OSCR

The sex-specific role of adrenal androgens in youth psychopathology.

Overview

Authors: Franka Edith Weisner1, Bianca Serio2,3,4,5, Sofie Valk2,3,4,5, Luise Bläschke1, Franziska Degenhardt6, Anke Hinney1,7,8, Raphael Hirtz9, Lars Dinkelbach1,10
ORCID iDs: Anke Hinney, Lars Dinkelbach
  1. Institute of Sex- and Gender-sensitive Medicine, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen,Essen, Germany
  2. Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences,Leipzig, Germany
  3. Max Planck School of Cognition,Leipzig, Germany
  4. Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behavior (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich,Jülich, Germany
  5. Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf,Düsseldorf, Germany
  6. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, LVR University Clinic Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen,Essen, Germany
  7. Section of Molecular Genetics in Mental Disorders, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen,Essen, Germany
  8. Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen,Essen, Germany
  9. Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine, Helios University Hospital Wuppertal, Witten/Herdecke University,Wuppertal, Germany
  10. Department of Pediatrics II, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen,Essen, Germany
Institutions: University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany); Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (Germany); Max Planck Society (Germany); Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany); Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Germany); Witten/Herdecke University (Germany)
Journal: Translational psychiatry, volume 16, issue 1, article 300
Dates: received 22 October 2025; accepted 13 May 2026; published online 4 June 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1038/s41398-026-04121-3 · PMID 42243081 · PMCID PMC13237144 · OpenAlex W4414760475
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Preprint: doi:10.1101/2025.09.30.25336972
Status: code on request
Categories: human (organism), developmental (subfield)
Methods: Preprocessing, Statistics
Keywords: Predictive markers, Psychiatric disorders, Molecular neuroscience
MeSH: Androgens*, Dehydroepiandrosterone*, Mental Disorders*, Adolescent, Adrenarche, Child, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Saliva, Sex Factors (* major topic)
Topic: Sexual Differentiation and Disorders (Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology), according to OpenAlex
Funding: University Medicine Essen Clinician Scientist Academy (UMEA) of the Medical Faculty of the University Duisburg-Essen (supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG)) to LD (FU 356/12-2); BMFTR in the framework of the BMFTR Advanced Clinician Scientist Programme UMEA; 01EO2104
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 83 references in the paper

Abstract

Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the emergence of mental health problems. Adrenarche, an early stage of pubertal development marked by rising adrenal androgens, particularly dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), may influence emotional and behavioral development. However, longitudinal evidence linking early-adolescent endocrine influences to adolescent psychopathology remains limited. Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (up to N = 11 696), we analyzed whether salivary DHEA during early adolescence predicted later externalizing and internalizing symptoms during adolescence. Early-adolescent hormone levels were averaged across baseline and 1-year follow-up (age range = 8.9–12.4 years). Outcomes were measured via the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at the 2-, 3-, and 4-year follow-ups (up to = 14.08 ± 0.68 years). Sex-stratified linear mixed models adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, BMI and physical activity. In males, higher DHEA levels were linked to fewer externalizing symptoms across follow-ups (e.g., β = –0.07 SD change of CBCL per SD-change of log-transformed DHEA levels (95% CI [–0.10, –0.04] at 3-year) and fewer internalizing symptoms at 3-year and 4-year follow-ups. Higher early-adolescent DHEA in males also reduced the probability of externalizing symptoms to reach clinical thresholds across follow-ups (e.g., adjusted Risk Ratio = 0.81 to reach clinical threshold for CBCL externalizing per SD increase in log-transformed DHEA; 95% CI [0.70, 0.93] at 3-year). In females, no hormone–symptom associations emerged. Sex-by-DHEA interaction effects tended to increase across follow-up years for both symptom domains. These findings suggest that early-adolescent adrenal endocrine influences may contribute to the development of sex-specific vulnerability during adolescence. Future studies should consider adrenarche as a sensitive period for hormonal effects on mental health.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

Code availability

All statistical analyses were conducted with R version 4.4.3 [81]. The statistical code is available upon reasonable request from the authors.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability

This study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research project [79]. ABCD data are available via the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA) under controlled access. Researchers can request data access via the NDA data application process (https://nda.nih.gov/abcd). Data access is granted after approval to ensure compliance with ethical guidelines and participant confidentiality. For further information, please visit the official ABCD Study [41] or NDA websites [80].

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 8 authors, 3 keywords, 12 MeSH terms, 2 funders, 78 references.

Cite

This paper

Weisner, F. E., Serio, B., Valk, S., Bläschke, L., Degenhardt, F., Hinney, A., Hirtz, R., & Dinkelbach, L. (2026). The sex-specific role of adrenal androgens in youth psychopathology. Translational psychiatry, 16(1), 300. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-026-04121-3

BibTeX

@article{weisner2026sex,
author = {Weisner, Franka Edith and Serio, Bianca and Valk, Sofie and Bläschke, Luise and Degenhardt, Franziska and Hinney, Anke and Hirtz, Raphael and Dinkelbach, Lars},
title = {{The sex-specific role of adrenal androgens in youth psychopathology}},
journal = {Translational psychiatry},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {300},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
issn = {2158-3188},
doi = {10.1038/s41398-026-04121-3},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-026-04121-3},
pmid = {42243081},
pmcid = {PMC13237144}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Weisner, Franka Edith
AU - Serio, Bianca
AU - Valk, Sofie
AU - Bläschke, Luise
AU - Degenhardt, Franziska
AU - Hinney, Anke
AU - Hirtz, Raphael
AU - Dinkelbach, Lars
TI - The sex-specific role of adrenal androgens in youth psychopathology
T2 - Translational psychiatry
J2 - Transl Psychiatry
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/04
VL - 16
IS - 1
SP - 300
SN - 2158-3188
PB - Nature Publishing Group
DO - 10.1038/s41398-026-04121-3
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-026-04121-3
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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