SynthesisDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience2017
A systematic review of adrenarche as a sensitive period in neurobiological development and mental health.
Synthesis in Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 74 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 151 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adrenarche, social cognition, and the development and evolution of autism spectrum traits.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The Dynamic Interplay Between Puberty and Structural Brain Development as a Predictor of Mental Health Difficulties in Adolescence: A Systematic Review.Biological psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Genetics, epigenetics, and neurobiology of childhood-onset depression: an umbrella review.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- A methylation study implicates the rewiring of brain neural circuits during puberty in the emergence of sex differences in depression symptoms.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2022Pooled it
- Neuroanatomical subtypes of preterm adolescents.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- The sex-specific role of adrenal androgens in youth psychopathology.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Brief Report: Is Gestational Exposure to HIV and Protease Inhibitors Associated With Timing of Pubertal Onset?Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2026Article
- Early Pubertal Development Is a Risk Factor for Psychotic-Like Experiences in Boys and Girls.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Adrenarche as a regulator of sensitivity to early adversity.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Gender "in the wild": toward a person-specific behavioral neuroendocrinology.Biology of sex differences · 2026Review
- The emergence of sex differences in primary pain during adolescence: a conceptual developmentally-oriented biopsychosocial model and opportunities for further investigation.BMC pediatrics · 2025Review
- Abnormal alterations in neurodevelopment in preterm children with very low birth weight during the adolescence.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- The epigenetic impacts of pubertal acceleration following early caregiver disruptions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Shorter weeknight sleep duration mediates the relationship between earlier adrenarche and depressed mood in adolescents.Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
- Cognitive performance in young adult women with a history of premature adrenarche.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Anterior pituitary gland volume mediates associations between adrenarche and changes in transdiagnostic symptoms in youth.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Can socioeconomic status moderate the effect of a conflictive family environment on brain structure and externalizing/internalizing behavior in children and adolescents?Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2025Article
- Health-Related Quality of Life of Young Adult Women with a History of Premature Adrenarche.Hormone research in paediatrics · 2025Article
- Timing and tempo of pubertal development and substance use in adolescence: a cohort study in the Danish National Birth Cohort.Human reproduction open · 2025Article
- Pubertal hormones and mental health problems in children and adolescents: a systematic review of population-based studies.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Review
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Substantial hormonal and neurobiological changes occur during puberty, and are widely argued to render this period of life a sensitive period in terms of risk for mental health problems. However, there is a paucity of research focusing on adrenarche, the earlier phase of pubertal development. Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of the association between adrenarche and neural development during this phase of life. We systematically reviewed research examining human adrenarcheal development as operationalized by hormonal levels of DHEA and DHEA-S, in relation to indices of mental health (Systematic Review 1). We then reviewed the limited amount of literature that has examined the association between adrenarcheal development and brain structure or function (Systematic Review 2). In general, studies showed that earlier timing of adrenarche was associated with greater mental health symptoms, and there is emerging support that brain development plays a role in this relationship. However, several methodological inconsistencies were noted. We propose that future research in this area test a theoretical model of adrenarche as a sensitive period of neurobiological development, whereby timing of exposure to hormones interacts with brain development, biological sex, and psychosocial stress to influence environmental sensitivity and risk for mental health problems through adolescence.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.