Can depression during adolescence have long-term implications? A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders suggests that struggling with depression during adolescence is associated with decreased cognitive performance in the subsequent years.
Adolescence is an important and formative time, where children are undergoing significant social and cognitive growth. Although depression can be difficult and debilitating at any age, evidence has shown that young people are more likely to experience long-term mental and cognitive outcomes.
This can be especially pertinent, as it can permeate into all aspects of their lives, including social and psychosocial impairments. The new study sought to better understand the longitudinal relationship between depression and cognitive impairment and bridge the gap in knowledge.
For their study, Xue Wang and colleagues utilized data from the China Family Panel Studies, which is a longitudinal study that collects data every 2 years. Wang and colleagues used data from four waves, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. The first wave included 2,040 adolescents, with 1,055 following up in 2014, 1,115 following up in 2016, and 879 following up in 2018.
In 2012, participants completed measures on depression status. Immediate and delayed recall and numerical reasoning were tested in the 2012 and 2016 waves, while vocabulary and numeracy were assessed in the 2014 and 2018 waves. Covariates tested were age, gender, educational level, age of parents, employment status of parents, educational level of parents, family size, household income, and urban-rural household distribution.
Results showed that having depression at the first wave was associated with declined cognitive performance during the next 6 years on a myriad of tests including number series, immediate and delayed word recall, vocabulary, and math tests. The only test for which these results were not significant was the delayed word recall test given at the same time as the depression measure.
These effects remained when controlling for covariates, such as demographic factors of the participants, their parents, and their households. The results are consistent with prior research that suggests that depression causes information processing bias, and impaired executive functioning and visual memory.
This study took important steps into better understanding the link between depression and cognitive functioning. Despite this, there are limitations to note. One such limitation is that mental health treatment such as medication or therapy were not controlled for in this study. Another limitation is that depression was measured by a self-report rating scale, which could over or under-estimate depressive symptoms.
“This population-based longitudinal study not only confirmed a strong and consistent recurrent association between adolescent depression and cognitive performance but also demonstrated that depressive symptoms in individuals during adolescence were associated with the level of cognitive performance over the subsequent six years,” the researchers concluded.
“These findings provide evidence for understanding the association between depressive states and long-term cognition in adolescents. This study underscores the importance of focusing on cognitive impairment in patients with depression, especially during adolescence.”
The study, “Association between depression status in adolescents and cognitive performance over the subsequent six years: A longitudinal study“, was authored by Xue Wang, Hefang Chen, Yu Liu, Zhe Zhao, and Shuang Zang.