Increase of internalized mental health symptoms among adolescents during the last three decades.

Background: Previous studies suggest an overall increase of adolescent mental health symptoms globally since the 1980s until today, especially an increase of internalizing symptoms in girls. Due to methodological limitations of these studies, further studies are warranted to obtain a more solid knowledgebase.

Methods: This study was cross-sectional and compared two separate but geographically identical groups of adolescents in a middle-sized industrial municipality in Northern Sweden at two time-points [(i) 1981, n = 1083, (505 girls, 577 boys), response rate 99.

Test-Retest Reliability of Graph Theoretic Metrics in Adolescent Brains.

Graph theory analysis of structural brain networks derived from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has become a popular analytical method in neuroscience, enabling advanced investigations of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) the effects of edge weighting schemes and (2) the effects of varying interscan periods on graph metrics within the adolescent brain. We compared a binary (B) network definition with three weighting schemes: fractional anisotropy (FA), streamline count, and streamline count with density and length correction (SDL).

An exploratory examination of reappraisal success in depressed adolescents: Preliminary evidence of functional differences in cognitive control brain regions.

Background: Most neuroimaging studies of adolescent depression employ tasks not designed to engage brain regions necessary for the cognitive control of emotion, which is central to many behavioral therapies for depression. Depressed adults demonstrate less effective activation of these regions and greater amygdala activation during cognitive reappraisal; we examined whether depressed adolescents show similar patterns of brain activation.

Methods: We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during cognitive reappraisal in 41 adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 34 matched controls (ages 13-17).

High levels of mitochondrial DNA are associated with adolescent brain structural hypoconnectivity and increased anxiety but not depression.

Background: Adolescent anxiety and depression are highly prevalent psychiatric disorders that are associated with altered molecular and neurocircuit profiles. Recently, increased mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-cn) has been found to be associated with several psychopathologies in adults, especially anxiety and depression. The associations between mtDNA-cn and anxiety and depression have not, however, been investigated in adolescents.

Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of a Novel RDoC-Based Treatment Program for Adolescent Depression: "Training for Awareness Resilience and Action" (TARA)-A Pilot Study.

Background: The novel group treatment program Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action (TARA) was developed to target specific mechanisms based on neuroscience findings in adolescent depression and framed within the National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria. TARA contains training of autonomic and emotional self-regulation, interoceptive awareness, relational skills, and value-based committed action.

Methods: We performed a single-arm trial to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of TARA in reducing depression and anxiety levels and assessed whether the specific targeted domains of function reflected the hypothesized symptom change.

Resting-state functional connectivity of the amygdala and longitudinal changes in depression severity in adolescent depression.

Background: The incidence of major depressive disorder (MDD) rises during adolescence, yet the neural mechanisms of MDD during this key developmental period are unclear. Altered amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) has been associated with both adolescent and adult MDD, as well as symptom improvement in response to treatment in adults. However, no study to date has examined whether amygdala RSFC is associated with changes in depressive symptom severity in adolescents.

DTI-based connectome analysis of adolescents with major depressive disorder reveals hypoconnectivity of the right caudate.

Background: Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the onset of major depressive disorder (MDD). While some studies have shown white matter alterations in adolescent MDD, there is still a gap in understanding how the brain is affected at a network level.

Methods: We compared diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based brain networks in a cohort of 57 adolescents with MDD and 41 well-matched healthy controls who completed self-reports of depression symptoms and stressful life events.

Fusiform Gyrus Dysfunction is Associated with Perceptual Processing Efficiency to Emotional Faces in Adolescent Depression: A Model-Based Approach.

While the extant literature has focused on major depressive disorder (MDD) as being characterized by abnormalities in processing affective stimuli (e.g., facial expressions), little is known regarding which specific aspects of cognition influence the evaluation of affective stimuli, and what are the underlying neural correlates.

Neurophysiological and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of yoga-based practices: towards a comprehensive theoretical framework.

During recent decades numerous yoga-based practices (YBP) have emerged in the West, with their aims ranging from fitness gains to therapeutic benefits and spiritual development. Yoga is also beginning to spark growing interest within the scientific community, and yoga-based interventions have been associated with measureable changes in physiological parameters, perceived emotional states, and cognitive functioning. YBP typically involve a combination of postures or movement sequences, conscious regulation of the breath, and various techniques to improve attentional focus.

Altered insular activation and increased insular functional connectivity during sad and happy face processing in adolescent major depressive disorder.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide and occurs commonly first during adolescence. The insular cortex (IC) plays an important role in integrating emotion processing with interoception and has been implicated recently in the pathophysiology of adult and adolescent MDD. However, no studies have yet specifically examined the IC in adolescent MDD during processing of faces in the sad-happy continuum.

