An anxiety or depressive disorder during adolescence confers a strong risk for recurrent anxiety or depressive disorders during early adulthood. Most anxiety and depressive disorders in young adults may be preceded by anxiety or depression in adolescence.

Developmental aspects of psychiatric disorders may be inferred from patterns of age differences in prevalence. Age-specific prevalences are provided for nine disorders in a general population sample of ages 10-20. Age and gender patterns for several disorders suggest developmental stage-associated risks. These include oppositional disorder in both genders and conduct disorder and major depression in girls. Major depression shows a pattern suggestive of a role for the onset of puberty. The prevalence of one or more disorders did not differ by age or gender. However, the pattern of specific diagnoses varied greatly by both age and gender.

Maladaptive parenting and childhood maltreatment may be associated with a risk for severe interpersonal difficulties during adolescence. These interpersonal difficulties may play a pivotal role in the development of suicidal behavior. Youths who are at an elevated risk for suicide may tend to be in need of mental health services that can help them to cope with an extensive history of profound interpersonal difficulties, beginning in childhood and continuing through adolescence.

Symptoms of depression in adolescence strongly predict an episode of major depression in adulthood, even among adolescents without major depression.

Our results suggest that early drug use is associated with and predicts later psychiatric disorders. Preventive implications stem from the importance of studying a range of psychiatric disorders in the context of substance use assessed over a wide age range.