For adults, guilt and excessive self-blame is a symptom of depression. Now, a new study is looking at how feelings of guilt during childhood could play a role in mental illnesses for them later as adults. These future illnesses include depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Washington University of St. Louis researchers conducted a 12-year longitudinal study of 145 preschool-age children and believe the link has to do with the anterior insula part of the brain. This region regulates perception, self-awareness and emotions, and it’s been correlated with disorders like schizophrenia and anxiety.
The kids were first observed between ages three and six and assessed for symptoms of guilt and depression. Then, when they were between ages seven and 13, the researchers performed fMRI brain scans every 18 months. This study will continue for five more years.
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According to the research, published last month in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, there was a correlation between the size of the anterior insula and children who displayed signs of pathological guilt. Smaller anterior insula is associated with depression.
The Huffington Post shared some details from the findings:
More than half of the 47 preschoolers diagnosed with depression displayed pathological guilt, compared with 20 percent of the non-depressed preschoolers. The researchers found that the children with high levels of guilt, even if they weren’t depressed, had smaller anterior insula volume — which has been found to predict later occurrences of depression. Children with smaller insula volume in the right hemisphere, related to either depression or guilt, were more likely to have recurring episodes of clinical depression when they got older.
The research doesn’t necessarily indicate any causation either way as far as whether guilt or depression comes first. But this is a new area of study that could play a significant role in children’s mental health.
“This research is really new and exciting because you can look at changes in the brain, and it shows that early intervention is really important,” George Washington University psychologist Michelle New told The Atlantic. “Dismissing early symptomatology is dangerous.”
[Photo from Flickr user Brandon Warren]
