Why Do Many Psychiatric Disorders Emerge During Adolescence?

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2008 Nov 13

PMID 19002191

Citations 1227

Authors

Tomas Paus

Matcheri Keshavan

Jay N Giedd

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The peak age of onset for many psychiatric disorders is adolescence, a time of remarkable physical and behavioural changes. The processes in the brain that underlie these behavioural changes have been the subject of recent investigations. What do we know about the maturation of the human brain during adolescence? Do structural changes in the cerebral cortex reflect synaptic pruning? Are increases in white-matter volume driven by myelination? Is the adolescent brain more or less sensitive to reward? Finding answers to these questions might enable us to further our understanding of mental health during adolescence.

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