Emotion-Dependent Functional Connectivity of the Default Mode Network in Adolescent Depression.

Background: Functional magnetic resonance imaging research suggests that major depressive disorder (MDD) in both adults and adolescents is marked by aberrant connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) during resting state. However, emotional dysregulation is also a key feature of MDD. No studies to date have examined emotion-related DMN pathology in adolescent depression.

Latent Classes of Symptoms related to Clinically Depressed Mood in Adolescents.

Background: The diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD), according to the , is based only on adult symptomatology of depression and not adapted for age and gender. This may contribute to the low diagnostic specificity and validity of adolescent MDD. In this study, we investigated whether latent classes based on symptoms associated with depressed mood could be identified in a sample of adolescents seeking psychiatric care, regardless of traditionally defined diagnostic categories.

The development of an RDoC-based treatment program for adolescent depression: "Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action" (TARA).

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the current leading causes of disability worldwide. Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the onset of depression, with MDD affecting 8-20% of all youth. Traditional treatment methods have not been sufficiently effective to slow the increasing prevalence of adolescent depression.

Adolescent girls with emotional disorders have a lower end-tidal CO2 and increased respiratory rate compared with healthy controls.

Hyperventilation has been linked to emotional distress in adults. This study investigates end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2 ), respiratory rate (RR), and heart rate variability (HRV) in adolescent girls with emotional disorders and healthy controls. ETCO2 , RR, HRV, and ratings of emotional symptom severity were collected in adolescent female psychiatric patients with emotional disorders (n = 63) and healthy controls (n = 62).

Functional connectivity of negative emotional processing in adolescent depression.

Background: The subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and its connected circuitry have been heavily implicated in emotional functioning in adolescent-onset major depressive disorder (MDD). While several recent studies have examined sgACC functional connectivity (FC) in depressed youth at rest, no studies to date have investigated sgACC FC in adolescent depression during negative emotional processing.

Methods: Nineteen medication-naïve adolescents with MDD and 19 matched healthy controls (HCL) performed an implicit fear facial affect recognition task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Screening for depressed mood in an adolescent psychiatric context by brief self-assessment scales--testing psychometric validity of WHO-5 and BDI-6 indices by latent trait analyses.

Background: Major depressive disorder is prevalent in the adolescent psychiatric clinical setting and often comorbid with other primary psychiatric diagnoses such as ADHD or social anxiety disorder. Systematic manual-based diagnostic procedures are recommended to identify such comorbidity but they are time-consuming and often not fully implemented in clinical practice. Screening for depressive symptoms in the child psychiatric context using brief, user-friendly and easily managed self-assessment scales may be of clinical value and utility.

Pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated in adolescent females with emotional disorders not treated with SSRIs.

Background: Adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) show elevated levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha. Studies of adolescents with MDD or anxiety disorders (AD) are few and present conflicting results.

Methods: We studied plasma cytokines in a clinical sample of adolescent females with MDD and/or clinical AD (n=60, mean age 16.

Low Sense of Coherence (SOC) is a mirror of general anxiety and persistent depressive symptoms in adolescent girls - a cross-sectional study of a clinical and a non-clinical cohort.

Background: The Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale is assumed to measure a distinct salutogenic construct separated from measures of anxiety and depression. Our aim was to challenge this concept.

Methods: The SOC-scale, Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI) , the emotional subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-em) and self-assessed health-related and physiological parameters were collected from a sample of non-clinical adolescent females (n = 66, mean age 16.

The differentiation between depressive and anxious adolescent females and controls by behavioural self-rating scales.

Background: This study aimed to validate the ability of frequently used self-assessment scales in Swedish child and adolescent psychiatric practice to differentiate between adolescent girls with manifest anxiety disorders and depression from those with less severe symptoms.

Methods: The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated for Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), the emotional subscale (SDQ-em), the impact score and the total difficulties score of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Sense of Coherence (SOC) in a sample of 73 adolescent, female patients, diagnosed with one or several anxiety disorders and/or depression. ROC was also calculated for 66 age-matched controls.

Heart rate variability is related to self-reported physical activity in a healthy adolescent population.

This study investigated whether there is a relationship between heart rate variability (HRV) versus lifestyle and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in a population of healthy adolescents. HRV is as an index of tonic autonomic activity and in adults HRV is related to lifestyle and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but it is not known if this is the case in adolescents. HRV was registered for 4 min in sitting position in 99 healthy adolescents (age range 15 years 11 months-17 years 7 months) and repeated after 6 months.