Temporal dynamics and longitudinal co-occurrence of depression and different anxiety syndromes in youth: Evidence for reciprocal patterns in a 3-year prospective study. J Affect Disord 2018 Jul;234:20-27
Date
03/10/2018Pubmed ID
29522939Pubmed Central ID
PMC5895498DOI
10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.074Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85042869720 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 27 CitationsAbstract
BACKGROUND: Depression is highly comorbid with anxiety in youth. It is frequently reported that anxiety precedes depression; however, evidence surrounding the temporal precedence of anxiety over depression is mixed. Many studies of anxiety-depression co-occurrence lump distinct forms of anxiety, obscuring information regarding trajectories of specific anxiety syndromes. This study sought to more accurately describe the development of anxiety and depression over time by moving beyond the question of temporal precedence to investigate a developmentally dynamic model of anxiety-depression co-occurrence.
METHODS: A community sample of 665 youth (M= 11.8, SD= 2.4; 55% female) completed repeated self-report measures of depression and anxiety (social, physical, and separation anxiety) over a 3-year longitudinal study. Prospective associations between distinct syndromes of anxiety with depression were analyzed using an autoregressive cross-lagged path model over four time points.
RESULTS: Physical symptoms and depression symptoms reciprocally predicted each other, above and beyond the stability of either domain. Social anxiety and depression symptoms similarly predicted each other in a systematic pattern.
LIMITATIONS: Our study is limited in its generalizability to other forms of anxiety, like worry. Additional research is needed to determine whether similar patterns exist in clinical populations, and whether these processes maintain symptoms once they reach diagnostic levels.
CONCLUSIONS: The development of syndromes of depression, physical, and social anxiety during childhood and adolescence occurs in a predictable, systematic reciprocal pattern, rather than sequentially and unidirectionally (i.e., anxiety syndromes precede depression). Results are clinically useful for predicting risk for disorder, and demonstrate the necessity of tracking symptom levels across domains.
Author List
Long EE, Young JF, Hankin BLAuthor
Erin E. Long PhD Assistant Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdolescent Development
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety, Separation
Child
Comorbidity
Depression
Depressive Disorder
Female
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Prospective Studies
Self Report
Syndrome
