Publications by authors named "Catts S"
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.
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a heritable mental illness with complex etiology. While the largest published genome-wide association study identified 64 BD risk loci, the causal SNPs and genes within these loci remain unknown. We applied a suite of statistical and functional fine-mapping methods to these loci, and prioritized 17 likely causal SNPs for BD.
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- Schizophrenia is characterized by significant changes in brain structure, but it's not clear if these changes relate to the brain's network organization.
- Researchers analyzed MRI scans from nearly 2,500 people with schizophrenia alongside healthy controls to see how structural changes connect to brain networks.
- The study found that certain regions in the brain that are crucial for connectivity are more affected in schizophrenia, indicating a link between brain network vulnerability and the disease's impact, with some similarities to bipolar disorder but not major depressive disorder.
Article Synopsis
- The study explores the structural brain differences in individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls, focusing on various brain metrics like cortical thickness and subcortical volume using a large international dataset.
- Results show that people with schizophrenia have greater variability in brain structure, particularly in the frontotemporal regions, suggesting distinct subtypes of the disorder may exist.
- The findings highlight the significance of understanding brain structure variability to improve knowledge of schizophrenia and help identify potential biomarkers for the illness.
Article Synopsis
- The study looked at how the brain's left and right sides might differ in people with schizophrenia compared to those without it, using brain scans from over 5,000 patients and 6,000 control subjects.
- Researchers found that people with schizophrenia had slightly thinner areas in the left side of their brains, especially in certain regions, compared to those without the disorder.
- The differences in brain structure might be linked to how schizophrenia affects brain functions, like language, but more research is needed to understand why they happen.
Article Synopsis
- Schizophrenia can make the brain age faster, leading to more cognitive problems and health issues.
- A study looked at brain scans of 2,803 people with schizophrenia and 2,598 healthy people to see how much older their brains looked compared to their actual ages.
- The results showed that people with schizophrenia had brains that looked about 3.55 years older than they should be, but this wasn’t linked to how long they had the illness or how severe their symptoms were.
Article Synopsis
- The study examines the differences in the morphology of the human cerebral cortex across various psychiatric disorders, suggesting that early growth patterns in the cortex may influence later variations in surface area and mental health outcomes.
- Using data from over 27,000 MRI scans, researchers identified significant differences in cortical area among individuals with conditions like ADHD, schizophrenia, and major depression, particularly in association cortices linked to cognitive processing.
- The findings indicate a correlation between these structural differences and prenatal gene expression related to cell types important for brain development, highlighting how prenatal factors may play a crucial role in the risk of developing mental illnesses.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers discovered 287 genomic regions associated with schizophrenia, emphasizing genes specifically active in excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and identified 120 key genes potentially responsible for these associations.
- * The findings highlight important biological processes related to neuronal function, suggesting overlaps between common and rare genetic variants in both schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders, ultimately aiding future research on these conditions.
Article Synopsis
- Bipolar disorder has a genetic basis and complex causes; a large study compared nearly 42,000 bipolar patients with over 371,000 healthy controls, revealing 64 genomic regions linked to the disorder.
- The findings showed that risk-related genes are heavily associated with brain functions, particularly in areas like the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, and they include targets for various medications.
- The research also distinguished between bipolar disorder types I and II, revealing a close genetic relationship and highlighting 15 specific genes that could lead to new treatment options and further investigations.
The mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from parent to child are not yet known. We hypothesised that the mechanisms involved in trauma transmission may be dependent upon sex specific caregiver-child dyads and these dyads may have a differential impact on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A non-clinical sample of adult offspring (N = 306) of Australian Vietnam veterans was interviewed in-person to assess the relationship between family emotional climate and caregiver attachment with the offspring's adult experience of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study examined the course of diagnosed alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in a cohort of Australian veterans of the Vietnam War (N = 388) who were assessed 22 and 36 years after returning home. Standardized interviews provided data on AUDs, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other psychiatric diagnoses, and combat exposure. Overall, 148 veterans (38.
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- The study aims to analyze genetic variations linked to schizophrenia using the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank cohort, focusing on specific genes and pathways.
- Researchers conducted a genome-wide association study with 429 schizophrenia samples and 255 controls, examining the impact of single-nucleotide polymorphisms on gene expression and regulatory functions.
- The key finding involves a significant association with the gene frizzled class receptor 1, suggesting that the Wnt signaling pathway may play a critical role in schizophrenia and could be targeted for future therapies.
