Abstract
Literature suggests that neurobiological factors such as brain structure play an important role in linking social stress with depression in adolescence. We aimed to examine the role of subcortical volumetric alteration in the association between peer problems as one type of social stress and adolescent depression. We hypothesized that there would be indirect effects of peer problems on adolescent depression through subcortical volumetric alteration. Seventy eight adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) (age mean [SD] = 14.9 ± 1.5, 56 girls) and 47 healthy controls [14.3 ± 1.4, 26 girls]) participated in this study. High-resolution structural T1 images were collected using the Siemens 3T MR scanner. Subcortical volumes were segmented using the Freesurfer 6.0 package. Peer problems were assessed using the Peer-Victimization Scale and the Bullying-Behavior Scale. There was a significant indirect effect of peer problems on adolescent depression through nucleus accumbens (NAcc) volume alteration, but not through the amygdala and hippocampal volumes. This result supported our model, which stated that peer problems have indirect effects through subcortical volumetric alteration (i.e., increased NAcc volume) on adolescent depression. Our finding suggests that altered NAcc volume may serve as a pathway, through which peer problems as one type of social stressor contribute to adolescent depression.
Highlights
Literature suggests that neurobiological factors such as brain structure play an important role in linking social stress with depression in adolescence
We focused on volumetric alteration in three predetermined subcortical regions including the amygdala, hippocampus, and NAcc
We hypothesized that peer problems would be associated with adolescent depression through volumetric alteration in subcortical regions including the amygdala, hippocampus, and NAcc
Summary
Literature suggests that neurobiological factors such as brain structure play an important role in linking social stress with depression in adolescence. The mean prevalence rates of traditional bullying and cyberbullying involvement were approximately 35% and 15% across 80 studies[2] These peer problems such as being a bully and a victim are considered to be major social stressors, which are known to be related to important adolescent public health issues[3]. Structural alteration (e.g., volumetric changes) in subcortical regions including the amygdala, hippocampus, and NAcc has been known to be associated with both social stress and psychopathology[9,10] This may be because these regions have been implicated in social and emotion processing and reward-punishment p rocessing[11,12]. Given that the brain volumetric changes were associated with cellular changes such as dendritic spine density[19,20,21], previous studies suggested that social stress may contribute to subcortical structure alteration, which is thought to be associated with increased depressive-like behaviors
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