Enhancing adolescent mental health through cognitive and social support:Insights from study on depression in Chinese adolescents

Adolescent depression is a growing global health concern,affecting 14%of adolescents and leading to severe consequences such as academic failure,substance abuse,and suicidal ideation.The study by Yu et al,investigates the cognitive and social factors influencing depression in 795 Chinese adolescents.Findings reveal that negative life events(NLEs)and dysfunctional attitudes are strongly associated with depressive symptoms,while social support moderates the impact of NLEs but not dysfunctional attitudes.The study highlights the need for cognitivebehavioural interventions targeting perfectionism and autonomy,and the importance of strengthening social support systems in schools and communities.Culturally sensitive,holistic approaches to adolescent mental health are crucial for addressing both the internal vulnerabilities and external pressures contributing to depression.Further research is needed to explore the roles of peer and parental support and the long-term effects of these factors across diverse cultural contexts.

Application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in metabolic alterations of prefrontal white and gray matter in depression adolescents

BACKGROUND Cases of depression among adolescents are gradually increasing.The study of the physiological basis of cognitive function from a biochemical perspective has therefore been garnering increasing attention.Depression has been hypothesized to be associated with the brain biochemical metabolism of the anterior cingulate gyrus,frontal lobe white matter,and the thalamus.AIM To explore the application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy(1H-MRS)in the metabolic alterations in the prefrontal white matter(PWM)and gray matter(GM)in adolescents with depression.METHODS 1H-MRS was performed for semi-quantitative analysis of the biochemical metabolites N-acetylaspartate(NAA),choline(Cho)complexes,creatine(Cr),and myoinositol(mI)in bilateral PWM,anterior cingulate GM,and thalami of 31 adolescent patients with depression(research group)and 35 healthy adolescents(control group),and the NAA/Cr,Cho/Cr,and mI/Cr ratios were calculated.Meanwhile,Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD)and Wechsler Memory Scale were used to assess the degree of depression and memory function in all adolescents.The correlation of brain metabolite levels with scale scores was also analyzed.RESULTS The research group had markedly higher HAMD-24 scores and lower memory quotient(MQ)compared with the control group(P<0.05).Adolescents with depression were found to have lower bilateral PWM NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios compared with healthy adolescents(P<0.05).The mI/Cr ratios were found to be similar in both groups(P>0.05).The bilateral anterior cingulate GM NAA/Cr,Cho/Cr,and mI/Cr also did not demonstrate marked differences(P>0.05).No statistical inter-group difference was determined in NAA/Cr of the bilateral thalami(P>0.05),while bilateral thalamic Cho/Cr and mI/Cr were reduced in teenagers with depression compared with healthy adolescents(P<0.05).A significant negative correlation was observed between the HAMD-24 scores in adolescents with depression with bilateral PWM NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr and were inversely linked to bilateral thalamic Cho/Cr and mI/Cr(P<0.05).In adolescents with depressions,MQ positively correlated with right PWH NAA/Cr,left PWH Cho/Cr,and bilateral thalamic Cho/Cr and mI/Cr.CONCLUSION PWM and thalamic metabolic abnormalities might influence teen depression,and the reduction in bilateral PWM NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr could be related to the neuropathology of adolescents with depression suffering from memory impairment.There exists a possibility of dysfunction of nerve cell membrane phospholipids in the thalami of adolescent patients with depression.

Acupuncture for treating adolescent depression:Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

The prevalence of depression among adolescents has been significantly increasing in recent years.However,current antidepressants for adolescents have limited safety and efficacy.Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in treating depression in adults,but there is a lack of high-quality evidence for its effect on the treatment of adolescent depression,and the underlying mechanism is still unclear.Therefore,we designed a randomized controlled trial to explore the effectiveness and the therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture on adolescent depression.This study will be designed as a multi-center,sham and randomized controlled clinical trial.For this purpose,a total of 96 adolescent depression patients diagnosed with moderate and severe depression will be randomly divided into the manual acupuncture group and the sham one,respectively.The two groups received acupuncture treatment 3 times a week for a total course lasting 4 weeks.All patients will be assessed according to the primary outcomes including Beck Depression Inventory-II(BDI-II),Hamilton Depression Rating Scale(HAMD-24)and Zung self-rating depression scale(SDS)at baseline,week 2,4 and 8.Additionally,the secondary outcomes will be assessed at baseline and week 4,which includes intestinal flora structure,fecal short chain fatty acids(SCFAs)content and serum serotonin(5-HT)level.This study is the first randomized trial of acupuncture treatment of adolescent depression.

