Sweating the small stuff: Early adversity, prior depression linked to high sensitivity to stress

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2011) — We all know people who are able to roll with life's punches, while for others, every misfortune is a jab straight to the gut. Research examining this issue has found that although most people require significant adversity to become depressed -- the death of a loved one, say, or getting fired -- roughly 30 percent of people with first-time depression and 60 percent of people with a history of depression develop the disorder following relatively minor misfortunes. But no one knew why.

Now, a new study led by UCLA researchers suggests that people become depressed more easily following minor life stress in part because they have experienced early life adversity or prior depressive episodes, both of which may make people more sensitive to later life stress.

George Slavich, an assistant professor at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and colleagues assessed individuals' experiences with early adversity, clinical depression and recent life stress. Slavich found that individuals who experienced an early parental loss or separation and people who had more lifetime episodes of depression became depressed following lower levels of life stress than those who didn't have these predisposing factors.

The study appears in the current online edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

"We have known for a long time that some people are more likely to experience mental and physical health problems than others," Slavich said. "For example, while some people get depressed following a relationship breakup, others do not. In this study, we aimed to identify factors that are associated with this phenomenon and to examine whether increased sensitivity to stress might be playing a role."

The researchers recruited 100 individuals with depression, 26 men and 74 women, and interviewed them extensively to determine what types of adversity they were exposed to when they were young, how many episodes of depression they had experienced and what types of life stress they had encountered recently.

The results showed that people who had lost a parent or had been separated from a parent for at least one year before the age of 18 and individuals who had experienced more episodes of depression over their lifetime became depressed following significantly lower levels of recent life stress.

Additional analysis revealed that these effects were unique to stressors involving interpersonal loss.

"Researchers at UCLA and elsewhere have previously demonstrated that early adversity and depression history are associated with heightened sensitivity to stress," Slavich said. "The present study replicates this effect but suggests for the first time that these associations may be unique to stressors involving interpersonal loss. In other words, individuals who are exposed to early parental loss or separation and persons with greater lifetime histories of depression may be selectively sensitized to stressors involving interpersonal loss."

An important question raised by these findings is how adversity early in life and prior experiences with depression promote increased sensitivity to stress. One possibility, the researchers say, is that people who experience early adversity or depression develop negative beliefs about themselves or the world -- beliefs that get activated in the face of subsequent life stress. Another possibility, which is not mutually exclusive, is that early adversity and depression influence biological systems that are involved in depression, perhaps by lowering the threshold at which depression-relevant processes like inflammation get triggered.

"Although many factors impact stress sensitivity," Slavich said, "thoughts almost always play a role. For example, when your best friend doesn't call back, do you think she is angry at you or do you think it just slipped her mind? Our thoughts affect how we react emotionally and biologically to situations, and these reactions in turn greatly influence our health. Regardless of your prior experiences, then, it is always important to take a step back and make sure you are interpreting situations in an unbiased way, based on the information available."

Other authors on the study were Scott M. Monroe, the William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, and Ian H. Gotlib, the David Starr Jordan Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

The study was funded by a Society in Science: Branco Weiss Fellowship and by the National Institutes of Health.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Mark Wheeler.

Journal Reference:

George M. Slavich, Scott M. Monroe, Ian H. Gotlib. Early parental loss and depression history: Associations with recent life stress in major depressive disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.03.004

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here sciencedaily.com

Current, not prior, depression predicts crack cocaine use

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2011) — Even after accounting for current crack use, a new study finds that women in drug court who are experiencing current major depression are more likely to use crack within four months than other women in drug court. The paper's lead author argues that depression screening and treatment may be important components of drug court services for crack-using women.

Women who are clinically depressed at the time they enter drug court have a substantially higher risk of using crack cocaine within four months, according to a new study. Because current but not past depression was associated with a higher risk of use, the study published in the journal Addiction suggests that addressing depression could reduce the number of women who fail to beat crack addiction in drug court.

"We found that current major depression increased the risk of crack use, but depression in the past year that had gotten better did not," said Jennifer Johnson, assistant professor (research) of psychiatry and human behavior in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and lead author of the study. "This suggests that if the depression remits, the risk of crack use goes down. Screening for depression and effective depression treatment may be important components of drug court services."

Addiction and depression are closely associated, said Johnson, who is also affiliated with Brown's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. It isn't always clear how the two affect each other, especially at an urgent moment such as entry into the court system. Johnson set out to untangle the two by analyzing data gathered by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis as part of an HIV prevention study.

Among the 261 women in the study, 16 percent had a current major depressive episode and 40 percent had experienced a major depressive episode in their lifetime. Among the women currently depressed, 46 percent used crack during the next four months. Among women who weren't currently depressed, only 25 percent used crack in the next four months.

At the beginning of the study, the analysis statistically adjusted for whether women were using crack, which is highly addictive, and took the timing of the women's depression into account, said Johnson, who is also affiliated with the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, a collaboration of Brown University and The Miriam Hospital.

