Early adolescence represents a time of heightened vulnerability for depression. Negative interpretation biases have been associated with increases in depressive symptoms during this developmental ...period; however, the mechanisms underlying the association between interpretation biases and depression remain poorly understood. Cognitive theories posit that interpretation biases give rise to depression by modulating daily affect, particularly in the context of stress. However, this has not yet been directly examined. The present study tested affect intensity and instability as mechanisms linking negative interpretation biases with change in adolescent depressive symptoms.
Ninety-four adolescents (aged 11-13 years; 51% boys) from Vancouver, Canada, were recruited for this longitudinal study. At baseline (Time 1), participants self-reported depressive symptoms and completed the Scrambled Sentences Task to assess negative interpretation biases. Next, participants completed daily diaries to assess positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) during a naturalistic stressor-the first 2 weeks of high school (Time 2). Finally, participants self-reported depressive symptoms 3 months later (Time 3). Path models were conducted to test whether PA and NA intensity and instability mediated prospective associations between negative interpretation biases and depressive symptom changes.
Although NA intensity, NA instability, and PA instability predicted increases in depressive symptoms, only NA intensity mediated associations between interpretation biases and symptom changes. Neither PA intensity nor instability mediated these associations.
Elevated daily NA represents a specific mechanism through which stronger negative interpretation biases predict increases in depressive symptoms in adolescence.
Advances in stress and depression research LeMoult, Joelle; Battaglini, Ashley M; Grocott, Bronwen ...
Current opinion in psychiatry,
01/2023, Letnik:
36, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Stress plays a central role in the onset and course of depression. However, only a subset of people who encounter stressful life events go on to experience a depressive episode. The current review ...highlights recent advances in understanding when, why, and for whom the stress-depression link occurs, and we identify avenues for future research.
In the last 18 months, researchers have taken a more nuanced perspective on the biopsychosocial mechanisms critical to the stress-depression link. For example, examination of specific facets of emotion regulation, including emotion regulation flexibility and interpersonal emotion regulation, has been critical to understanding its role in depression. Similarly, refined investigations of social support allowed researchers to identify distinct - and occasionally opposite - outcomes depending on the context or manner in which the support was provided. Researchers also documented that the stress-depression link was enhanced by dysregulation of several stress-sensitive biological systems, such as the immune system, microbiome, endocrine system, and neuroanatomical substrates.
Recent studies highlight the importance of adopting a nuanced understanding of mechanisms and moderators that explain the stress-depression link. We also encourage continued engagement in collaborative, open science that uses multiple methods to study the full breadth of human diversity.
Background/Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate associations between the spatial distribution of brain lesions and clinical outcomes in a cohort of people followed up 20 years ...after presentation with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Methods: Brain lesion probability maps (LPMs) of T1 and T2 lesions were generated from 74 people who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical assessment a mean of 19.9 years following a CIS. One-tailed t-test statistics were used to compare LPMs between the following groups: clinically definite (CD) MS and those who remained with CIS, with an abnormal MRI; people with MS and an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) ≤3 and >3; people with relapsing–remitting (RR) and secondary progressive (SP) MS. The probability of each voxel being lesional was analysed adjusting for age and gender using a multiple linear regression model.
Results: People with CDMS were significantly more likely than those with CIS and abnormal scan 20 years after onset to have T1 and T2 lesions in the corona radiata, optic radiation, and splenium of the corpus callosum (periventricularly) and T2 lesions in the right fronto-occipital fasciculus. People with MS EDSS >3, compared with those with EDSS ≤3, were more likely to have optic radiation and left internal capsule T2 lesions. No significant difference in lesion distribution was noted between RRMS and SPMS.
Conclusion: This work demonstrates that lesion location characteristics are associated with CDMS and disability after long-term follow-up following a CIS. The lack of lesion spatial distribution differences between RRMS and SPMS suggests focal pathology affects similar regions in both subgroups.
In contrast to traditional classifications of emotion regulation (ER) strategies as either uniformly maladaptive or adaptive, recent theoretical models emphasize that adaptability is determined by ...greater ER
flexibility
(i.e., the ability to flexibly implement and adjust ER strategies based on the context). This study is the first to empirically test the two central perspectives of ER flexibility on affect. A sample of 384 adults (
M
age
=38.58 years,
SD
=13.82) residing predominantly in North America completed daily diaries for 14 days. We found evidence that theoretical components of ER flexibility, as defined by greater context sensitivity in the selection of ER strategies, greater ER strategy repertoire, enhanced responsivity to affective feedback, and ER-environmental covariation, were associated with adaptive affective outcomes (i.e., reduced negative affect and/or increased positive affect). This study highlights the importance of examining ER flexibility and its consequences as a critical component of ER.
