Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital.
Dev Psychopathol. 2013 Nov;25(4 Pt 1):1017-27. doi: 10.1017/S0954579413000345.
Earlier age of menarche is believed to confer greater vulnerability to depressive symptoms via increased reactivity to stressors associated with adolescence. In this longitudinal study, we measured depressive symptoms and salivary cortisol levels in 198 boys and 142 girls between the ages of 11 and 13 tested four times during Grade 7 as they transitioned from elementary school to secondary school as per Quebec's education system. Results showed that girls who had already reached menarche before starting secondary school had significantly higher depressive symptoms and salivary cortisol levels across the school year in comparison to girls who had not reached menarche, who in turn presented higher depressive scores than boys. When we divided menarcheal girls as a function of menarcheal timing in subanalyses, we found that girls with early menarche presented consistently elevated depressive symptoms across the school year while girls with on-time menarche presented transient depressive symptoms but no differences in salivary cortisol levels. Collectively, these results show that early menarche is associated with high depressive symptoms and cortisol levels in adolescent girls. This developmental milestone may render girls more vulnerable to environmental stressors and therefore represents a critical period to intervene to promote mental health.
初潮年龄较早被认为会增加对与青春期相关应激源的反应性，从而使女性更容易出现抑郁症状。在这项纵向研究中，我们在七年级期间对 198 名男孩和 142 名女孩进行了四次测试，这些孩子的年龄在 11 至 13 岁之间，他们正从小学过渡到按照魁北克教育系统设置的中学。结果表明，与尚未进入中学就已经初潮的女孩相比，在整个学年中，那些已经初潮的女孩的抑郁症状和唾液皮质醇水平明显更高，而这些已经初潮的女孩的抑郁评分又高于男孩。当我们在子分析中根据初潮时间将初潮女孩进行分组时，我们发现初潮较早的女孩在整个学年中一直表现出较高的抑郁症状，而初潮正常的女孩则表现出短暂的抑郁症状，但唾液皮质醇水平没有差异。总的来说，这些结果表明，初潮较早与青春期女孩的高抑郁症状和皮质醇水平有关。这个发育里程碑可能使女孩更容易受到环境应激源的影响，因此代表了一个需要干预以促进心理健康的关键时期。
