Tracing the origins of midlife despair: association of psychopathology during adolescence with a syndrome of despair-related maladies at midlife.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Midlife adults are experiencing a crisis of deaths of despair (i.e. deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related liver disease). We tested the hypothesis that a syndrome of despair-related maladies at midlife is preceded by psychopathology during adolescence.

Methods

Participants are members of a representative cohort of 1037 individuals born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1972-73 and followed to age 45 years, with 94% retention. Adolescent mental disorders were assessed in three diagnostic assessments at ages 11, 13, and 15 years. Indicators of despair-related maladies across four domains - suicidality, substance misuse, sleep problems, and pain - were assessed at age 45 using multi-modal measures including self-report, informant-report, and national regis

SUBMITTER: Brennan GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10636241 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature