who showed blunted striatal activity who were more likely to be depressed in young adulthood.
Tang said her previous research has related anxiety to neural networks and the processes that underpin attention and executive functions, while current work sheds light on reward and motivational centers in the brain related to depression.
“This study is new because it can isolate different types of brain correlates for these different conditions,” she said.
Tang said there are already programs available for socially anxious and behaviorally disrupted youth that improve social and cognitive skills. Additional treatments for these children can address motivational impairments, by teaching them how to intentionally create environments in which they can socialize with peers and have enjoyable experiences.
“This in turn may reduce the likelihood of developing depression that results from being socially displaced or missing out on opportunities for positive experiences,” she said.
She suggested that future research could look into the effectiveness of programs that target faulty reward processing in anxious adolescents in reducing the likelihood of depression later on.
According to Tang, anxiety and depression are complex diseases, which can be triggered by a variety of factors, including genetic, environmental and other variables.
“Here, we show strong evidence that both early temperament risk factors and maladaptive neurocognitive processing of rewards are involved in contributing to the development of depression.”
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