As someone who has had issues with depression her whole life, this new study by JAMA Psychiatry is alarming, to say the least.

In a study that lasted eleven years, researchers charted the levels of depression found in children between the ages of three and six. They discovered that a number of children not only developed depression, but that this had a correlation with a greater loss of cortical gray matter – a substance in the brain that’s responsible for emotional regulation later in life.

Dr. Joan Luby, director of Early Emotional Development at the Washington University School of Medicine, spoke with TIME about her study, and said, “Nobody believed preschoolers could get depressed… The early experience of depressive symptoms was the factor that predicted the alteration in gray matter development, even when we controlled for other things that predict that development, like socio-economic status…”

In short? This isn’t something that kids just grow out of. This is the sort of depression that can follow a child into adolescence and beyond. Learn more about the study right here.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: Is Preschool Depression Something Parents Should Worry About?