Publications by authors named "Bronwyn J Overs"

Article Synopsis
  • Structural neuroimaging studies reveal both common and disorder-specific gray matter deficits across various psychiatric conditions.
  • Large-scale data pooling helps identify potential neuroanatomical factors linked to mental illness vulnerability, although data-sharing faces significant challenges.
  • Using a federated analysis across eight research sites, the study found overlapping gray matter patterns in schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder, suggesting shared cortical and subcortical vulnerabilities.
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Multivariate techniques better fit the anatomy of complex neuropsychiatric disorders which are characterized not by alterations in a single region, but rather by variations across distributed brain networks. Here, we used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify patterns of covariance across brain regions and relate them to clinical and demographic variables in a large generalizable dataset of individuals with bipolar disorders and controls. We then compared performance of PCA and clustering on identical sample to identify which methodology was better in capturing links between brain and clinical measures.

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Objectives: To understand treatment practices for bipolar disorders (BD), this study leveraged the Global Bipolar Cohort collaborative network to investigate pharmacotherapeutic treatment patterns in multiple cohorts of well-characterized individuals with BD in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Methods: Data on pharmacotherapy, demographics, diagnostic subtypes, and comorbidities were provided from each participating cohort. Individual site and regional pooled proportional meta-analyses with generalized linear mixed methods were conducted to identify prescription patterns.

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Background: Obesity is highly prevalent and disabling, especially in individuals with severe mental illness including bipolar disorders (BD). The brain is a target organ for both obesity and BD. Yet, we do not understand how cortical brain alterations in BD and obesity interact.

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Environmental factors contribute to risk of bipolar disorder (BD), but how environmental factors impact the development of psychopathology within the context of elevated genetic risk is unknown. We herein sought to identify epigenetic signatures operating in the context of polygenic risk for BD in young people at high familial risk (HR) of BD. Peripheral blood-derived DNA was assayed using Illumina PsychArray, and Methylation-450K or -EPIC BeadChips.

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Article Synopsis
  • The human brain evolves over time, with changes in structure affecting mental health and diseases throughout life.
  • This study identifies genetic variants that influence brain growth and shrinkage, using data from 15,640 individuals and focusing on 15 brain structures.
  • Key genes linked to metabolism were found, highlighting connections to conditions like depression and schizophrenia, and suggesting that understanding these genetic factors could lead to insights about healthy and problematic brain development and aging.
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Aims: Rates of obesity have reached epidemic proportions, especially among people with psychiatric disorders. While the effects of obesity on the brain are of major interest in medicine, they remain markedly under-researched in psychiatry.

Methods: We obtained body mass index (BMI) and magnetic resonance imaging-derived regional cortical thickness, surface area from 836 bipolar disorders (BD) and 1600 control individuals from 14 sites within the ENIGMA-BD Working Group.

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Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with cortical and subcortical structural brain abnormalities. It is unclear whether such alterations progressively change over time, and how this is related to the number of mood episodes. To address this question, we analyzed a large and diverse international sample with longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical data to examine structural brain changes over time in BD.

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Individuals with bipolar disorders (BD) frequently suffer from obesity, which is often associated with neurostructural alterations. Yet, the effects of obesity on brain structure in BD are under-researched. We obtained MRI-derived brain subcortical volumes and body mass index (BMI) from 1134 BD and 1601 control individuals from 17 independent research sites within the ENIGMA-BD Working Group.

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Bipolar disorder is associated with cognitive deficits and cortical changes for which the developmental dynamics are not well understood. The dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene has been associated with both psychiatric disorders and cognitive variability. Here we examined the mediating role of brain structure in the relationship between DRD2 genomic variation and cognitive performance, with target cortical regions selected based on evidence of association with DRD2, bipolar disorder and/or cognition from prior literature.

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The hippocampus consists of anatomically and functionally distinct subfields that may be differentially involved in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD). Here we, the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis Bipolar Disorder workinggroup, study hippocampal subfield volumetry in BD. T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans from 4,698 individuals (BD = 1,472, healthy controls [HC] = 3,226) from 23 sites worldwide were processed with FreeSurfer.

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Article Synopsis
  • First-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients (SZ-FDRs) exhibit similar brain and cognitive abnormalities as patients, while those related to bipolar disorder (BD-FDRs) show larger brain volume but inconsistent cognitive patterns.
  • A meta-analysis involving nearly 6,000 participants found that SZ-FDRs have a thinner cortex and lower IQ scores compared to controls, whereas BD-FDRs show a larger cortical surface area with only slight IQ reductions.
  • Both relative groups achieved similar educational levels, indicating that structural brain differences are likely connected to the predisposition for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder rather than general cognitive impairments.
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Article Synopsis
  • - Large-scale neuroimaging studies show differences in cortical thickness in various psychiatric disorders, but the biological reasons for these differences are not fully understood.
  • - The study aimed to identify neurobiological correlates of cortical thickness variations between affected individuals and controls across six disorders: ADHD, ASD, BD, MDD, OCD, and schizophrenia.
  • - Using data from 145 cohorts and advanced imaging techniques, the analysis revealed distinct patterns of cortical thickness associated with specific gene expressions in disorders, involving a total of over 28,000 participants.
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MRI-derived brain measures offer a link between genes, the environment and behavior and have been widely studied in bipolar disorder (BD). However, many neuroimaging studies of BD have been underpowered, leading to varied results and uncertainty regarding effects. The Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Bipolar Disorder Working Group was formed in 2012 to empower discoveries, generate consensus findings and inform future hypothesis-driven studies of BD.

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with an increased risk of brain atrophy, aging-related diseases, and mortality. We examined potential advanced brain aging in adult MDD patients, and whether this process is associated with clinical characteristics in a large multicenter international dataset. We performed a mega-analysis by pooling brain measures derived from T1-weighted MRI scans from 19 samples worldwide.

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This case-control study explores de novo candidate gene variants in 18 multiplex families with bipolar disorder.

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Bipolar disorders (BDs) are among the leading causes of morbidity and disability. Objective biological markers, such as those based on brain imaging, could aid in clinical management of BD. Machine learning (ML) brings neuroimaging analyses to individual subject level and may potentially allow for their diagnostic use.

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