Researchers find early warning sign for kids prone to depression
Agence France-Presse
September 14, 2000
CHICAGO, Sept 14 (AFP) - US researchers have pinpointed what they believe is an early warning sign for children susceptible to depression, a study released Thursday said.
The study shows for the first time that children at high risk of developing a major depression have an abnormality in their production of growth hormone (GH) which could signal a malfunctioning in their brain chemistry.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who tested 119 children found that children at high risk for depression, because of a family history of mood disorders, produced "significantly" less growth hormone than a control group when they were given growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH).
"These findings suggest that the blunted GH after GHRH is a trait marker for depression in children," said Doctor Boris Birmaher, associate professor of Psychiatry at the University's School of Medicine.
The finding builds on previous research at the university which showed that children and adolescents with an acute episode of major depression secrete less growth hormone after a dose of GHRH.
The next step is to try to understand the mechanism which controls the secretion of growth hormone in the brain, Birmaher said.
The research, which is published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, could lead to early preemptive interventions for high-risk children, probably in the form of cognitive therapy to help them manage stress.
Typically, major depression is a combination of genetic and environmental factors, Birmaher said.
About eight percent of children over the age of 12 (two to three percent under 12) succumb to a serious depression in the United States according to background research quoted in the paper.
Birmaher and colleagues studied 119 children between the ages of eight and 16, 64 of whom had a family history of depression.
They plan to track the entire group over the next few years to try to develop a fuller understanding of the underlying mechanism governing the secretion of growth hormone following treatment with GHRH.
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