Clinical Correlates of Anxious Depression among Youth with Major Depressive Disorder

Anxious depression has been identified as a prevalent subtype of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), though research has mainly focused on adult samples. In this study, we sought to identify the prevalence of anxious depression in a youth sample and to investigate the clinical correlates of anxious depression. Of youth in our baseline sample with depression diagnoses, 59.5% were identified as having anxious depression. Youth with anxious depression had increased depression symptom severity, anxiety symptom severity, suicidality, and rates of comorbid anxiety disorders compared to youth with non-anxious depression. Greater impairments in physical and social functioning were also measured in those with anxious depression. Given the clinical features associated with anxious depression in youth, this study demonstrates the utility of anxious depression as a diagnostic subtype of depression, in addition to demonstrating its high prevalence in youth.