Skip to main content

Institute fellow Robin Nusslock publishes a new model of adolescent depression in Current Directions in Psychological Science.

In this new paper, Nusslock and his co-author Lauren Alloy explain how inflammation and blunted reward responsiveness work in tandem to drive adolescent depression.

December 10, 2025

The authors synthesize evidence showing that stress and early-life adversity can amplify inflammation-reward feedback loops, deepening depressive risk during adolescence. This framework advances understanding of adolescent depression’s etiology and opens new avenues for early identification, targeted interventions, and informed public-health strategies.