Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
have teamed up with scientists from the Department of Psychology to
study how personality development is associated with vulnerability to
depression in adolescent girls.
Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry Roman Kotov, PhD will be the principle investigator for the
project which is funded by a $2.8 million grant from the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Drs. Daniel Klein and Greg Hajcak
from the Department of Psychology and Dr. Joan Broderick from the
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science will serve as
co-investigators. The study is part of a long-range effort by the NIMH
to develop new methods for preventing depression.
“We hope to
answer some long-standing questions about how personality development is
associated with depression,” Dr. Klein said. “Dr. Kotov’s studies and
others have shown that there is a link between personality traits and
mental health, but we do not know whether personality changes are the
cause or effect of depression, or if both are the result of something
else. Answering these questions will help us develop tools to screen for
risk.”
The research team plans to recruit 575 adolescent girls
who have never experienced an episode of major depression. They will
follow the young women closely for three years, assessing psychological,
neural and hormonal factors which may be involved. They plan to take a
finer grained look at personality traits than is typical of most
studies, looking at how various facets of personality interact with life
events over time.
“Adolescence is the time when many changes in
personality occur,” Dr. Kotov said. “It is also the time when mood
disorders are most likely to emerge. This study will help us to
understand how personality development and mental health are related. We
hope that the knowledge we gain will suggest hypotheses for developing
personalized and targeted preventive interventions.”
