An earlier-than-usual onset of puberty could be related with a higher chance of mental health issues, with incidence of depression and ADHD remaining high for at least eight years following onset, a study has found.

‘Central precocious puberty’ is a condition in which physical changes associated with this stage of growth begin early — before age eight for girls, nine for boys.

Researchers, including those from University Hospital Essen, Germany, looked at over 6,500 individuals — around 1,100 who had early puberty and the rest who did not — using the country’s health insurance data, following them for 13 years.

Findings, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, show that those who attained puberty early were about 50 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with a mental condition, including depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders.

Further, a diagnosis of depression could be 70 per cent more likely among those with an early onset of puberty, while that of anxiety disorders about 45 per cent more likely, the researchers found.

“CPP (central precocious puberty) was associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, with evidence supporting long-term mental health outcomes,” the authors wrote.

The findings suggest that “caretakers of children with (early puberty) should be vigilant for the emergence of psychiatric symptoms to initiate psychiatric care at an early stage.”

The team said that previous studies analysing how early puberty affects mental health in the future have yielded inconclusive and conflicting results, with value of research being low due to small sample sizes and limitations in methodology.

This large-scale population-based study also found “long-term negative mental health consequences in patients with (early puberty), with increased incidence rates for depression and ADHD persisting up to (eight) years after diagnosis (of early puberty).”

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