Risk prediction of early-life depression and anxiety in diverse UK populations

What is the project about?
This project will use data collected from a large groups of children who participated in research and answered questions about their mental health, and other life experiences, at different ages as they grew up. We will use these data to look at how bio-psycho-social risk factors in early life (e.g., pre-birth, childhood, adolescence) are linked to mental health in teenagers and young adults. Findings will enable us to identify and help children who are at high risk of developing a mental health problem before they have developed severe, adverse symptoms.

Why is the project important?
One in every eight people in the world have a mental health problem[1] and in 75% of these people their mental health problem develops before they are 18[2]. Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems and they often co-occur in the same people with overlapping symptoms. Early-life mental health problems, including depression and anxiety, can severely impact the lives of affected individuals including future health and wellbeing, education and jobs, and family and peer relationships. Therefore, research is needed to improve our understanding of why some people experience mental health problems while others don’t. While depression and anxiety symptoms are short-term in some people, they can last for a long time (“chronic”) in many, but currently there is no accurate/reliable way of predicting who might develop chronic/severe course of symptoms/illness. Identifying this subgroup would help us to develop better prevention strategies.

What do we know already?
Potential risk factors for mental illnesses include biological factors (e.g., genetics, inflammation in the body), social factors (e.g., abuse, bullying, living in poverty) and psychological factors (e.g., whether people tend to think optimistically or pessimistically).

Evidence has shown that inflammation in the body is an important biological risk-factor[3, 4]. Inflammation can also be triggered or altered by other experiences (for example, eating certain foods, taking drugs, trauma, or having an infection). Because of this, it is possible that modifying factors that cause inflammation (e.g., diet) may help to treat or prevent mental health problems.

An important group, who might have more inflammation, are people with allergic conditions such as eczema, food allergies and asthma. Allergy is very common; researchers predict that by 2025 half of all people living in Europe will have an allergy[5]. Psychosocial factors linked to allergy such as poor sleep, fear of experiencing a reaction, following a restricted diet, social exclusion, missing days from school, medication use and over-protective parenting styles might also influence a child’s mental health and risk of developing depression and/or anxiety.