Internet-Based Prevention of Re-Victimization for Youth with Care Experience (EMPOWER-YOUTH): Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Traumatic experiences and maltreatment are highly prevalent among adolescents in foster or institutional care and have severe long-term effects on mental health. Childhood maltreatment increases the risk of revictimization. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the internet-based prevention program EMPOWER YOUTH in reducing victimization experiences among youth with care experience.

[Digital Beacons of Hope? The Challenges and Potentials of Digital Health Applications for Children and Adolescents with Mental Disorders in Germany].

Digital Beacons of Hope? The Challenges and Potentials of Digital Health Applications for Children and Adolescents with Mental Disorders in Germany With the Digital Healthcare Act, Germany has taken a decisive step toward promoting high-quality, evidence-based digital health applications (DiHAs). Presently, there is a significant gap in the provision of mental health services throughout Germany, particularly regarding children and adolescents and especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. DiHAs as low-threshold, location- and time-independent additional mental health services - may offer a way to address this situation.

Distinct personality profiles associated with disease risk and diagnostic status in eating disorders.

Background: Personality traits have been associated with eating disorders (EDs) and comorbidities. However, it is unclear which personality profiles are premorbid risk rather than diagnostic markers.

Methods: We explored associations between personality and ED-related mental health symptoms using canonical correlation analyses.

Differing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health: combined population and clinical study.

Background: Identifying youths most at risk to COVID-19-related mental illness is essential for the development of effective targeted interventions.

Aims: To compare trajectories of mental health throughout the pandemic in youth with and without prior mental illness and identify those most at risk of COVID-19-related mental illness.

Method: Data were collected from individuals aged 18-26 years ( = 669) from two existing cohorts: IMAGEN, a population-based cohort; and ESTRA/STRATIFY, clinical cohorts of individuals with pre-existing diagnoses of mental disorders.

A shared neural basis underlying psychiatric comorbidity.

Recent studies proposed a general psychopathology factor underlying common comorbidities among psychiatric disorders. However, its neurobiological mechanisms and generalizability remain elusive. In this study, we used a large longitudinal neuroimaging cohort from adolescence to young adulthood (IMAGEN) to define a neuropsychopathological (NP) factor across externalizing and internalizing symptoms using multitask connectomes.

Chronotype, Longitudinal Volumetric Brain Variations Throughout Adolescence, and Depressive Symptom Development.

Objective: Adolescence is a critical period for circadian rhythm, with a strong shift toward eveningness around age 14. Also, eveningness in adolescence has been found to predict later onset of depressive symptoms. However, no previous study has investigated structural variations associated with chronotype in early adolescence and how this adds to the development of depressive symptoms.

Internet-Based Prevention Program of Victimization for Youth in Care and Care Leavers (EMPOWER YOUTH): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: The global estimate of the number of children in institutional care is around 5 million, with around 1 million of these children living in Europe. In Germany, about 75,000 children and adolescents find themselves in the foster care system and about 93,000 additional children and adolescents are living in institutions. Traumatic experiences and neglect in childhood are highly prevalent among these youth in care and are related to severe long-term effects.

Randomized controlled trial of cognitive remediation therapy in adolescent inpatients with anorexia nervosa: Neuropsychological outcomes.

Objective: Neuropsychological dysfunction exists in anorexia nervosa (AN). Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT), mainly evaluated in adults with AN, targets these impairments.

Methods: Adolescent inpatients (age = 11-17 years) with AN were randomized to 5 weeks of either 10 sessions of individually delivered CRT or non-specific cognitive-training (NSCT).

Longitudinal Trajectory of the Link Between Ventral Striatum and Depression in Adolescence.

Objective: Research in adolescent depression has found aberrant intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) among the ventral striatum (VS) and several brain regions implicated in reward processing. The present study probes this question by taking advantage of the availability of data from a large youth cohort, the IMAGEN Consortium.

Methods: iFC data from 303 adolescents (48% of them female) were used to examine associations of VS connectivity at baseline (at age 14) with depressive disorders at baseline and at 2-year (N=250) and 4-year (N=219) follow-ups.

Linked patterns of biological and environmental covariation with brain structure in adolescence: a population-based longitudinal study.

Adolescence is a period of major brain reorganization shaped by biologically timed and by environmental factors. We sought to discover linked patterns of covariation between brain structural development and a wide array of these factors by leveraging data from the IMAGEN study, a longitudinal population-based cohort of adolescents. Brain structural measures and a comprehensive array of non-imaging features (relating to demographic, anthropometric, and psychosocial characteristics) were available on 1476 IMAGEN participants aged 14 years and from a subsample reassessed at age 19 years (n = 714).

Heavy drinking in adolescents is associated with change in brainstem microstructure and reward sensitivity.

Heavy drinker adolescents: altered brainstem microstructure.

Pubertal maturation and sex effects on the default-mode network connectivity implicated in mood dysregulation.

