Adolescent depression, cortisol and DHEA

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s Ian Goodyer and his colleagues have been engaged in trying to understand the dynamics of the relationship between acute and chronic life stresses and depression in adolescents (Goodyer et al. 1985, 1986). One of the great strengths of their work has been their attention to an array of potential risk factors ranging from the apparently exogenous (such as life events, e.g. Goodyer et al. 1988; Goodyer & Altham, 1991; Goodyer, 1999), through those of uncertain origin (e.g. peer and family relationships and problems, Goodyer et al. 1990), to those that can be regarded as being endogenous to the child (e.g. measures of temperament or endocrine function, Goodyer et al. 1993, 1996, 1998; Herbert et al. 1996). They have then typically attempted to determine how subsets of these factors interact in the generation of disorder (see Goodyer, 2002 for a speculative presentation of his current thinking about the relationships between social adversity and depression). A second characteristic of their research lies in its frequent attention to outcomes over time, as opposed to cross-sectional relationships (e.g. Goodyer et al. 1997a,b). Thirdly, in line with growing evidence that the relationships between environmental stress (and perhaps neuro-anatomical correlates) and depression change as repeated episodes occur (Lewinsohn et al. 1999; Daley et al. 2000), they have distinguished among first, recurrent, remitting and chronic depressive episodes. The group's latest work, presented in this issue (Goodyer et al. 2003), nicely illustrates these characteristics, and their extension to consideration of potential dynamic relations among endocrine parameters in relation to psychopathology.

Coping with Social Stress: Implications for Psychopathology in Young Adolescent Girls

“…As previously indicated, cortisol-psychopathology links have mostly been found in samples reporting borderline or clinical levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Angold 2003;Klimes-Dougan et al 2001;Oosterlaan et al 2005). In a study similar in design to the current study (i.e., normative adolescent samples exposed to social challenge tasks), Klimes-Dougan and colleagues (2001) demonstrated links between cortisol reactivity and internalizing symptoms, but were unable to find clear associations between cortisol reactivity and aggression.…”

A review of rhythm and responsiveness of cortisol in individuals with autism spectrum disorders

“…While depression was not directly examined in the aforementioned studies, lower evening cortisol levels have also been reported in youth (Angold, 2003; Dahl et al, 1991; Van den Bergh, et al, 2008) and adults (Engert et al, 2011; Muhtz et al, 2009) with symptoms of depression. Importantly, depression is a common comorbid condition in persons with ASD (Simonoff et al, 2008) suggesting that future studies should explore a possible association between the cortisol profile and depression symptomology.…”

Developmental Epidemiology

“…But children are not scaled-down adults, and this approach causes serious problems for the epidemiologist concerned with explaining patterns of disease distribution in the community. Why, for example, do rates of depressive disorders, which are low in prepubertal children of both sexes, continue low in postpubertal boys but rise very sharply in postpubertal girls (Angold, 2003;Angold, Costello, Erkanli, & Worthman, 1999)? Is the increase causally associated with age, or with pubertal status, or with something else entirely?…”