ObjectiveTo quantify total and regional brain damage in subjects with cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) using MR based quantitative measures.BackgroundCTX is a rare inherited disorder ...characterised by progressive neurological impairment. Appropriate therapy can slow disease progression. Measures of brain volume changes have been used in several neurological disorders due to their value in assessing disease outcome and monitoring patients' evolution.Methods24 CTX patients underwent conventional MRI to measure total and regional brain volumes. In five CTX patients who started therapy at baseline, clinical and MRI examinations were repeated after 2 years. Clinical disability, overall cognitive performance and cerebellar function were evaluated using the modified Rankin Scale (RS), Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE) and cerebellar functional system score (CB-FSS).ResultsMeasures of normalised brain, cortical and cerebellar volumes were lower in CTX patients than in healthy controls (p<0.01). Instead, there were no differences in normalised white matter volumes between the two groups (p=0.1). At regional analysis, a significant volume decrease was found in each cortical region (p<0.01 for all regions). Normalised cortical volumes correlated closely with age (r=−0.9, p<0.0001), RS (r=−0.65, p<0.001) and MMSE (r=−0.60, p<0.01). Normalised cerebellar volumes correlated closely with CB-FSS scores (r=−0.58, p<0.01). In the five CTX patients followed over time, the annual brain volume decrease was −1.1±0.2%.ConclusionsCortical volume, rather than white matter volume, is diffusely decreased in CTX patients and correlates closely with the patient's clinical status. These data provide evidence for the presence of clinically relevant neuronal–axonal damage in the brains of CTX patients.
GM is typically affected in HD since the presymptomatic stage. Our aim was to investigate with MT MR imaging the microstructural changes of the residual brain subcortical and cortical GM in carriers ...of the HD gene and to preliminarily assess their correlation with the clinical features.
Fifteen HD gene carriers with a range of clinical severity and 15 age- and sex-matched healthy controls underwent MT MR imaging on a 1.5T scanner. The MT ratio was measured automatically in several subcortical and cortical GM regions (striatal nuclei; thalami; and the neocortex of the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes) by using FLS tools.
The MT ratio was significantly (P < .05 with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparison) decreased in all subcortical structures except the putamen and decreased diffusely in the cerebral cortex of HD carriers compared with controls. Close correlation was observed between the subcortical and cortical regional MT ratios and several clinical variables, including disease duration, motor disability, and scores in timed neuropsychological tests.
MT imaging demonstrates degeneration of the subcortical and cortical GM in HD carriers and might serve, along with volumetric assessment, as a surrogate marker in future clinical trials of HD.
Background: In clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), the role of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting prognostic markers is still debated.
Objective: To evaluate measures of ...diffuse brain damage (such as brain atrophy and the ratio of N-acetylaspartate to creatine (NAA/Cr)) in patients with CIS, in addition to focal lesions, as predictors of 1-year disease evolution.
Methods: 49 patients with CIS underwent MRI scans to quantify T2-lesions (T2-L) and gadolinium-enhanced lesion (GEL) number at baseline and after 1 year. Along with 25 healthy volunteers, they also underwent combined MRI/magnetic resonance spectroscopy examination to measure normalized brain volumes (NBVs) and NAA/Cr. Occurrence of relapses and new T2-L was recorded over 1 year to assess disease evolution.
Results: Occurrence of relapses and/or new T2-L over 1 year divided patients with CIS into ‘active’ and ‘stable’ groups. Active patients had lower baseline NAA/Cr and NBV. Baseline T2-L number, GEL, NAA/Cr and NBV predicted subsequent disease activity. Multivariable logistic regression models showed that both ‘focal damage’ (based on T2-L number and GEL) and ‘diffuse damage’ (based on NBV and NAA/Cr) models predicted disease activity at 1 year with great sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. This was best when the four MRI measures were combined (80% sensitivity, 89% specificity, 83% accuracy).
Conclusions: Quantitative MRI measures of diffuse tissue damage such as brain atrophy and NAA/Cr, in addition to measures of focal demyelinating lesions, may predict short-term disease evolution in patients with CIS, particularly when used in combination. If confirmed in larger studies, these findings may have important clinical and therapeutic implications.
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