Neurodevelopment and ages of onset in depressive disorders

Cindy C Hagan; Julia M E Graham; Paul O Wilkinson; Nick Midgley; John Suckling; Barbara J Sahakian; Ian M Goodyer

doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00362-4

Neurodevelopment and ages of onset in depressive disorders

Lancet Psychiatry. 2015 Dec;2(12):1112-6. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00362-4.

Authors

Cindy C Hagan¹, Julia M E Graham², Paul O Wilkinson², Nick Midgley³, John Suckling⁴, Barbara J Sahakian⁵, Ian M Goodyer⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
³ Anna Freud Centre and Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Wellcome Trust Neurosciences in Psychiatry Network, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Wellcome Trust Neurosciences in Psychiatry Network, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

PMID: 26613851
DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00362-4

Abstract

How and why do clinical depressive disorders emerge in adolescence? In this Personal View, we present a neurodevelopmental theory to address causes for adolescent onsets of clinical depressive disorders. We argue that theories should account for three perplexing aspects of depressive disorders in adolescence: the episodic nature of depression; differences between sexes in rates of depression across development; and age-differentiated onsets. We consider how theories such as psychosocial acceleration, heterochronic brain development, dual-process models, glucocorticoid vulnerability hypothesis linked to early life stress, and epigenetic and genetic susceptibility might explain some aspects of adolescent depressive disorders. We argue that some synthesis between existing theories might be needed to establish a sufficient neurodevelopmental theoretical framework to explain onsets of depressive disorders in adolescence.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Development
Age of Onset
Depressive Disorder / epidemiology*
Humans
Nervous System / growth & development

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding