Depression and Anxiety in Preschoolers

Abstract

Synopsis This article reviews recent empirical literature on the prevalence, correlates, assessment, and treatment of preschool-onset internalizing disorders. Major advances in the acceptance and recognition of both preschool-onset depression and anxiety have occurred over the past decade. This work has been greatly enhanced by the discovery of genetic, neural, and physiological indicators, which further validate these constellations of symptoms in young children. Despite this growth in research, much work still needs to be done to further elucidate the etiology, risk treatment and protective factors for preschool-onset internalizing disorders.

Recognizing the Effect of Ecosystem Disruption on Human Health and Neurodevelopment

“…A similar increase has been seen for ADHD with the number of US children diagnosed with ADHD rising from 4.4 million in 2003 to 6.1 million in 2016 [7]. In addition, depression and anxiety have become common among the pediatric population, with one epidemiological study finding prevalence rates of preschool depression up to 2% [8]. The pathophysiology behind these diseases remains unclear, however, it has been hypothesized that a dysfunctional microbiome may contribute to the pathogenesis.…”

Genetic susceptibility for major depressive disorder associates with trajectories of depressive symptoms across childhood and adolescence

“…First, most have focused on narrow ages range, with only one study including children younger than 10 years old (Akingbuwa et al, 2020). Thus, there has been limited attention to the earliest manifestations of depressive symptoms, which is a shortcoming as some symptoms can emerge as early as preschool (Whalen et al, 2017). Accounting for the full age span when symptoms emerge and occur is needed to capture the full course of depressive symptoms during development and identify the factors that drive and shape their trajectories across the life course.…”

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted March 6, 2020. . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.02.19007088 doi: medRxiv preprint Second, we modeled onset of depressive symptoms at age 4, to coincide with the earliest time period reported in prior studies (Whalen et al, 2017). Third, we examined the cumulative burden of depressive symptoms, reflecting the overall level of depressive symptoms across development.…”

“…As such, more recent longitudinal studies have sought to model this time-dependent heterogeneity in depressive symptoms (as well as internalizing symptoms more broadly) by classifying individuals into subgroups based on their symptom trajectories over time. These studies have prospectively and repeatedly assessed depressive symptoms across an average of 3-6 years of development (Ellis et al, 2017); only a few include participants under 10 years old (Dekker et al, 2007;Kwong et al, 2019;Rice et al, 2018;Whalen, Sylvester, & Luby, 2017).…”

Psychometric properties of the Child Anxiety Life Interference Scale – Preschool Version

“…Anxiety disorders are the most common class of mental disorder across development (Kessler et al, 2005;Whalen, Sylvester, & Luby, 2017). These disorders tend to begin very early in life, with a median age of onset of 6 years for affected youth (Merikangas et al, 2010).…”