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. 2016 Dec 22:13:25-33.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S117846. eCollection 2017.

Detailed course of depressive symptoms and risk for developing depression in late adolescents with subthreshold depression: a cohort study

Ran Jinnin  1 , Yasumasa Okamoto  1 , Koki Takagaki  1 , Yoshiko Nishiyama  1 , Takanao Yamamura  1 , Yuri Okamoto  2 , Yoshie Miyake  2 , Yoshitake Takebayashi  3 , Keisuke Tanaka  4 , Yoshinori Sugiura  5 , Haruki Shimoda  6 , Norito Kawakami  6 , Toshi A Furukawa  7 , Shigeto Yamawaki  1
Affiliations

Detailed course of depressive symptoms and risk for developing depression in late adolescents with subthreshold depression: a cohort study

Ran Jinnin et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

Abstract

Purpose: Despite its clinical importance, adolescent subthreshold depression remains a largely neglected topic. The aims of this study were to accurately identify the natural course of depressive symptoms and the risk for developing major depressive episode (MDE) in late adolescents with subthreshold depression over 1 year.

Patients and methods: One hundred and seventy-two participants <20 years of age (mean age: 18.32 years, standard deviation: 0.50), who did not meet the full criteria for an MDE, were selected from 2,494 screened freshmen based on the Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd edition (BDI-II). We conducted a cohort study of three groups (low-, middle-, and high-symptom groups) divided based on BDI-II scores, over a 1 year period with the use of bimonthly assessments. Temporal changes of depressive symptoms were analyzed using linear mixed modeling and growth mixture modeling.

Results: First, we found that late adolescents with subthreshold depression (high depressive symptoms) were split between the increasing and decreasing depressive symptoms groups, whereas the majority of the less-symptoms group remained stable during 1 year. Second, in comparison with late adolescents with less depressive symptoms, those with subthreshold depression had an elevated risk of later depression.

Conclusion: Some late adolescents with subthreshold depression had increased depressive symptoms and developed an MDE during 1 year. Therefore, it is necessary for us to rigorously assess the changes in subthreshold depressive symptoms over time in late adolescents.

Keywords: adolescence; cohort study; major depressive episode; subthreshold depression; university student.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Participant flow. Abbreviations: BDI-II, Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd edition; MDE, major depressive episode; CIDI, Composite International Diagnostic Interview.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Average BDI-II scores in follow-up surveys. Average BDI-II scores among the three groups over 12-month follow-up. Note: The linear mixed modeling was conducted to examine differences in BDI-II scores between the seven time points. Abbreviation: BDI-II, Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd edition.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Individual trajectories of depressive symptoms. This represents the results of GMM over the 12 months. Abbreviations: GMM, growth mixture modeling; BDI-II, Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd edition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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