Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T10:51:25.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘The risks of playing it safe’: a prospective longitudinal study of response to reward in the adolescent offspring of depressed parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2012

A. Rawal ,
S. Collishaw ,
A. Thapar  and
F. Rice
A. Rawal*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, UK
S. Collishaw
Affiliation:
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University, MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, UK
A. Thapar
Affiliation:
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology, Cardiff University, MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, UK
F. Rice*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: A. Rawal, Ph.D., Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK. (Email: [email protected]) [A. Rawal]
(Email: [email protected]) [F. Rice]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Alterations in reward processing may represent an early vulnerability factor for the development of depressive disorder. Depression in adults is associated with reward hyposensitivity and diminished reward seeking may also be a feature of depression in children and adolescents. We examined the role of reward responding in predicting depressive symptoms, functional impairment and new-onset depressive disorder over time in the adolescent offspring of depressed parents. In addition, we examined group differences in reward responding between currently depressed adolescents, psychiatric and healthy controls, and also cross-sectional associations between reward responding and measures of positive social/environmental functioning.

Method

We conducted a 1-year longitudinal study of adolescents at familial risk for depression (n = 197; age range 10–18 years). Reward responding and self-reported social/environmental functioning were assessed at baseline. Clinical interviews determined diagnostic status at baseline and at follow-up. Reports of depressive symptoms and functional impairment were also obtained.

Results

Low reward seeking predicted depressive symptoms and new-onset depressive disorder at the 1-year follow-up in individuals free from depressive disorder at baseline, independently of baseline depressive symptoms. Reduced reward seeking also predicted functional impairment. Adolescents with current depressive disorder were less reward seeking (i.e. bet less at favourable odds) than adolescents free from psychopathology and those with externalizing disorders. Reward seeking showed positive associations with social and environmental functioning (extra-curricular activities, humour, friendships) and was negatively associated with anhedonia. There were no group differences in impulsivity, decision making or psychomotor slowing.

Conclusions

Reward seeking predicts depression severity and onset in adolescents at elevated risk of depression. Adaptive reward responses may be amenable to change through modification of existing preventive psychological interventions.

Keywords

Adolescenceanhedonia depressionimpairmentimpulsivitypositive affectpreventionrewardrisksocial withdrawal
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 27 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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.)

