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Why do many psychiatric disorders emerge during adolescence?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 9, pages 947–957 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The peak age of onset for many psychiatric disorders is adolescence, a time of remarkable physical and behavioural changes. The processes in the brain that underlie these behavioural changes have been the subject of recent investigations. What do we know about the maturation of the human brain during adolescence? Do structural changes in the cerebral cortex reflect synaptic pruning? Are increases in white-matter volume driven by myelination? Is the adolescent brain more or less sensitive to reward? Finding answers to these questions might enable us to further our understanding of mental health during adolescence.

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Figure 1: Schematic representations of developmental trajectories in local volume of cortical grey matter, glucose metabolism and synaptic density.
Figure 2: Sexual dimorphism in the maturation of white matter during adolescence.
Figure 3: Functional connectivity correlates with resistance to peer influence.
Figure 4: Ranges of onset age for common psychiatric disorders.

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Acknowledgements

The authors' work is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (T.P.), the Royal Society, UK (T.P.) and the US National Institutes of Health (T.P., K.M. and J.N.G.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tomáš Paus is at the Brain & Body Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK and at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, H2A 3B4, Canada.,

    Tomáš Paus

  2. Matcheri Keshavan is at the Beth Israel and Deaconess Medical center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; and at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA.,

    Matcheri Keshavan

  3. at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA,

    Matcheri Keshavan

  4. Jay N. Giedd is at the Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1600, USA.,

    Jay N. Giedd

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  1. Tomáš Paus
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  3. Jay N. Giedd
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Correspondence to Tomáš Paus or Jay N. Giedd.

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Androgen insensitivity syndrome

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A neurodevelopmental process in which the synapses that are used the most are kept whereas the least-used connections are destroyed ('pruned').

Stop task

A test of response inhibition. On each trial, a stimulus (for example, a leftward- or rightward-pointing arrow) is displayed on a screen, and the subject has to respond as soon as possible by pressing the corresponding (left or right) key, unless a second stimulus (for example, a sound) signals that the response has to be withheld.

Stroop task

A task in which the subject is asked to name the colour of ink in which a word is displayed. The task is easy when the ink colour is congruent with the printed word (for example, 'red' printed in red ink). The task becomes difficult when the ink colour is incongruent with the printed word (for example, 'red' printed in green ink).

STS network

A set of regions, located along the superior temporal sulcus, that are involved in processing biological motion induced by the movement of different body parts, such as the eyes, the face or the entire body.

Tanner stage III

One of the five stages of puberty. Without resorting to a physical exam, pubertal stages can be assessed using, for example, the Puberty Development Scale, which is an eight-item self-report measure of physical development based on the Tanner stages with separate forms for males and females. For this scale there are five categories of pubertal status: prepubertal, beginning pubertal, midpubertal, advanced pubertal and postpubertal.

XXY

(Klinefelter's syndrome). A genetic syndrome that affects males and is caused by the presence of two X chromosomes (resulting in a 47-chromosome karotype).

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Paus, T., Keshavan, M. & Giedd, J. Why do many psychiatric disorders emerge during adolescence?. Nat Rev Neurosci 9, 947–957 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2513

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