ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE ATTEMPTS AND THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF SELF-PROCESSING

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a growing crisis in the adolescent population. MDD is also associated with high risks for suicide attempts and completions. Adolescence is a time of drastic shifts in environment, mental challenges, and physical changes with the onset of puberty. Some changes that occur during this time involve dendritic pruning, neurotransmitter signaling, hormonal, and self-processing shifts. Social cognition and self-processing transformations are key developmental tasks of adolescence. Our work in the depressed and suicide-attempting adolescent population shows abnormal brain activity for self-face in comparison to other-face processing and during positive vs. negative self-descriptors. It yielded, to our knowledge, the first neurobiological signature of suicide attempts measured via neuroimaging. Longitudinal research is keenly needed to understand self-processing circuitry as a potential prediction of suicide attempts in adolescents.