References

Angold, A, Costello, EJ (1995). A test-retest reliability study of child-reported psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA-C). Psychological Medicine 25, 755–762.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angold, A, Prendergast, M, Cox, A, Harrington, R, Simonoff, E, Rutter, M (1995). The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA). Psychological Medicine 25, 739–753.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berns, GS (2004). Something funny happened to reward. Trends in Cognitive Science 8, 193–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brene, S, Bjornebekk, A, Aberg, E, Mathe, AA, Olson, L, Werme, M (2007). Running is rewarding and antidepressive. Physiology and Behavior 92, 136–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks-Gunn, J, Warren, MP, Rosso, J, Gargiulo, J (1987). Validity of self-report measures of girls' pubertal status. Child Development 58, 829–841.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, L, Bechara, A, Damasio, H, Aitken, MR, Sahakian, BJ, Robbins, TW (2008). Differential effects of insular and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions on risky decision-making. Brain 131, 1311–1322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, L, Dombrovski, AY, Siegle, GJ, Butters, MA, Shollenberger, CL, Sahakian, BJ, Szanto, K (2011). Impairment in risk-sensitive decision-making in older suicide attempters with depression. Psychology and Aging 26, 321–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, LA, Watson, D (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100, 316–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costello, EJ, Angold, A (1988). Scales to assess child and adolescent depression: checklists, screens, and nets. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 27, 726–737.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davey, CG, Yucel, M, Allen, NB (2008). The emergence of depression in adolescence: development of the prefrontal cortex and the representation of reward. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 32, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daviss, WB, Birmaher, B, Melhem, NA, Axelson, DA, Michaels, SM, Brent, DA (2006). Criterion validity of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire for depressive episodes in clinic and non-clinic subjects. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47, 927–934.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denninger, JW, Van Nieuwenhuizen, AO, Wisniewski, SR, Luther, JF, Trivedi, MH, Rush, AJ, Gollan, JK, Pizzagalli, DA, Fava, M (2011). Changes in depressive symptoms and social functioning in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression Study. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 199, 807–810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Depue, RA, Iacono, WG (1989). Neurobehavioral aspects of affective disorders. Annual Review of Psychology 40, 457–492.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dichter, GS, Felder, JN, Petty, C, Bizzell, J, Ernst, M, Smoski, MJ (2009). The effects of psychotherapy on neural responses to rewards in major depression. Biological Psychiatry 66, 886–897.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dowling, JS, Hockenberry, M, Gregory, RL (2003). Sense of humor, childhood cancer stressors, and outcomes of psychosocial adjustment, immune function, and infection. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing 20, 271–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eshel, N, Roiser, JP (2010). Reward and punishment processing in depression. Biological Psychiatry 68, 118–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, EE, Christopher May, J, Siegle, GJ, Ladouceur, CD, Ryan, ND, Carter, CS, Birmaher, B, Axelson, DA, Dahl, RE (2006). Reward-related decision-making in pediatric major depressive disorder: an fMRI study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47, 1031–1040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, EE, Dahl, RE (2005). Neural systems of positive affect: relevance to understanding child and adolescent depression? Development and Psychopathology 17, 827–850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, EE, Dahl, RE (2012). Research review: altered reward function in adolescent depression: what, when and how? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 53, 3–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, EE, Hariri, AR, Martin, SL, Silk, JS, Moyles, DL, Fisher, PM, Brown, SM, Ryan, ND, Birmaher, B, Axelson, DA, Dahl, RE (2009). Altered striatal activation predicting real-world positive affect in adolescent major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 166, 64–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, EE, Shaw, DS, Dahl, RE (2007). Alterations in reward-related decision making in boys with recent and future depression. Biological Psychiatry 61, 633–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, T, Hamilton, H, Meltzer, H, Goodman, R (2008). Predictors of service use for mental health problems among British schoolchildren. Child and Adolescent Mental Health 13, 32–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garber, J, Clarke, GN, Weersing, VR, Beardslee, WR, Brent, DA, Gladstone, TR, Debar, LL, Lynch, FL, D'Angelo, E, Hollon, SD, Shamseddeen, W, Iyengar, S (2009). Prevention of depression in at-risk adolescents: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association 301, 2215–2224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gatzke-Kopp, LM, Beauchaine, TP, Shannon, KE, Chipman, J, Fleming, AP, Crowell, SE, Liang, O, Johnson, LC, Aylward, E (2009). Neurological correlates of reward responding in adolescents with and without externalizing behavior disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 118, 203–213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geschwind, N, Peeters, F, Drukker, M, van Os, J, Wichers, M (2011). Mindfulness training increases momentary positive emotions and reward experience in adults vulnerable to depression: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 79, 618–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, R (1999). The extended version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a guide to child psychiatric caseness and consequent burden. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 40, 791–799.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotlib, IH, Hamilton, JP, Cooney, RE, Singh, MK, Henry, ML, Joormann, J (2010). Neural processing of reward and loss in girls at risk for major depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 67, 380–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guroglu, B, Haselager, GJ, Van Lieshout, CF, Takashima, A, Rijpkema, M, Fernandez, G (2008). Why are friends special? Implementing a social interaction simulation task to probe the neural correlates of friendship. NeuroImage 39, 903–910.