Search

In adolescence, both major depression (MD) and anorexia nervosa (AN) are associated with deficits in emotion regulation (ER). However, studies have yet to compare ER profiles within the disorders and the effect of comorbid MD+AN is unclear. This study examined the habitual use of ER in 229 girls, aged 12–18 years, with MD (n = 84), AN (n = 37), comorbid MD+AN (n = 25), and healthy girls (n = 83). Girls with MD, AN and MD+AN reported more maladaptive and less adaptive ER strategies than healthy girls. MD and MD+AN groups showed more frequent use of maladaptive ER compared to only AN, with no differences between only MD and MD+AN. This suggests that MD+AN is not necessarily associated with higher ER deficits, rather, an additional diagnosis of MD exacerbates impairments in AN. Identifying specific ER profiles can provide important targets in prevention and treatment for AN, MD and AN+MD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) are thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of major depression (MD) in adolescents. In healthy adults, a task-based training of ER has previously proven effective to reduce stress, but no such studies are available for MD. It is also unclear whether findings can be generalized onto adolescent populations. The final sample consisted of n = 70 adolescents with MD, who were randomized to a task-based ER training ( n = 36) or a control training ( n = 34). Across four sessions, the ER group was trained to downregulate negative affect to negative images via reappraisal, while the control group was instructed to attend the images. Rumination, stress-, and affect-related measures were assessed as primary outcomes, behavioral and neurophysiological responses (late positive potential, LPP), as secondary outcomes. The trial was preregistered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03957850). While there was no significant differential effect of the ER training on primary outcomes, we found small to moderate effects on rumination in the ER group, but not the control group. During reappraisal (compared to attend), the ER group showed an unexpected increase of the LPP during the first, but not during later training sessions. Although replication in large, multicenter trials is needed, our findings on effect sizes suggest that ER training might be promising to decrease rumination in adolescent MD. The LPP increase at the first session may represent cognitive effort, which was successfully reduced over the sessions. Future studies should research whether training effects transfer to daily life and are durable over a longer time period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose: BioMD-Y is a comprehensive biobank study of children and adolescents with major depression (MD) and their healthy peers in Germany, collecting a host of both biological and psychosocial information from the participants and their parents with the aim of exploring genetic and environmental risk and protective factors for MD in children and adolescents., Participants: Children and adolescents aged 8-18 years are recruited to either the clinical case group (MD, diagnosis of MD disorder) or the typically developing control group (absence of any psychiatric condition)., Findings to Date: To date, four publications on both genetic and environmental risk and resilience factors (including FKBP5 , glucocorticoid receptor activation, polygenic risk scores, psychosocial and sociodemographic risk and resilience factors) have been published based on the BioMD-Y sample., Future Plans: Data collection is currently scheduled to continue into 2026. Research questions will be further addressed using available measures., Competing Interests: Competing interests: MMN has received fees for membership in an advisory board from HMG Systems Engineering (Fürth, Germany), for membership in the Medical-Scientific Editorial Office of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, and for serving as a consultant for EVERIS Belgique SPRL in a project of the European Commission (REFORM/SC2020/029). MMN receives salary payments from Life & Brain and holds shares in Life & Brain. All of the above concerned activities outside the submitted work., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objective: Rejection sensitivity (RS) is defined as the disposition to anxiously expect rejection, to perceive it as likely, and to overreact to it. Former studies showed heightened RS in clinically depressed adults and identified it as a predictor for symptoms of depression in adolescents. However, to date there are no studies examining RS as a disposition in adolescents with clinical Depression., Method: In the present study, we compared differences in RS and behavioral intentions in depressive and healthy adolescents after a rejection situation. We included n = 28 adolescents with depression and n = 32 healthy control participants between the ages of 12–17 and applied a German version of the Children’s Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire “CRSQ”., Results: It was found that, compared to controls, depressive adolescents show higher RS, are more anxious about rejection, and rate the likelihood of being rejected higher. Furthermore, adolescents with depression more often indicated to resign to rejection and blame themselves for it than their healthy counterparts., Conclusions: Our results are in concordance with the clinical picture and with cognitive theories of the disorder. In future studies, it would be important to examine whether corresponding interventions can have a positive impact on the course of the disease.