Early puberty linked to higher risk of psychiatric disorders

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-06-24 01:00

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Children who begin puberty early are more likely to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, oppositional defiant and conduct disorders (ODD/CD) and ADHD, according to international research. The researchers say physical changes before age eight in girls and age nine in boys are considered to be early puberty, with girls about nine times more likely to be affected. The team looked at German health insurance data to identify 999 girls and 95 boys who started puberty early, and compared the rate of psychiatric diagnoses in the following year with 5,448 other children of a similar demographic. The researchers say 24.7% of the early puberty group were diagnosed with a psychiatric condition compared to 16.9% of those in the typical range.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University Hospital Essen, Germany

Funder: This work was financially supported by a fellowship of the University Medicine Essen Clinician Scientist Academy, which was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; grant No. FU 356/12-2) and nonfinancially supported by the Gesellschaft für Wirtschaftlichkeit und Qualität bei Krankenkassen (GWQ) Service Plus AG as the responsible database provider during the conduct of the study. The authors also acknowledge support by the open access publication fund of the University of Duisburg-Essen.

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