<img src="https://healthylife7.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/af4984cc2cf869f48cf753e32d7b0f86.jpg" alt="A study has found that adolescent depressive symptoms increase the risk of early death before age 50 in adulthood by 17.5%. Provided by Getty Image Bank”>
A study has found that adolescent depressive symptoms increase the risk of early death before age 50 in adulthood by 17.5%. Provided by Getty Image Bank
A study has found that adolescent depressive symptoms increase the risk of early death before age 50 in adulthood by 17.5%. Based on an analysis of U.S. adolescents, the leading cause of early death was not suicide but accidental deaths due to external causes such as drug overdose and traffic accidents
Korea University announced on the 27th that Professor Jin-Ho Kim and his team in the Department of Health Policy and Management tracked and analyzed 14,320 participants from the U.S. nationally representative adolescent panel survey “Add Health” from 1994 to 2023—about 30 years—and confirmed these results. The findings were published on June 25 (local time) in the international journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
The analysis showed that even after excluding the effects of other factors such as individual and family environment, those who had more severe depressive symptoms in adolescence had a 17.5% higher risk of early death
Depressive symptoms are commonly expected to increase the risk of suicide, but when causes of death were examined separately, deaths from disease or suicide did not show a statistically clear association with adolescent depressive symptoms
In contrast, deaths from external causes such as traffic accidents, accidental poisoning, assault, and drug overdose showed the strongest association, with the risk of death from external causes increasing by 29.6%. The top 25% group with the most severe depressive symptoms had a 2.26 times higher risk of dying from external causes compared to the bottom 25% group with the least severe symptoms
The research team added, “Because the number of cases of death by suicide in the dataset is small in itself, the results need to be interpreted with caution.”
Among all early death cases, there was a strong association with not graduating from high school, smoking, and cannabis use. For deaths due to external causes, the correlations with cannabis use and smoking were particularly pronounced. The analysis suggests that adolescents experiencing depression may turn to cigarettes and cannabis, thereby increasing their risk of accidental death and drug overdose
Professor Kim explained, “It is a misconception to think that everyone with depression will end up dying by suicide,” adding, “From a policy perspective, it is necessary to comprehensively examine the various health threats that can arise from poor mental health.”
He continued, “Responses to adolescent depressive symptoms should not be limited to symptom management alone; an integrated approach is crucial that includes preventing substance use, supporting continued education, and facilitating a stable transition into society.” He emphasized, “School and community-based education and employment support systems need to be organically connected so that emotional difficulties in adolescence do not lead to subsequent health problems and socioeconomic disadvantages.”
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– doi.org/10.1007/s00787-026-03103-6
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