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Anhedonia and depressed mood in adolescence: course, stability, and reciprocal relation in the TRAILS study

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Abstract

Adolescence is marked by increases in the incidence of major depression (MDD), a disorder recognized as one of the leading causes of disability. Anhedonia and depressed mood predict both onset and chronicity of major depression (MDD), but have never been studied together longitudinally in the general adolescent population. The present study examined (1) the course and the stability of anhedonia and depressed mood and (2) their cross-sectional and longitudinal relations during adolescence. The study cohort consisted of 2,230 adolescents. Anhedonia and depressed mood were assessed with items of the YSR and ASR self-report forms at four measurement waves between ages 11 and 19. The proportion of adolescents reporting anhedonia decreased between ages 11 and 19, while the proportion of female adolescents reporting depressed mood increased. The stability of anhedonia and the cross-sectional association between anhedonia and depressed mood was larger at age 19 than at age 11. We found a mutual association between anhedonia and depressed mood without a clear temporal sequence. The presence of anhedonia at the end of adolescence might put adolescents at increased risk for MDD given the increasingly stronger stability and association with depressed mood. This suggests that it becomes more difficult to prevent MDD during late adolescence compared with early and middle adolescence.

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Acknowledgments

This research is part of the TRacking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS). Participating centers of TRAILS include various departments of the University Medical Center and University of Groningen, the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, the University of Utrecht, the Radboud Medical Center Nijmegen, and the Parnassia Bavo group, all in the Netherlands. TRAILS has been financially supported by various grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), ZonMW, GB-MaGW, the Dutch Ministry of Justice, the European Science Foundation, BBMRI-NL, and the participating universities. We are grateful to all adolescents, their parents, and teachers who participated in this research, and to everyone who worked on this project and made it possible.

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All authors of the article do not have conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Psychiatry, Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation (ICPE), Groningen, The Netherlands

    Elise C. Bennik, Esther Nederhof, Johan Ormel & Albertine J. Oldehinkel

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  1. Elise C. Bennik
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  2. Esther Nederhof
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  3. Johan Ormel
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  4. Albertine J. Oldehinkel
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Correspondence to Elise C. Bennik.

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Bennik, E.C., Nederhof, E., Ormel, J. et al. Anhedonia and depressed mood in adolescence: course, stability, and reciprocal relation in the TRAILS study. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 23, 579–586 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-013-0481-z

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