Early signs of depression could now be seen as early as birth

A study has found that early predictors of anxiety and depression may be evident in the brain even at birth. The new study has been published in February's Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) Science Daily reports that the researchers found that certain patterns of brain connectivity seen in newborn babies could predict the baby’s likelihood of showing early symptoms of mental illness ― including sadness, excessive shyness, nervousness and separation anxiety. These same symptoms are lined with clinical depression in adults. Cynthia Rogers is a professor of child psychiatry, she says:

"The fact that we could see these connectivity patterns in the brain at birth helps answer a critical question about whether they could be responsible for early symptoms linked to depression and anxiety or whether these symptoms themselves lead to changes in the brain. We have found that already at birth, brain connections may be responsible for the development of problems later in life."

The study originally focused on functional connectivity differences between preemie babies and those born at full-term. Historic research had suggested pre-term babies have a higher risk of developing psychiatric issues later in life. They scanned babies heads at birth and again at two years old, specifically looking at how the amygdala ― the brain’s fear center ― interacted with other brain regions. They realised that whether or not the baby is born early or on time - they found some brain patterns present that were very similar to the patterns previous studies had seen in adults who had depression and anxiety. But there is some positive news;