A non-clinical sample of male Australian Vietnam veterans, their wives, and adult offspring were interviewed in-person in a national epidemiological study to assess the relationship between the mental ill-health of veterans and the emotional climate of the family while the children were growing up. Veterans were assessed 17 years before their children using standardised psychiatric diagnostic interviews. Family emotional climate was assessed using offspring ratings of parental attachment, and codings of positive and negative family relationship styles based on five minute speech samples provided by the offspring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The profile of cortical neuroanatomical abnormalities in schizophrenia is not fully understood, despite hundreds of published structural brain imaging studies. This study presents the first meta-analysis of cortical thickness and surface area abnormalities in schizophrenia conducted by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Schizophrenia Working Group.
Methods: The study included data from 4474 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age, 32.
Background: War service increases the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to combatants, and has been shown to increase the risk of PTSD in their offspring. The extent to which there is an excess compared with the general population is not yet established, nor whether PTSD increases the risk of other psychiatric problems.
Methods: A national sample of 133 sons and 182 daughters of a cohort of 179 Australian Vietnam veterans' families were assessed in person, using structured psychiatric interviews.
Background: Whether trauma exposure itself or consequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is primarily responsible for smoking and failure to quit remains unclear.
Methods: A cohort of male Australian Vietnam veterans (N = 388) was interviewed twice, 22 and 36 years after their return to Australia using standardized psychiatric diagnostic and health interviews and assessment of combat exposure. The smoking trajectory over time revealed a spectrum of outcomes (never smoked, early quitters, late quitters, and continuing smokers).
The regional distribution of white matter (WM) abnormalities in schizophrenia remains poorly understood, and reported disease effects on the brain vary widely between studies. In an effort to identify commonalities across studies, we perform what we believe is the first ever large-scale coordinated study of WM microstructural differences in schizophrenia. Our analysis consisted of 2359 healthy controls and 1963 schizophrenia patients from 29 independent international studies; we harmonized the processing and statistical analyses of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data across sites and meta-analyzed effects across studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaising the standard of care in the treatment of schizophrenia: Yes we can!
Aust N Z J Psychiatry
May 2017
Objective: In response to evidence of deteriorating outcomes of people with schizophrenia we recently published a critical review in the journal concerning why outcomes for schizophrenia are not improving. A published commentary on our review raised criticisms that we aim to address herein.
Method: Published data related to four issues raised in the commentary were reviewed.
Australian male Vietnam veterans (N = 388) were assessed 22 and 36 years after their return to Australia using standardized diagnostic interviews, with added data from Army records and self-report questionnaires. Among veterans who ever had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 50.3% had a current diagnosis at the second assessment; of those who had a current diagnosis at Wave 1, 46.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To assess the association between parental post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and offspring PTSD and its specificity for other disorders in a non-clinical epidemiological cohort of Australian Vietnam veterans, their partners and their sons and daughters.
Method: Veterans were interviewed twice, in 1992-1994 and 2005-2006; partners were interviewed in 2006-2007, and their offspring in 2012-2014. A total of 125 sons and 168 daughters were interviewed from 197 families, 137 of which also included partners who were the mothers of the children.
Copy number variants (CNVs) have been strongly implicated in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). However, genome-wide investigation of the contribution of CNV to risk has been hampered by limited sample sizes. We sought to address this obstacle by applying a centralized analysis pipeline to a SCZ cohort of 21,094 cases and 20,227 controls.
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- The study investigates the neuroanatomical differences among cognitive subgroups of schizophrenia based on IQ, aiming to confirm and extend previous findings in a new group of patients.
- Researchers assessed 183 participants, including 96 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 87 healthy controls, using MRI and various intelligence and symptom scales.
- Results showed that IQ subgroups included 25 preserved, 33 moderately deteriorated, and 27 severely deteriorated patients, with significant negative symptoms in the severely deteriorated group, highlighting reduced inferior parietal volume in these patients.
The treatment of schizophrenia: Can we raise the standard of care?
Aust N Z J Psychiatry
December 2016
Article Synopsis
- Schizophrenia outcomes are worsening, with increasing mortality and morbidity rates, even in well-resourced areas like Australia, partly due to clinician uncertainty influenced by literature controversies and guideline inconsistencies.
- A critical review explored six significant aspects of schizophrenia treatment, finding that it is progressive, relapses worsen treatment resistance, and that maintenance antipsychotic medication is crucial even for patients in remission.
- Evidence supports the effectiveness of long-acting injectable antipsychotics over oral forms for preventing relapse, without causing harmful grey matter changes.