Parental Criticism Trumps Praise in Impact on Depressed Teens, Brain Imaging Study Reveals

A brain imaging study conducted by researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands found that adolescents with depression are more sensitive to parental criticism and less responsive to parental praise compared to healthy adolescents. The study involved measuring brain activity and self-reported mood ratings of depressed and non-depressed adolescents in response to feedback from their parents. Depressed adolescents showed heightened brain activity in response to criticism, particularly in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), a region involved in mood regulation. They also demonstrated a bias towards paying attention to negative feedback and had a stronger memory for negative feedback. The findings suggest that parental involvement and support in identifying and acknowledging positive self-views could potentially aid in the treatment of adolescent depression.