Aberrant executive attention in unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders

BackgroundAberrant attentional processes in individuals with mood disorders - bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) - have been well documented. This study examined whether unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders would exhibit poor alerting, orienting, and executive attention relative to age-matched controls.MethodsA sample of youth (8-17 years old) having one parent with either BD or MDD (Mood-Risk, n=29) and youth having healthy parents (HC, n=27) completed the Attention Network Test-Short version (ANT-S), which assesses alerting, orienting, and executive attention.ResultsRelative to HCs, the Mood-Risk group had significantly slower reaction times on an index of executive attention, but no differences on indices of alerting or orienting. There were no differences between the two at-risk groups (i.e., youth with BD parent vs. youth with MDD parent) on any ANT-S measure.LimitationsThe current study is limited by its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and failure to control for familial environmental factors.ConclusionsThe findings extend previous results indicating that altered executive attention may represent an endophenotype for mood disorders in at-risk youth.