Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:30:57.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Adolescent depression: neuroendocrine aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

Ian M. Goodyer
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The development of criterion-based diagnostic systems has been an impetus for the investigation of the neurobiological underpinnings of psychiatric disturbance in children and adolescents. Although, to date, insufficient knowledge exists specifically to identify the aetiologies of various disorders, studies of clinical and normative populations have led to a veritable explosion of knowledge about the neuroendocrine aspects of psychiatric disorders. As a result of these investigations, the specificity of current diagnostic systems has been questioned, the pathophysiology of various psychiatric disorders has been explored and simplistic models which previously have been invoked to explain both normal and pathological behaviour (for example: adolescent turmoil is due to hormones) are no longer tenable (Buchanan et al., 1992).

Neuroendocrine studies in adolescent depression have arisen from the influence of similar research in adult populations, and some of the earliest work in this field was an attempt to determine if the neurobiological features found in adult depressives would also be present in children and adolescents. Similar findings, it was argued, would provide further evidence for the presence of depressive disorders in younger populations and thus lend credibility to the diagnostic classification of child and adolescent depression. This work of pioneering investigators has been further developed by the realization of the different central nervous system (CNS) and neurohormonal aspects of adolescents compared to adults (Buchanan et al., 1992).

Furthermore, adolescent neuroendocrinology, with its developmentally determined differences that occur rapidly during a few years of the life cycle, give an added dimension of complexity that is not usually addressed in studies of adult populations.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×