title: Early onset recurrent subtype of adolescent depression: clinical and psychosocial correlates.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evaluated trajectories of adolescent depression and their correlates in a longitudinal study of a community sample: early onset (by age 15) with major depression (MDE) recurrence between 15 and 20; early onset with no recurrence; later onset of major depression after age 15 with and without recurrence by 20; and never-depressed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight-hundred sixteen youth were studied at age 15, and 699 were included at age 20, with diagnostic evaluations and assessments of functioning in major roles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Youth with early onset and recurrent MDE differed from both those with early onset but nonrecurrent MDE and those with later onset-no recurrence in terms of clinical features, adolescent social functioning, and later psychosocial adjustment. The early onset recurrent depressed youth had more severe, chronic, suicidal depressions, greater anxiety comorbidity, worse social functioning at 15, and poorer psychosocial, especially social, outcomes at 20.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Youth with depression by 15 with recurrence by age 20 may represent a high-risk group, with likely life-course-persistent depression and maladjustment. Community youth whose early depression does not recur by age 20, or who have onset with no recurrence after age 15, may have more benign and possibly limited depressions. Later onset with recurrence is also a group at risk for dysfunctional outcomes, requiring further follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California - Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. hammen@psych.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Constance
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammen
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Brennan
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Keenan-Miller
authors.forename: Nathaniel R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Herr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001315:Australia; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment