Children experiencing cognitive problems such as low attention, poor memory or lack of inhibition may later suffer mental health issues as teenagers and young adults, a new study reveals.
Cognitive deficits are core features of mental disorders and important in predicting long-term prognosis — the researchers’ work indicates that individual patterns of such deficits predate specific mental disorders.
Analysing data from an initial UK cohort of 13,988 individuals born between April 1991 and December 1992, researchers discovered a number of key and specific links between childhood cognitive problems and mental health issues in later life, namely:
- Deficits in sustained attention in eight-year-olds precede development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms at 11-12 years and depression at 17-18 years;
- Difficulties with inhibition in eight-year-olds were associated with psychotic experiences at 17-18 years; and
- Working memory deficits in 10-year-olds were related to hypomania at 22-23 years.
The international team of researchers from the UK and Finland, led by experts from the University of Birmingham, published its findings today in JAMA Network Open.
The leading author of the study Dr. Isabel Morales-Munoz, from the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Mental Health and the Finnish Institute for Mental Health, in Helsinki, commented: «Our study highlights the potential impact of childhood cognitive deficits on young people’s mental health, suggesting specific associations with certain conditions. Prevention strategies focussed on easing these specific cognitive issues could help to reduce the likelihood of such children developing linked mental health problems in adolescence and early adulthood.»
The study was the first analysis following subjects over a significant period of time to explore specific associations between cognitive deficits in childhood and several psychopathological issues in young people.
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