Journal of Psychiatric Research

In Brazil, as in other countries, it is expected a significant variation of epidemiological and clinical characteristics among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study was performed to explore maternal risk factors and clinical characteristics of children with ASD in a population located in southern Brazil. Data were collected from medical records and analyzed to explore biomarkers associated with ASD. Out of 321 children with ASD, 86.5% were males with a male-to-female ratio of 5.7:1, 50...

Since the introduction of the concept of narcolepsy, there has been a proliferation of discussions about its association with psychiatry. To elucidate the causal role of narcolepsy in the three psychiatric disorders [i.e., schizophrenia (SCZ), major depressive disorder (MDD), and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)], we applied a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study using two stages (discovery stage and validation stage) and data from three different genome-wide association studies of narcolepsy...

INTRODUCTION: Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) impairments are debilitating and present early in the course of psychotic illness. Deficits within frontal, parietal, and temporal brain regions contribute to this deficit, as long-range communication across this functionally integrated network is critical to SVF. This study sought to isolate disruptions in functional and structural connectivity contributing to SVF deficits during first-episode psychosis in the schizophrenia spectrum (FESz)...

Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) have been reported to show abnormal brain metabolism and impaired coupling among brain networks such as the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and executive control network (ECN). However, the characteristics of brain glucose metabolism and its related functions in the brain networks in individuals with OUD remain unknown. Thirty-six individuals with OUD and thirty matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in this integrated positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) study...

OBJECTIVE: This study used event-related potential (ERP) and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) approaches to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the emotional attention bias in patients with chronic insomnia disorder (CID). METHODS: Twenty-five patients with CID and thirty-three demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) completed clinical questionnaires and underwent electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans...

The primary inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has a prominent role in regulating neural development and function, with disruption to GABAergic signalling linked to behavioural phenotypes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism. Such neurochemical disruption, likely resulting from diverse genetic and molecular mechanisms, particularly during early development, can subsequently affect the cellular balance of excitation and inhibition in neuronal circuits, which may account for the social processing difficulties observed in autism and related conditions...

Cognitive reappraisal is an effective emotion regulation strategy involving prefrontal cortex (PFC) control of the amygdala. Its aberrant functioning is closely associated with panic disorder (PD). However, the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the PFC, implicated in cognitive reappraisal, and the amygdala in PD has not been studied. Thus, this study aims to investigate the rsFC patterns and their association with cognitive reappraisal and PD. This study involved 51 participants, including 26 untreated patients with PD and 25 healthy controls (HC)...

Women who have had miscarriages or stillbirths are known to have an elevated risk for depression. However, the prevalence of depressive disorders and/or symptoms in this group is unclear. Therefore, our aim was to estimate the corresponding prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms. A systematic literature search of the databases MEDLINE, psycINFO and PSYNDEX was conducted to consider all studies published between 2000 and 2022 in English or German on the prevalence of depression or depressive symptoms in women following miscarriages or stillbirths...

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia remain clinically and theoretically understudied and represent an unmet psychiatric need. Negative symptoms are assumed to be related to other psychiatric disorders, but their association with dissociative symptoms is yet to be explored, particularly in light of depression and anxiety symptoms. We examined the five domains of negative symptoms (anhedonia, asociality, avolition, blunted affect and alogia) in an Israeli national sample of 1930 participants of whom 645 (33.4%) were with increased risk for dissociative disorder...

BACKGROUND: Bisphenol A (BPA) has been linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, but the effects on cognitive functions and functionality in adult ADHD have not been investigated. We investigated the associations between serum BPA with cognitive functions and functionality in adult ADHD patients. METHODS: The levels of BPA were measured in 45 adult ADHD patients and 45 well-matched healty controls. The relationship between plastic exposure and BPA was also evaluated...

Screening for psychological distress may assist in identifying at-risk adolescents. While several measures of adolescent psychological distress have been used, most have limited or suboptimal psychometric properties. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Distress Questionnaire-5 (DQ5), a brief measure of psychological distress, in a large community-based sample of adolescents. Data for the study (n = 3117) were drawn from the baseline and 6-week follow-up assessments of the Future Proofing Study, which collected data from three cohorts of Year 8 students (M = 13...

