Medial Prefrontal Cortex Activity to Reward Outcome Moderates the Association Between Victimization Due to Sexual Orientation and Depression in Youth.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sexual minority youth (SMY) are 3 times more likely to experience depression than heterosexual peers. Minority stress theory posits that this association is explained by sexual orientation victimization, which acts as a stressor to impact depression. For those vulnerable to the effects of stress, victimization may worsen depression by altering activity in neural reward systems. This study examines whether neural reward systems moderate the influence of sexual orientation victimization, a common and distressing experience in SMY, on depression.

Methods

A total of 81 participants ages 15 to 22 years (41% SMY, 52% marginalized race) reported sexual orientation victimization, depression severity, and anhedonia severity, and underwent a monetary reward functional magne

SUBMITTER: Eckstrand KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9842132 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature