Longitudinal changes of inflammatory biomarkers moderate the relationship between recent stressful life events and prospective symptoms of depression in a diverse sample of urban adolescents

Abstract This study investigated whether longitudinal changes in inflammatory physiology moderated the relationship between recent stressful life events and subsequent depressive symptoms in adolescence. A diverse sample of adolescents representative of an urban community (N = 129; Age at baseline = 12.5 years; 48.8% female; 55.0% African American) completed measures of stressful life events, depressive symptoms, and two annual blood draws (BD1 and BD2). Controlling for inflammatory activity at BD1, depression at BD1, demographics and the time between assessments, increases in interleukin-6 (IL-6; b  = 0.878, p  = .007) and C-reactive protein (CRP; b  = 0.252, p  = .024) from BD1 to BD2 interacted with recent stressful life events before BD1 to predict severity of depressive symptoms at BD2. Similar associations were evident for IL-6 ( b  = 2.074, p  = .040) and CRP ( b  = 0.919, p  = .050) when considering acute stressful life events that had occurred within the two weeks before the first blood collection. More frequent stressful life events before BD1 predicted significantly more severe depressive symptoms at BD2, but only for adolescents with moderate (50th percentile) and high (84th percentile) levels of IL-6 and CRP at BD2. In conclusion, adolescents who experienced both recent stressful life events and larger increases in inflammatory activity following these stressors were at increased risk for more severe depressive symptoms after approximately one year. The findings indicate that the interaction of stress and larger changes in inflammatory activity following these stressors are prognostic risk factors for depression severity in adolescents.