Affective symptoms at index hospitalization in childhood and depressive symptoms in adulthood: a "catch-up" study.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze whether affective symptoms during psychiatric treatment in childhood or adolescence could predict the later development of depressive symptoms.


METHODS
We used a "catch-up" design. A cohort of former child and adolescent psychiatric patients was assessed in adulthood with standardized instruments according to the criteria of ICD-10 (SCAN) and dimensional values for depression (both self-reported and observer-rated). Initial affective symptoms had been extracted from clinical records according to a standardized system (AMDP).


RESULTS
We assessed 164 former patients. Twelve percent of these fulfilled diagnostic criteria of an affective disorder (F3) according to ICD-10. In univariate analyses of variance the depression scores were significantly related to affective symptoms during childhood treatment, even if the presence of an affective disorder at catch-up was considered as an independent covariate variable. Nevertheless, the latter variable explained a large part of the variance of depression scores, while initial affective symptoms explained no more than 6%.


CONCLUSIONS
Affective symptoms in childhood and adolescence may predict the later development of subthreshold depressive symptomatology.
Brieger
P
P
Division of Social Psychiatry, University Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06097 Halle/Saale, Germany. peter.brieger@medizin.uni-halle.de
Blöink
R
R
Sommer
S
S
Marneros
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010553:Personality Development; D012307:Risk Factors