How Healthy Are Adults Who Had Prepubertal Depression?

Adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) have structural cortical abnormalities that worsen with longer duration of illness (see JW Psychiatry Sep 1999, p. 71 or J Neurosci 1999; 19:5034-43), but long-term outcome of prepubertal-onset MDD (PMDD) remains unknown. Between 1992 and 1996, this study re-evaluated 83 PMDD individuals, 44 controls with anxiety disorders, and 97 healthy controls (mean age range, 21 to 23) from a cohort of 300 children (mean age, 9.3) who were initially assessed in 1977 to 1985 (73% of the original sample reinterviewed).

Using direct and second-informant interviews, researchers found that PMDD individuals had significantly increased risks of bipolar disorder, but not other mood disorders. Reported rates of MDD wer…