LIFE Child Depression - a prospective longitudinal cohort study on the origin of depressive disorders between childhood and early adulthood

Abstract

LIFE Child Depression - a prospective longitudinal cohort study on the origin of depressive disorders between childhood and early adulthood LIFE Child Depression is a prospective longitudinal study on the origin and course of depressive symptoms and disorders between child- and adulthood. The aim of the study is to identify patterns of developmental courses of symptoms and disorders and to investigate the interplay of psychosocial, biological and genetic risk and protective factors in the development of depressive disorders. The present paper gives an overview on results of the study. The sample was already assessed three times. A clinical sample was recruited from two local child psychiatric in- and outpatient services in Leipzig, a control sample was recruited from a children's health check program at our medical faculty (LIFE Child Health) and from the local registration office. We found some important context- and parent-associated risk factors for depressive disorders, such as negative life events, low socioeconomic status and depression in mothers (but not in fathers). Moreover, we found some characteristic biological and cognitive-emotional characteristics of children with depressive disorders, such as low stress-related cortisol, low evaluation of own performance, and more negative cognitions in dealing with stressful situations, low self-esteem and a general impairment of emotional processing of human faces. Only some of the risk factors were found to be specific to depression. Instead, most of them can be regarded as general risk factors for psychological disorders in childhood. It is also noteworthy, that some of the risk associations were gender-specific and need to be looked at from a differential point of view. Our study gives important indications for prevention for children at risk for depressive disorders as well as for therapeutic approaches.