Adolescence is rarely an easy time for anyone.
But growing up in a deprived area can cause chronic stress which leads to depression later in life.
New research from Duke University in North Carolina has suggested that this may be due to a combination of genetics and brain changes.
These findings could open up new ways of creating personalised depression-prevention strategies.
Results of the study showed that children from lower socioeconomic households (stock image) were more likely to report depression later in life
The three-year study looked at 132 white adolescents aged 11 to 15 from households that ranged from low to high socio-economic status. About half of the participants had a family history of depression.
The results showed that participants from lower socioeconomic households were more likely to report depression towards the end of the three years.
This was due to the build up of a chemical tag which alters the activity of the genes that control an area of the brain called the amygdala, which coordinates the body's reactions to threat.
The researchers suggest that growing up in a family with low socioeconomic status can add chronic stress such as family discord and chaos, and environmental risks such as poor nutrition and smoking (stock image)
MEASURING SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
Socioeconomic status is a measure of an individual or group's position within a hierarchical social structure.
Your socioeconomic status is based on the following criteria:
Education - higher levels of education are often associated with better economic outcomes
Income - this can be measured in a variety of ways, including family income
Occupation - aside from financial benefits, employment can improve one's physical and mental health and expand social networks
Additionally, age, marital status, family size and religion are also often considered.
Children with higher activity genes developed more active amygdalas which caused them to feel depressed.
Dr Johanna Swartz, first author of the study, said: 'This is some of the first research demonstrating that low socioeconomic status can lead to changes in the way genes are expressed, and it maps this out through brain development to the future experience of depression symptoms.'
The researchers suggest that growing up in a family with low socioeconomic status can add chronic stress such as family discord and chaos, and environmental risks such as poor nutrition and smoking.
Dr Swartz added: 'These small daily hassles of scraping by are evident in changes that build up and affect children's development.'
Additionally, this research could explain one of the mechanisms for a family history of depression.
Douglas Williamson, co-author of the study, said: 'Our new work reveals one of the mechanisms by which such familial risk may be manifested or expressed in a particular group of vulnerable individuals during adolescence.'
The small daily hassles of scraping by are evident in changes that build up and affect children's development (stock image)
The researchers' next step is to expand the age range of the study, and continue to follow the initial participants into young adulthood.
Dr Ahmad Hariri, whose lab led the study, said: 'As they enter into young adulthood they are going to be experiencing more problems with depression or anxiety, or maybe substance abuse.
'The extent to which our measures of their genomes and brains earlier in their lives continue to predict their relative health is something that's very important to know and very exciting for us to study.'
POVERTY CAN AFFECT BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
Low social status can impact brain development, increasing the risk of neurological defects
Low socioeconomic status has long been tied with negative impacts on health.
But the harmful effects of poverty may reach even deeper than intelligence, affecting the development of the brain itself.
A recent study in the US found that low income environments can be associated with neurological impairment.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health analysed data from a large study following the development of children from their pregnancy through to seven years of age, with parents grouped as either low, middle or high income.
When the babies were born, no obvious differences were found between the groups in terms of neurological defects were found, despite their socioeconomic differences.
But as the children aged, researchers found that the risk of developing abnormalities increased in the most disadvantaged children.
At four months old, the lowest income children's chance of a neurological defect was almost 13 per cent, compared with just over 9 per cent for the highest income children. However, by the time the children were seven years old, the risk for the poorest children jumped to more than 20 per cent – while it increased only slightly for the least disadvantage children (13.5 per cent).
The findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Culled from Mail Online