INTRODUCTION: Effect sizes are often used to interpret the magnitude of a result and in power calculations when planning research studies. However, as effect size interpretations are context-dependent, Jacob Cohen's suggested guidelines for what represents a small, medium, and large effect are unlikely to be suitable for a diverse range of research populations and interventions. Our objective here is to determine empirically-derived effect size thresholds associated with psychotherapy randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in depression by calculating the effect size distribution...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has a high prevalence worldwide. Although the economic burden of depression increases annually, the proportion of patients with MDD receiving treatment did not increase between 2010 and 2018, suggesting an unmet treatment need. The burden of long-term treatment for depression is borne by patients. In this context, biomarkers associated with drug-treatment responses can be used as reference indicators to reduce unnecessary treatment and costs. Changes in biomolecules in response to drug treatment for depression and drug-treatment response markers have been studied extensively...

It has been reported that cumulative measures of risk factors for psychosis might help to predict its development. However, it remains unknown as to whether these measures are also associated with the extended psychosis phenotype that refers to a continuum of features bridging subclinical symptoms with clinically relevant outcomes. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association of the exposome score (ES) with psychosis risk in a non-clinical population. A total of 1100 non-clinical adults (aged 18-35 years, 51...

This study aims to examine the plasma concentrations of NGAL and other inflammatory parameters, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IFN-γ, in schizophrenia patients and healthy volunteers. It also investigates potential associations between these biomarkers and symptom severity in schizophrenia and the utility of NGAL as a potential diagnostic and monitoring biomarker for schizophrenia. The study included 49 drug-naive schizophrenia patients (DNS), 59 patients with schizophrenia in remission (REM) on antipsychotic treatment, and 58 healthy volunteers (HC)...

OBJECTIVE: Sense of coherence has significant implications for the mental health of left-behind children in rural China. This study was conducted to explore the impact of physical exercise and social support on sense of coherence in rural left-behind children. METHODS: A survey was conducted among 964 rural left-behind children in Hunan Province of China aged 10-15 (Mage = 12.01 ± 1.97 years; 529 girls and 435 boys). AMOS 21.0 software was applied to build the model and perform cross-lagged analysis...

OBJECTIVE: Although studies have confirmed that working memory (WM) is impaired among adults with major depressive disorder (MDD), generalizing these neurocognitive impairments to adolescents with MDD would be tenuous. Therefore, separate studies for adolescents with MDD are needed. Relatively little is known about the neural processes associated with WM dysfunction in adolescents with MDD. Thus, we examined whether adolescents with MDD have abnormal brain activation patterns compared to healthy controls (HC) during WM tasks and whether it was possible to distinguish adolescents with MDD and HC based on mean oxy-hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) changes...

Postpartum anxiety has negative consequences for both mother and infant, so effective identification and measurement is vital to enable intervention. Despite NICE recommendations to prioritise the measurement of postpartum anxiety in mothers, current clinical measurement in England remains both fragmented and flawed. The Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale [PSAS] offers an alternative, as it measures maternal-focused anxieties which can enable specifically targeted interventions. However, it is only currently used as a research tool and may require modification for clinical use...

Veterans receiving substance use disorder (SUD) treatment are at a clear elevated risk for engaging in suicidal behaviors. Intervening to reduce suicide risk during an episode of SUD treatment could meaningfully target a key high-risk group of Veterans. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Suicide Prevention (CBT-SP) was developed to reduce the frequency and duration of suicidal ideation, as well as decrease suicidal behaviors. The form of CBT-SP in this study progressed from building an understanding of the cognitive model to practicing new skills, and highlighted the links between substance use, craving, self-efficacy and suicidal ideation and attempts...

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a well-established risk factor for suicidal behavior, with certain NSSI characteristics being associated with increased risk. In the United States (U.S.), the veteran suicide rate is elevated, though lifetime prevalence rates of NSSI appear similar between veterans and civilians. There is limited research that directly compares veterans and civilians across multiple NSSI characteristics to examine between-group differences in NSSI behavior and provide important context for the application of NSSI research with the veteran population...