Why do many psychiatric disorders emerge during adolescence?

Abstract

Many psychiatric disorders emerge in adolescence, when profound changes take place in the brain. Paus and colleagues provide an overview of the neurobiological changes that occur during adolescence and discuss their possible relationship to the emergence of psychopathology. The peak age of onset for many psychiatric disorders is adolescence, a time of remarkable physical and behavioural changes. The processes in the brain that underlie these behavioural changes have been the subject of recent investigations. What do we know about the maturation of the human brain during adolescence? Do structural changes in the cerebral cortex reflect synaptic pruning? Are increases in white-matter volume driven by myelination? Is the adolescent brain more or less sensitive to reward? Finding answers to these questions might enable us to further our understanding of mental health during adolescence.