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hasler, G, Drevets, WC, Manji, HK, Charney, DS (2004). Discovering endophenotypes for major depression. Neuropsychopharmacology 29, 1765–1781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hasler, G, Luckenbaugh, DA, Snow, J, Meyers, N, Waldeck, T, Geraci, M, Roiser, J, Knutson, B, Charney, DS, Drevets, WC (2009). Reward processing after catecholamine depletion in unmedicated, remitted subjects with major depressive disorder. Biological Psychiatry 66, 201–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henriques, JB, Davidson, RJ (2000). Decreased responsiveness to reward in depression. Cognition and Emotion 14, 711–724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschfeld, RM, Montgomery, SA, Keller, MB, Kasper, S, Schatzberg, AF, Moller, HJ, Healy, D, Baldwin, D, Humble, M, Versiani, M, Montenegro, R, Bourgeois, M (2000). Social functioning in depression: a review. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 61, 268–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howell, DC (1997). Statistical Methods for Psychology. Duxbury Press: London.Google Scholar
Katz, RJ, Roth, KA, Carroll, BJ (1981). Acute and chronic stress effects on open field activity in the rat: implications for a model of depression. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 5, 247–251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keedwell, PA, Andrew, C, Williams, SC, Brammer, MJ, Phillips, ML (2005). The neural correlates of anhedonia in major depressive disorder. Biological Psychiatry 58, 843–853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Thornton, LM, Gardner, CO (2000). Stressful life events and previous episodes in the etiology of major depression in women: an evaluation of the ‘kindling’ hypothesis. American Journal of Psychiatry 157, 1243–1251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraemer, HC, Stice, E, Kazdin, A, Offord, D, Kupfer, D (2001). How do risk factors work together? Mediators, moderators, and independent, overlapping, and proxy risk factors. American Journal of Psychiatry 158, 848–856.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kyte, ZA, Goodyer, IM, Sahakian, BJ (2005). Selected executive skills in adolescents with recent first episode major depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 46, 995–1005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mars, B, Collishaw, S, Smith, D, Thapar, A, Potter, R, Sellers, R, Harold, GT, Craddock, N, Rice, F (2012). Offspring of parents with recurrent depression: which features of parent depression index risk for offspring psychopathology? Journal of Affective Disorders 136, 44–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCabe, C, Cowen, PJ, Harmer, CJ (2009). Neural representation of reward in recovered depressed patients. Psychopharmacology (Berlin) 205, 667–677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McClure, SM, York, MK, Montague, PR (2004). The neural substrates of reward processing in humans: the modern role of fMRI. Neuroscientist 10, 260–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merry, SN (2009). Cognitive behavioral therapy prevents depression in at-risk adolescents. Journal of Pediatrics 155, 758.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mobbs, D, Greicius, MD, Abdel-Azim, E, Menon, V, Reiss, AL (2003). Humor modulates the mesolimbic reward centers. Neuron 40, 1041–1048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Naranjo, CA, Tremblay, LK, Busto, UE (2001). The role of the brain reward system in depression. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 25, 781–823.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, EE, Herman, KN, Barrett, CE, Noble, PL, Wojteczko, K, Chisholm, K, Delaney, D, Ernst, M, Fox, NA, Suomi, SJ, Winslow, JT, Pine, DS (2009). Adverse rearing experiences enhance responding to both aversive and rewarding stimuli in juvenile rhesus monkeys. Biological Psychiatry 66, 702–704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, AC, Crockett, L, Richards, M, Boxer, A (1988). A self-report measure of pubertal status: reliability, validity, and initial norms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 17, 117–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pizzagalli, DA, Holmes, AJ, Dillon, DG, Goetz, EL, Birk, JL, Bogdan, R, Dougherty, DD, Iosifescu, DV, Rauch, SL, Fava, M (2009). Reduced caudate and nucleus accumbens response to rewards in unmedicated individuals with major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 166, 702–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pizzagalli, DA, Jahn, AL, O'Shea, JP (2005). Toward an objective characterization of an anhedonic phenotype: a signal-detection approach. Biological Psychiatry 57, 319–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rice, F, Harold, G, Thapar, A (2002). The genetic aetiology of childhood depression: a review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 43, 65–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scheres, A, Milham, MP, Knutson, B, Castellanos, FX (2007). Ventral striatal hyporesponsiveness during reward anticipation in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Biological Psychiatry 61, 720–724.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smoski, MJ, Felder, J, Bizzell, J, Green, SR, Ernst, M, Lynch, TR, Dichter, GS (2009). fMRI of alterations in reward selection, anticipation, and feedback in major depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders 118, 69–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Somerville, LH, Jones, RM, Casey, BJ (2010). A time of change: behavioral and neural correlates of adolescent sensitivity to appetitive and aversive environmental cues. Brain and Cognition 72, 124–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steele, JD, Kumar, P, Ebmeier, KP (2007). Blunted response to feedback information in depressive illness. Brain 130, 2367–2374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stice, E, Shaw, H, Bohon, C, Marti, CN, Rohde, P (2009). A meta-analytic review of depression prevention programs for children and adolescents: factors that predict magnitude of intervention effects. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 77, 486–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, D (2004). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth UK Edition. Harcourt Assessment: London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, MM (2000). Social functioning and the treatment of depression. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 61, 33–38.Google ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Wickramaratne, P, Nomura, Y, Warner, V, Pilowsky, D, Verdeli, H (2006). Offspring of depressed parents: 20 years later. American Journal of Psychiatry 163, 1001–1008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, JK, Babor, T, Brugha, T, Burke, J, Cooper, JE, Giel, R, Jablenski, A, Regier, D, Sartorius, N (1990). SCAN. Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry 47, 589–593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed