Early Childhood Depression Affects Brain Development, New Study Reveals

Did your child suffer from depression during their childhood years? Parents, a new study suggests early childhood depression can affect brain development.

According to a research study published on JAMA Psychiatry, children who suffered from clinical depression are most likely to have abnormalities in brain development. In a statement cited by Science Daily, co-researcher Dr. Joan L. Luby said that the study had allowed them to explore the connections between depression and brain development, stating that "negative mood, exposure to poverty, and a lack of parental support and nurturing" can cause alterations in brain growth and development.

The participants involved in the study are 193 preschool children from ages 3 to 6 from St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. These children were under observation for 11 years - from Sep. 22, 2003 to Dec. 11, 2014 in a "longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging study of childhood depression."

A statistical model of parameters such as Multilevel Modeling was used in the study in order to observe the links between childhood depression symptoms, prior diagnosis of major depressive disorder and the inverted U-shaped trajectory of gray matter change across 3 scan waves. This trajectory is said to have a linkage with emotional and cognitive function and is made up of neurons.

Out of 193 children, 90 of them had been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. 116 of them showed 3 full scan waves. The drop in the gray matter's thickness, volume and surface area are evident in children who experienced an episode of depression. This led them to a conclusion that brain development can be affected by depression among children.

"Gray matter development follows an inverted U-shaped curve," Luby said. "As children develop normally, they get more and more gray matter until puberty, but then a process called pruning begins, and unnecessary cells die off. But our study showed a much steeper drop-off, possibly due to pruning, in the kids who had been depressed than in healthy children."

In their next research, Dr. Luby and her co-investigators plan to examine even younger participants and perform brain scans. The planned study would aim to determine whether pruning begins earlier than three years old. The researchers also acknowledge the discomfort that childhood depression may cause. However, they encouraged that a long-lasting intervention should be done to these children in order for them to have a healthy growth and development.