Stress In Early Life Linked To Depression Later On

Children who experience stressful events early in life are twice as likely to suffer from depression as adults, according to a recent study. 

Researchers at Duke University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found that this risk is associated with sensitization of brain circuits linked to processing threat as well as driving stress responses. Furthermore, some research suggests that there may be a parallel to stress sensitization that diminishes the processing of rewards in the brain, along with associated reductions in an individual's ability to experience positive emotions.

During the study, researchers recruited 106 adolescents between 11-15 to better understand how early stress can contribute to depression later in life. Researchers had the participants undergo an initial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, along with measurements of both mood and neglect. Then, they had a second brain scan two years later.

The researchers focused on the ventral striatum--otherwise known as a deep brain region that is important for processing rewarding experiences, as well as generating positive emotions. In those suffering from depression, both are deficient.

"Our analyses revealed that over a two-year window during early to mid-adolescence, there was an abnormal decrease in the response of the ventral striatum to reward only in adolescents who had been exposed to emotional neglect, a relatively common form of childhood adversity where parents are persistently emotionally unresponsive and unavailable to their children," explained first author Dr. Jamie Hanson, in a news release. "Importantly, we further showed that this decrease in ventral striatum activity predicted the emergence of depressive symptoms during this key developmental period," he added. "Our work is consistent with other recent studies finding deficient reward processing in depression, and further underscores the importance of considering such developmental pathways in efforts to protect individuals exposed to childhood adversity from later depression."

The study is published in the journal of Biological Psychiatry.

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