Brain differences detected in children with depressed parents

December 5, 2019

Science Daily/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

The largest brain imaging study of children ever conducted in the United States has revealed structural differences in the brains of those whose parents have depression.

Depression is a common and debilitating mental health condition that typically arises during adolescence. While the causes of depression are complex, having a parent with depression is one of the biggest known risk factors. Studies have consistently shown that adolescent children of parents with depression are two to three times more likely to develop depression than those with no parental history of depression. However, the brain mechanisms that underlie this familial risk are unclear.

A new study, led by David Pagliaccio, PhD, assistant professor of clinical neurobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, found structural differences in the brains of children at high risk for depression due to parental depressive history.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

The researchers analyzed brain images from over 7,000 children participating in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive development (ABCD) study, led by the NIH. About one-third of the children were in the high-risk group because they had a parent with depression.

In the high-risk children, the right putamen -- a brain structure linked to reward, motivation, and the experience of pleasure -- was smaller than in children with no parental history of depression.

Randy P. Auerbach, PhD, associate professor of medical psychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study, notes, "These findings highlight a potential risk factor that may lead to the development of depressive disorders during a peak period of onset. However, in our prior research, smaller putamen volumes also has been linked to anhedonia -- a reduced ability to experience pleasure -- which is implicated in depression, substance use, psychosis, and suicidal behaviors. Thus, it may be that smaller putamen volume is a transdiagnostic risk factor that may confer vulnerability to broad-based mental disorders."

Dr. Pagliaccio adds that, "Understanding differences in the brains of children with familial risk factors for depression may help to improve early identification of those at greatest risk for developing depression themselves, and lead to improved diagnosis and treatment. As children will be followed for a 10-year period during one of the greatest periods of risk, we have a unique opportunity to determine whether reduced putamen volumes are associated with depression specifically or mental disorders more generally."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191205130534.htm

Three parent factors that heighten the prevalence of childhood physical abuse

The connection between abuse and addiction, intimate partner violence and mental illness

June 11, 2019

Science Daily/University of Toronto

Adults who had parents who struggled with addiction, intimate partner violence and mental illness are more than 30 times more likely to have been victims of childhood physical abuse than those whose parents did not have these problems, once age and race were taken into account.

The study by researchers at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Institute of Life Course & Aging was published online this week in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Findings indicated that between 66% and 78% of adults who grew up in homes where all three risk factors were present reported that, before the age of 18, their parent or an adult in their home had ever "hit, beat, kick, or physically hurt (them) in any way." Respondents were told not to include spanking.

"With each additional risk factor experienced, the prevalence of childhood physical abuse increased dramatically. Intimate partner violence was a strong predictor of childhood abuse, even in the absence of the other two risk factors; more than one-third of respondents who had been exposed solely to parental intimate partner violence reported that they had been physically abused" reported co-author Senyo Agbeyaka, recent MSW graduate and a social worker in health care. "Between 23% and 31% of those exposed to both parental addictions and parental mental illness, but not parental domestic violence, reported they had been physically abused as a child."

"We were so astonished by the magnitude of the association between the combination of these three risk factors and childhood physical abuse in the 2010 survey that we replicated the analysis with a different sample from a 2012 survey," says co-author Jami-Leigh Sawyer, a University of Toronto doctoral candidate in social work. "The findings in both data sets and for each gender were remarkably consistent and very worrisome."

The study was based on two representative community samples, one study conducted in 2010 with 22,862 adults and the second, in 2012, with a different sample of 29,801 adults. The data were drawn from the Brief Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) and separate analyses were conducted for each sex. A major limitation of the study is use of retrospective self-report of these early adversities and a lack of information on the exact timing when they occurred. The findings only indicate correlation and cannot be interpreted as causative.

The study's findings have important clinical implications for pediatricians, family doctors, social workers and other healthcare providers working with children and their families, says lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Sandra Rotman Chair at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and Director of the Institute of Life Course and Aging. "It appears that children from homes with parental intimate partner violence alone, or at least two of the other risk factors are particularly vulnerable to abuse. Such knowledge will hopefully improve the targeting of screening for childhood physical abuse."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190611081849.htm