Stress Sensitivity Interacts with Depression History to Predict Depressive Symptoms Among Youth: Prospective Changes Following First Depression Onset

Abstract

Predictors of depressive symptoms may differ before and after the first onset of major depression due to stress sensitization. Dependent stressors, or those to which characteristics of individuals contribute, have been shown to predict depressive symptoms in youth. The current study sought to clarify how stressors’ roles may differ before and after the first depressive episode. Adolescents (N = 382, aged 11 to 15 at baseline) were assessed at baseline and every three months over the course of two years with measures of stressors and depressive symptoms. Semi-structured interviews were conducted every 6 months to assess for clinically significant depressive episodes. Hierarchical linear modeling showed a significant interaction between history of depression and idiographic fluctuations in dependent stressors to predict prospective elevations of symptoms, such that dependent stressors were more predictive of depressive symptoms after onset of disorder. Independent stressors predicted symptoms, but the strength of the association did not vary by depression history. These results suggest a synthesis of stress sensitization and generation processes that might maintain inter-episode depressive symptoms among youth with a history of clinical depression.

The Effects of Childhood and Adolescent Adversity on Substance Use Disorders and Poor Health in Early Adulthood

“…Specifically, in line with prior work (Technow et al 2015; Vrshek-Schallhorn et al 2014), our findings support a stress continuation model suggesting more recent stressors elicit negative outcomes. That is, ongoing stress that continues to occur more proximally to the poor health outcome may be more potent than earlier periods of stress that subside.…”

Depression from childhood through adolescence: risk mechanisms across multiple systems and levels of analysis

“…Regarding stress sensitization processes, maltreated adolescents, especially those who were emotionally abused, reported lower stress severity prior to MDD onset (34). Also consistent with stress sensitization, longitudinal research shows that idiographic dependent stressors predicted future depressive symptoms after youths’ first onset of MDD in the transition from early to middle adolescence (35). Finally and consistent with a more nuanced developmental psychopathological perspective, which stress mechanism (e.g., sensitization, amplification) is operating to contribute effective risk to later depression may depend upon age of first MDD onset and exposure to ACE (36).…”

Predicting individualized clinical measures by a generalized prediction framework and multimodal fusion of MRI data

“…Recent studies have started to use machine-learning techniques to detect neuroimaging patterns that may predict cognitive or behavioral performance (Aharoni et al, 2013; Eichele et al, 2008; Shen et al, 2014). And initial brain measures have indicated compelling potential to predict health-related outcomes (Chen et al, 2007; Clark et al, 2014; Gabrieli et al, 2015; Shaffer et al, 2013; Technow et al, 2014; Tsang et al, 2009; Vittengl et al, 2014; Willette et al, 2014). However, most predictive studies to date have only related variation in baseline brain measures to variation in subsequent outcomes, which could be described more as post-diction or correlation rather than prediction (Gabrieli et al, 2015; Hutton et al, 2009).…”