Profiling depression in childhood and adolescence: the role of conduct problems

Depression is typically more common in females and rates rise around puberty. However, studies of children and adolescents suggest that depression accompanied by conduct problems may represent a different subtype not characterised by a female preponderance, with differing risk factors and genetic architecture compared to pure-depression. This study aimed to identify aetiologically distinct profiles of depressive symptoms, distinguished by the presence or absence of co-occurring conduct problems.

Latent profile analysis was conducted on a school sample of 1648 children (11-12 years) and replicated in a sample of 2006 twins (8-17 years).

In both samples pure-depressive and conduct-depressive profiles were identified. The pure-depressive profile was associated with female gender, while the conduct-depressive profile was associated with lower cognitive ability but not with gender. Twin analyses indicated possible differences in genetic aetiology.

There was evidence for aetiologically heterogeneous depression symptom profiles based on the presence or absence of co-occurring conduct problems.