Multiple domains of risk factors for first onset of depression in adolescent girls

Abstract

Background: First onsets of depression are especially common in adolescent females and often develop into chronic/recurrent illness. Surprisingly few studies have comprehensively evaluated multiple domains of etiologically-informative risk factors for first onset in adolescents from the community. We investigated whether clinical, cognitive, personality, interpersonal, and biological risk factors prospectively predict a first onset of depressive disorder (DD), and of DD with a chronic/recurrent course, in a community sample of adolescent girls.

Methods: 479 girls (13.5-15.5 years) with no history of DD completed baseline assessments of risk factors and five diagnostic assessments over 3 years. Baseline measures were analyzed separately and jointly to prospectively predict first-onset DD and first-onset chronic/recurrent DD.

Results: Most risk factors predicted first-onset DD (n = 93), including depressive symptoms, anxiety disorders, rumination, personality traits, blunted neural response (late positive potential [LPP]) to unpleasant pictures, peer victimization, parental criticism, and parental mood disorder. Depressive symptoms, rumination, parental mood disorder, and parental criticism were independently associated with first onsets. Nearly all measures, including a blunted neural response to rewards (reward positivity [RewP]), also predicted first-onset chronic/recurrent DD (n = 52), with depressive symptoms, low extraversion, poor peer relationships, and blunted RewP emerging as independent risk factors.

Limitations: This study focused on adolescent females and therefore does not provide information on males.

Conclusions: Multiple domains of risk factors in early adolescence are prospectively associated with first-onset DD and chronic/recurrent DD. A smaller subset of risk factors uniquely contributing to first onsets may represent core vulnerabilities for adolescent-onset depression and promising prevention targets.

Keywords: Adolescence; Depression; Etiology; First onset; Risk factor.