Background Suicide is a serious public health concern. Depression is the main gateway to suicidal behavior. The already established relationship between depression and suicidal risk should now focus on the investigation of more specific factors: recent studies have suggested an association between vulnerability to suicidal behavior and neurocognitive alterations, a nuclear symptom of depression. This project aims to identify alterations in the Executive Functions (EF) of patients suffering a first depressive episode that might constitute a risk factor for suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts and suicide, to allow for more adequate suicide prevention. Methods Prospective longitudinal design involving two groups (first depressive episodes with and without alterations in their EF) and four repeated measures (0, 6, 12 and 24 months). The estimated minimum sample size is 216 subjects. The variables and measurement instruments will include socio-demographic variables, clinical variables (age of illness onset, family and personal antecedents, psychopathological and medical comorbidity, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and completed suicides, severity of depression, including melancholic or atypical, remission of the depressive episode), and neuropsychological variables (EF and decision-making processes evaluated through the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB)). Discussion First and foremost, the identification of clinical and neuropsychological risk factors associated with suicidal behavior will open the possibility to prevent such behavior in patients with a first depressive episode in the context of clinical practice. Secondly, interventions aimed at cognitive impairment (in particular: EF) derived from the study may be incorporated into strategies for the prevention of suicidal behavior. Finally, impaired neurocognitive function (even in early stages) could become an identifiable endophenotype or “marker” in clinical and neurobiological studies about suicidal behavior in depressive patients.

Half of all lifetime mental health disorders emerge in childhood (Kessler et al., 2007) and continue to develop through developmental stages. The transition from childhood to adulthood is a stressful developmental period during which anxiety problems are the most common mental health disorders, with a lifetime prevalence ranging from 15% to 30% (Essau, Conradt, & Petermann, 2002; Merikangas et al., 2010). Unfortunately, despite the notable negative impact of anxiety disorders on functioning at the social, emotional, and academic level, and their huge socioeconomic costs, their etiology remains unclear (Beidel & Alfano, 2011). From the moment of a child's birth, their emotional and physiological responses will be influenced by their parents through dyadic interactions that occur thousands of times during their development (Patterson, Dishion, & Bank, 1984). Quality interactions have been shown to foster secure parent-child attachment and to contribute to a child's social, cognitive, and emotional development over the years (Harrist & Waugh, 2002; Saint-Georges et al., 2013). In contrast, poor interactions have been associated with the emergence of problematic child behaviors (e.g., Landy & Menna, 2001). Research into developmental and social psychology indicates that the presence of non-verbal synchrony in dyadic interactions is associated with higher quality relationships, conformity, and more

Adolescence is a vulnerable period for depressive and anxious symptom development, and emotion regulation (ER) may be one mechanism linking temperament—i.e., positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)—with such symptomatology. Rumination is a common ER strategy that is traditionally assessed using self-reported questionnaires, but it would also be interesting to examine it with an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) approach. Sixty-five adolescents (Mage = 14.69; SDage = 0.82; range = 14–17 years old; 53.80% girls) completed self-report measures of temperament, ER style, depression and anxiety, and underwent an EMA to investigate rumination use. Results revealed that negative ER style and rumination use mediated the relationship between NA and depression, while only rumination use mediated the relationship between PA and depression. Moreover, NA contributed to increase anxiety, but negative ER style did not significantly mediate this relationship. Rumination use also had no effect on anxiety. This study provides further support for the relationship between temperament, ER, and internalizing problems. It seems that both a negative ER style and rumination use mediate the relationship between NA and depression whereas only NA had a significant direct effect on anxiety. Furthermore, PA buffered the effect of rumination use on depression in this study.

This study explored the association between temperament—i.e., positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)—and emotion regulation (ER), and what momentary factors influence the selection of rumination or reappraisal during adolescents’ daily life. The type of social situation in which negative events occurred, the self-rated degrees of discomfort, the types of predominant emotions experienced, and the use of reappraisal and rumination were assessed at 24 different times with an ecological momentary assessment approach given to 71 adolescents. PA, NA, and ER style were evaluated using self-reports. Bivariate Pearson correlations analysis revealed that NA and negative ER style correlated positively with the rumination use whereas PA correlated negatively with the rumination use. Negative ER style moderated the relationship between NA and the frequency with which rumination was used. The moderated function of positive ER style could not be tested due to its lack of association with the rumination use. Adolescents selected rumination more often during family-related events and when experiencing depression-like emotions. No interaction effects were shown between negative ER style and the momentary factors related with the type of social situation and the type of prevailing emotion during negative event. No associations between study variables and reappraisal were found. This study provides a better understanding of ER patterns in adolescence.