Endedijk Hinke M, Nelemans Stefanie A, Schür Remmelt R, Boks Marco P M, van Lier Pol, Meeus Wim, Branje Susan, Vinkers Christiaan H
Department of Youth and Family, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 May 15;11:367. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00367. eCollection 2020.
Adolescence is a critical developmental period characterized by heightened levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Experiencing chronic or environmental stress, for example, as a result of traumatic events or insensitive parenting, increases the risk for depression and anxiety. However, not all adolescents develop depressive or anxiety symptoms following environmental stressors, due to differences in stress resilience. One of the factors involved in stress resilience is enhanced functionality of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), one of the two brain receptors for the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of MR functionality result in relatively lower rates of depression, particularly in women that experienced stress. However, much less is known about MR functionality in relation to the development of adolescent depression and to other internalizing behavior problems such as anxiety. We therefore examined whether the effects of a functional MR haplotype (i.e., the MR CA haplotype) on the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms are sex-dependent, as well as interact with environmental stressors. In a community sample of adolescents ( = 343, 9 waves between age 13 and 24), environmental stressors were operationalized as parental psychological control and childhood trauma. Results showed a sex-dependent effect of MR CA haplotype on the development of depressive symptoms but not for anxiety symptoms. MR CA haplotypes were protective for girls but not for boys. This study sheds more light on the sex-dependent effects of MR functionality related to the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms during adolescence.
青春期是一个关键的发育阶段，其特征是抑郁和焦虑症状水平升高。经历慢性或环境压力，例如由于创伤性事件或缺乏关爱的养育方式，会增加患抑郁症和焦虑症的风险。然而，并非所有青少年在经历环境压力源后都会出现抑郁或焦虑症状，这是由于应激恢复力存在差异。应激恢复力涉及的因素之一是盐皮质激素受体（MR）功能增强，MR是应激激素皮质醇的两种脑受体之一。高水平的MR功能导致抑郁症发病率相对较低，尤其是在经历过压力的女性中。然而，关于MR功能与青少年抑郁症发展以及与焦虑等其他内化行为问题的关系，我们了解得要少得多。因此，我们研究了功能性MR单倍型（即MR CA单倍型）对抑郁和焦虑症状发展的影响是否存在性别差异，以及是否与环境压力源相互作用。在一个青少年社区样本（n = 343，13至24岁之间共9次随访）中，环境压力源被定义为父母的心理控制和童年创伤。结果显示，MR CA单倍型对抑郁症状的发展存在性别差异影响，但对焦虑症状不存在这种影响。MR CA单倍型对女孩有保护作用，但对男孩没有。这项研究进一步揭示了MR功能在青少年抑郁和焦虑症状发展过程中的性别差异影响。