Effect of Narrative Therapy on the Psychological Status and Life Quality of Family Caregivers of Adolescents with First-episode Depression

[Objectives]The research aimed to explore the effect of narrative therapy on the negative emotion,quality of life,care burden and nursing satisfaction of family caregivers of adolescents with first-episode depression.[Methods]Using convenient sampling method,the family caregivers of the adolescents with first-episode depression hospitalized in the Children and Adolescents Psychology Department of a GradeⅢLevel A hospital in Shiyan City,Hubei Province from July 2021 to April 2022 were selected as the research objects.The coin toss method was used to determine the test group and the control group,with 60 cases in each group.The control group received routine nursing care,and the experimental group implemented narrative therapy on this basis.Self-rating anxiety scale,self-rating depression scale,health status questionnaire(SF-36),and caregiver burden inventory were used to evaluate the anxiety and depression level,quality of life,and care burden level of the caregivers before and after the intervention.The nursing satisfaction questionnaire was used to evaluate the nursing satisfaction to the caregivers after the intervention.[Results]After 8 weeks of intervention,4 cases fell off in the control group and 3 cases fell off in the intervention group.The scores of anxiety and depression in the two groups were lower than those before intervention,and the scores in the test group were significantly lower than those in the control group(P<0.05).The life quality scores of life vitality,emotional function and mental health dimensions were higher than before the intervention,and the scores in the test group were significantly higher than those in the control group(P<0.05).The total score of care burden and the scores in time dependence,development limitation and physiological dimension of the two groups were lower than those before intervention,but the difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05).[Conclusions]Narrative therapy can effectively alleviate the negative emotions of family caregivers of adolescents with first-episode depression,and improve their quality of life and nursing satisfaction,but not their care burden.

Aberrant single-subject morphological brain networks in first-episode,treatment-naive adolescents with major depressive disorder

Background:Neuroimaging-based connectome studies have indicated that major depressive disorder(MDD)is associated with dis-rupted topological organization of large-scale brain networks.However,the disruptions and their clinical and cognitive relevance are not well established for morphological brain networks in adolescent MDD.Objective:To investigate the topological alterations of single-subject morphological brain networks in adolescent MDD.Methods:Twenty-five first-episode,treatment-naive adolescents with MDD and 19 healthy controls(HCs)underwent T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and a battery of neuropsychological tests.Single-subject morphological brain networks were constructed separately based on cortical thickness,fractal dimension,gyrification index,and sulcus depth,and topologically characterized by graph-based approaches.Between-group differences were inferred by permutation testing.For significant alterations,partial correla-tions were used to examine their associations with clinical and neuropsychological variables in the patients.Finally,a support vector machine was used to classify the patients from controls.Results:Compared with the HCs,the patients exhibited topological alterations only in cortical thickness-based networks character-ized by higher nodal centralities in parietal(left primary sensory cortex)but lower nodal centralities in temporal(left parabelt complex,right perirhinal ectorhinal cortex,right area PHT and right ventral visual complex)regions.Moreover,decreased nodal centralities of some temporal regions were correlated with cognitive dysfunction and clinical characteristics of the patients.These results were largely reproducible for binary and weighted network analyses.Finally,topological properties of the cortical thickness-based net-works were able to distinguish the MDD adolescents from HCs with 87.6%accuracy.Conclusion:Adolescent MDD is associated with disrupted topological organization of morphological brain networks,and the disrup-tions provide potential biomarkers for diagnosing and monitoring the disease.