14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers in the United Kingdom recently managed to establish a direct causal link between the early onset of menstruation in young girls and an increased incidence of symptoms associated with depression when these individuals reached adolescence.
It would appear that the earlier in age girls began menstruating, the more intense depression symptoms got just a few years later in life, say British investigators from the University of Bristol and the University of Cambridge.
The test subjects the researchers used for this investigation were taken from the long-term Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The team analyzed a representative sample of some 2,184 girls.
In the study, the group examined the link developing between the timing of the first period, and the onset of depressive symptoms. Details of the results appear in the January issue of the esteemed British Journal of Psychiatry.
A structural equation model was used so that the onset of the two conditions could be analyzed, at ages 10.5, 13 and 14. The average age for menstruation onset was determined to be 12 and half years.
The research showed that young girls who began menstruating before the age of 11.5 years had the highest chances of developing depression symptoms by the age of 13 or 14.
Conversely, girls who started having their periods beyond the age of 13.5 years experienced the lowest threshold of symptoms related to depression.
“Our study found that girls who mature early are more vulnerable to developing depressive symptoms by the time they reach their mid-teens. This suggests that later maturation may be protective against psychological distress,” says Dr Caron Joinson.
“The transition into puberty is a critical developmental period, associated with many biological, cognitive and social changes,” adds the expert, who was the lead researcher on the investigation.
“These can include increased conflict with parents, the development of romantic relationships, changes in body image and fluctuating hormone levels,” Joinson explains.
“These changes may have a more negative impact on girls who mature at an early age than those who mature later. Early maturing girls may feel isolated, and faced with demands which they are not emotionally prepared for,” she goes on to say.
The expert is based at the Bristol University School of Social and Community Medicine, where she holds an appointment as a lecturer.
“If girls who reach puberty early are at greater risk of psychological problems in adolescence, it may be possible to help them with school- and family-based programs aimed at early intervention and prevention,” she concludes.