Women who had been depressed at some time in the past, even in the last year, did not have an increased risk of crack use compared to women who had never been depressed, Johnson found. Women who were currently depressed, however, were significantly more likely to use crack than women who were never depressed. Furthermore, currently depressed women had nearly four times the odds of using crack during follow-up compared to women who had been depressed at some point in their past. The odds were nearly six times greater compared to women who were depressed within the last year, but not currently.

"It doesn't matter if they've been depressed in the past," she said, "only how they're doing right now."

The data hint that depression may have contributed to crack use in this population, Johnson said.

"It is well known that crack use can cause depression and depression can contribute to crack use," Johnson said. "However, in this study baseline depression [at the beginning of the study] was not associated with baseline crack use, but was associated with future crack use, suggesting that depression may have led to crack use and not vice versa."

If women in drug court can be successfully screened and treated for depression, Johnson said, the resulting reduction in crack use predicted by the analysis might benefit not only the women but also the community.

"The public ends up paying the cost of drug court and incarceration," she said. "Depression treatment isn't that expensive."

In addition to Johnson, the paper's other authors are Linda B. Cottler, Catina O'Leary, Catherine W. Striley, Arbi Ben Abdallah, and Susan Bradford, all of Washington University. Cottler's grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research funded the original HIV-prevention study for which the data was acquired. Johnson's analysis of addiction and depression was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Brown University.

Journal Reference:

Jennifer E. Johnson, Catina C. O'Leary, Catherine W. Striley, Arbi Ben Abdallah, Susan Bradford, Linda B. Cottler. Effects of major depression on crack use and arrests among women in drug court. Addiction, 2011; 106 (7): 1279 DOI: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03389.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Sweating the small stuff: Early adversity, prior depression linked to high sensitivity to stress

ScienceDaily (June 28, 2011) — We all know people who are able to roll with life's punches, while for others, every misfortune is a jab straight to the gut. Research examining this issue has found that although most people require significant adversity to become depressed -- the death of a loved one, say, or getting fired -- roughly 30 percent of people with first-time depression and 60 percent of people with a history of depression develop the disorder following relatively minor misfortunes. But no one knew why.

Now, a new study led by UCLA researchers suggests that people become depressed more easily following minor life stress in part because they have experienced early life adversity or prior depressive episodes, both of which may make people more sensitive to later life stress.

George Slavich, an assistant professor at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and colleagues assessed individuals' experiences with early adversity, clinical depression and recent life stress. Slavich found that individuals who experienced an early parental loss or separation and people who had more lifetime episodes of depression became depressed following lower levels of life stress than those who didn't have these predisposing factors.

The study appears in the current online edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

"We have known for a long time that some people are more likely to experience mental and physical health problems than others," Slavich said. "For example, while some people get depressed following a relationship breakup, others do not. In this study, we aimed to identify factors that are associated with this phenomenon and to examine whether increased sensitivity to stress might be playing a role."

The researchers recruited 100 individuals with depression, 26 men and 74 women, and interviewed them extensively to determine what types of adversity they were exposed to when they were young, how many episodes of depression they had experienced and what types of life stress they had encountered recently.

The results showed that people who had lost a parent or had been separated from a parent for at least one year before the age of 18 and individuals who had experienced more episodes of depression over their lifetime became depressed following significantly lower levels of recent life stress.

Additional analysis revealed that these effects were unique to stressors involving interpersonal loss.

"Researchers at UCLA and elsewhere have previously demonstrated that early adversity and depression history are associated with heightened sensitivity to stress," Slavich said. "The present study replicates this effect but suggests for the first time that these associations may be unique to stressors involving interpersonal loss. In other words, individuals who are exposed to early parental loss or separation and persons with greater lifetime histories of depression may be selectively sensitized to stressors involving interpersonal loss."

An important question raised by these findings is how adversity early in life and prior experiences with depression promote increased sensitivity to stress. One possibility, the researchers say, is that people who experience early adversity or depression develop negative beliefs about themselves or the world -- beliefs that get activated in the face of subsequent life stress. Another possibility, which is not mutually exclusive, is that early adversity and depression influence biological systems that are involved in depression, perhaps by lowering the threshold at which depression-relevant processes like inflammation get triggered.

"Although many factors impact stress sensitivity," Slavich said, "thoughts almost always play a role. For example, when your best friend doesn't call back, do you think she is angry at you or do you think it just slipped her mind? Our thoughts affect how we react emotionally and biologically to situations, and these reactions in turn greatly influence our health. Regardless of your prior experiences, then, it is always important to take a step back and make sure you are interpreting situations in an unbiased way, based on the information available."

Other authors on the study were Scott M. Monroe, the William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, and Ian H. Gotlib, the David Starr Jordan Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.

The study was funded by a Society in Science: Branco Weiss Fellowship and by the National Institutes of Health.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Mark Wheeler.

Journal Reference:

George M. Slavich, Scott M. Monroe, Ian H. Gotlib. Early parental loss and depression history: Associations with recent life stress in major depressive disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.03.004

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here