In a recent imaging study, a researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas uncovered early risk variables related to children’s temperament and a neurological mechanism that may predict whether someone may experience depression and anxiety in adolescence and early adulthood. The study, which was released in JAMA Psychiatry, followed a cohort of 165 people from the time they were 4 months old between 1989 and 1993 up until the age of 26.
Some infants respond favourably and approach unfamiliar things, people, or circumstances fearlessly, whereas others show caution or avoidance. Uninhibited versus inhibited behaviour is distinguished by this distinction. We are aware that children who are inhibited later in life are more prone to experience anxiety problems, particularly social anxiety, which starts in late childhood and lasts until adolescence, Tang added. “Depression in young adults, which typically manifests later in life, is less well understood. But since persons with anxiety disorders are 50% to 60% more likely to develop depression later in life, inhibited kids should be at an increased risk for depression as well.”
Because of how the individuals’ early temperamental hazards were described and how long they were observed, Tang’s study is exceptional. Since full-blown disorders typically do not manifest until young adulthood, she added, “we have to follow people for decades if we are to show any relation with rises in depression symptoms over time.”
The subjects were divided into two groups when they were young: inhibited and uninhibited. They received functional MRIs as teenagers while working on a task to gauge how their brains reacted when they anticipated rewards, in this example, hoping to win money. We investigated the ventral striatum, an area of the brain that has been extensively researched in relation to understanding depression in adults, to determine whether it is connected to improper processing in the reward centers of the brain, Tang said.