This study examines the effects of puberty and sex on the intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of brain networks, with a focus on the default-mode network (DMN). Consistently implicated in depressive disorders, the DMN's function may interact with puberty and sex in the development of these disorders, whose onsets peak in adolescence, and which show strong sex disproportionality (females > males). The main question concerns how the DMN evolves with puberty as a function of sex.

Neurological Emergencies in Refugees.

Health care personnel in Europe is increasingly involved in care of displaced persons from non-European countries; we investigated the spectrum of neurological disorders and medical management in refugees presenting to the emergency room (ER) of a German university hospital. We retrospectively studied ER-patients with refugee status (R-patients) during the peak of the European refugee crisis between July 2015 and February 2016 ( = 100). Complaints on admission, medical management and diagnoses at discharge were compared to matched groups of German residents with migrational background (M-patients; = 96) and to native Germans (N-patients; = 95).

Executive functioning in adolescent anorexia nervosa: Neuropsychology versus self- and parental-report.

There is limited research concerning the relationship between neuropsychological assessment and self-report of executive functioning in adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN); available studies demonstrate only low to moderate correlations. Therefore, this study examines the association between neuropsychological test performance and self-report in AN. Forty adolescent inpatients with AN completed an extensive neuropsychological assessment, including set-shifting, central coherence, and questionnaires assessing executive functioning in daily life (BRIEF-SR).

Early Variations in White Matter Microstructure and Depression Outcome in Adolescents With Subthreshold Depression.

Objective: White matter microstructure alterations have recently been associated with depressive episodes during adolescence, but it is unknown whether they predate depression. The authors investigated whether subthreshold depression in adolescence is associated with white matter microstructure variations and whether they relate to depression outcome.

Method: Adolescents with subthreshold depression (N=96) and healthy control subjects (N=336) drawn from a community-based cohort were compared using diffusion tensor imaging and whole brain tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) at age 14 to assess white matter microstructure.

A multicentre randomized controlled trial on trans-generational attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in mothers and children (AIMAC): an exploratory analysis of predictors and moderators of treatment outcome.

Objective: We examined predictors and moderators of treatment outcome in mothers and children diagnosed with ADHD in a large multicentre RCT.

Method: In total, 144 mother-child dyads with ADHD were randomly assigned to either a maternal ADHD treatment (group psychotherapy and open methylphenidate medication, TG) or to a control treatment (individual counselling without psycho- or pharmacotherapy, CG). After maternal ADHD treatment, parent-child training (PCT) for all mother-child dyads was added.

Clinical characteristics of early onset anorexia nervosa.

The aim of the current paper is to evaluate clinical characteristics of 30 children with early onset anorexia nervosa (EO-AN; age = 12.2 ± 1.6 years) compared with 30 patients with adolescent onset AN (AO-AN; age = 15.

Differences in set-shifting and central coherence across anorexia nervosa subtypes in children and adolescents.

Objective: Regarding executive functioning in anorexia nervosa (AN), little is known about differences between the restricting (AN-R) and binge eating/purging (AN-BP) subtypes. Especially for adolescents, there is sparse data. Hence, the current aim is to investigate differences in set-shifting, central coherence, and self-reported executive functioning across adolescent AN subtypes.

Cognitive Flexibility in Juvenile Anorexia Nervosain Relation to Comorbid Symptoms of Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms and Duration of Illness.

Objective: Whereas the evidence in adolescents is inconsistent, anorexia nervosa (AN) in adults is characterized by weak cognitive flexibility. This study investigates cognitive flexibility in adolescents with AN and its potential associations with symptoms of depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and duration of illness.

Methods: 69 patients and 63 age-matched healthy controls (HC) from 9 till 19 years of age were assessed using the Trail-Making Test (TMT) and self-report questionnaires.

Cognitive performance in children with acute early-onset anorexia nervosa.

When anorexia nervosa (AN) occurs in children below the age of 14 years, it is referred to as early-onset AN (EO-AN). Over the last years, there has been an increased focus on the role of cognitive functioning in the development and maintenance of AN. Adults with AN show inefficiencies in cognitive functions such as flexibility and central coherence.

Similarities and Differences of Neuropsychological Profiles in Children and Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa and Healthy Controls Using Cluster and Discriminant Function Analyses.

Objective: This study aimed to identify discrete neuropsychological profiles and their relationship to clinical symptoms in 253 female children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) and 170 healthy controls (HCs) using a standardised neuropsychological assessment battery.

Method: Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify the optimum number of clusters, and participants were assigned using K-means cluster analysis. Confirmatory discriminant function analysis determined which combination of neuropsychological variables best distinguished the clusters.

[Feedback on Cognitive Remediation Therapy from Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa - A Qualitative Study].

Background: Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) is a relatively new therapy for patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). There is an increased demand to include the patient view during the evaluation of treatment programs. So far, there is no structured evaluation of the subjective view of adolescents with AN on CRT available.