Abstract
Chronic peer victimization has long-term impacts on mental health; however, the biological mediators of this adverse relationship are unknown. We sought to determine whether adolescent brain development is involved in mediating the effect of peer victimization on psychopathology. We included participants (n = 682) from the longitudinal IMAGEN study with both peer victimization and neuroimaging data. Latent profile analysis identified groups of adolescents with different experiential patterns of victimization. We then associated the victimization trajectories and brain volume changes with depression, generalized anxiety, and hyperactivity symptoms at age 19. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed time-by-victimization interactions on left putamen volume (F = 4.38, p = 0.037). Changes in left putamen volume were negatively associated with generalized anxiety (t = −2.32, p = 0.020). Notably, peer victimization was indirectly associated with generalized anxiety via decreases in putamen volume (95% CI = 0.004–0.109). This was also true for the left caudate (95% CI = 0.002–0.099). These data suggest that the experience of chronic peer victimization during adolescence might induce psychopathology-relevant deviations from normative brain development. Early peer victimization interventions could prevent such pathological changes.
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Acknowledgements
This work received support from the following sources: the European Union-funded FP6 Integrated Project IMAGEN (Reinforcement-related behavior in normal brain function and psychopathology) (LSHM-CT- 2007-037286), the Horizon 2020 funded ERC Advanced Grant “STRATIFY” (Brain network based stratification of reinforcement-related disorders) (695313), ERANID (Understanding the Interplay between Cultural, Biological and Subjective Factors in Drug Use Pathways) (PR-ST-0416-10004), BRIDGET (JPND: BRain Imaging, cognition Dementia and next generation GEnomics) (MR/N027558/1), the FP7 projects IMAGEMEND (602450; IMAging GEnetics for MENtal Disorders) and MATRICS (603016), the Innovative Medicine Initiative Project EU-AIMS (115300-2), the Medical Research Council Grant “c-VEDA” (Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions) (MR/N000390/1), the Swedish Research Council FORMAS, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, the Bundesministeriumfür Bildung und Forschung (BMBF grants 01GS08152; 01EV0711; eMED SysAlc01ZX1311A; Forschungsnetz AERIAL 01EE1406A), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG grants SM 80/7-1, SM 80/7-2, SFB 940/1). Further support was provided by grants from: ANR (project AF12-NEUR0008-01-WM2NA, and ANR-12-SAMA-0004), the Fondation de France, the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, the Mission Interministérielle de Lutte-contre-les-Drogues-et-les-Conduites-Addictives (MILDECA), the Assistance-Publique-Hôpitaux-de-Paris and INSERM (interface grant), Paris Sud University IDEX 2012; the National Institutes of Health, Science Foundation Ireland (16/ERCD/3797), U.S.A. (Axon, Testosterone and Mental Health during Adolescence; RO1 MH085772-01A1), and by NIH Consortium grant U54 EB020403, supported by a cross-NIH alliance that funds Big Data to Knowledge Centres of Excellence.
Other IMAGEN Consortium members
Pausova Z., Mann K., Barker G.J., Lawrence C., Rietschel M., Robbins T.W., Williams S., Nymberg C., Topper L., Smith L., Havatzias S., Stueber K., Mallik C., Clarke T.K., Stacey D., Peng Wong C., Werts H., Williams S., Andrew C., Häke I., Ivanov N., Klär A., Reuter J., Palafox C., Hohmann C., Lüdemann K., Romanowski A., Ströhle A., Wolff E., Rapp M., Ihlenfeld A., Walaszek B., Schubert F., Connolly C., Jones J., Lalor E., McCabe E., NíShiothcháin A., Spanagel R., Sommer W., Steiner S., Buehler M., Stolzenburg E., Schmal C., Schirmbeck F., Heym N., Newman C., Huebner T., Ripke S., Mennigen E., Muller K., Ziesch V., Lueken L., Yacubian J., Finsterbusch J., Bordas N., Bricaud Z., Galinowski A., Gourlan C., Schwartz Y., Lalanne C., Barbot A., Thyreau B., Subramaniam N., Theobald D., Richmond N., de Rover M., Molander A., Jordan E., Robinson E., Hipolata L., Moreno M., Arroyo M., Stephens D., Ripley T., Crombag H., Lathrop M., Lanzerath D., Heinrichs B., Spranger T., Resch F., Haffner J., Parzer P., Brunner R., Constant P., Mignon X., Thomsen T., Vestboe A., Ireland J., Rogers J.
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T.B. has served as an advisor or consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Desitin Arzneimittel, Eli Lilly, Medice, Novartis, Pfizer, Shire, UCB, and Vifor Pharma; he has received conference attendance support, conference support, or speaking fees from Eli Lilly, Janssen McNeil, Medice, Novartis, Shire, and UCB; and he is involved in clinical trials conducted by Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Shire; the present work is unrelated to these relationships. E.D.B. has received funding for a PhD student and honoraria for teaching on scanner programming courses from General Electric Healthcare; he acts as a consultant for IXICO. H.W. received a speaker honorarium from Servier (2014). The remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Members of the IMAGEN Consortium are listed below the Acknowledgements.
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Quinlan, E.B., Barker, E.D., Luo, Q. et al. Peer victimization and its impact on adolescent brain development and psychopathology. Mol Psychiatry 25, 3066–3076 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0297-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0297-9
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