Lost and found: dynamics of relationship and employment status over time in people with affective and psychotic spectrum disorders.

Background: Employment and relationship are crucial for social integration. However, individuals with major psychiatric disorders often face challenges in these domains.

Aims: We investigated employment and relationship status changes among patients across the affective and psychotic spectrum - in comparison with healthy controls, examining whether diagnostic groups or functional levels influence these transitions.

Contrasting genetic burden for bipolar disorder: Early onset versus late onset in an older adult bipolar disorder sample.

Older Adults with Bipolar Disorder (OABD) represent a heterogeneous group, including those with early and late onset of the disorder. Recent evidence shows both groups have distinct clinical, cognitive, and medical features, tied to different neurobiological profiles. This study explored the link between polygenic risk scores (PRS) for bipolar disorder (PRS-BD), schizophrenia (PRS-SCZ), and major depressive disorder (PRS-MDD) with age of onset in OABD.

Analysis of BoDV-1 status, EEG resting-state alpha activity and pro-inflammatory cytokines in adults with and without major depressive disorder.

Introduction: In severe cases, an infection with the Borna Disease Virus 1 (BoDV-1), the causative agent of Borna disease in horses, sheep, and other domestic mammals, was reported to be accompanied by cognitive dysfunctions, seizures, deep coma, or severe to fatal encephalitis in humans. In addition, asymptomatic or mild courses of BoDV-1 infection are discussed to act as a co-factor in the etiology of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Previously, studies using electroencephalography (EEG) reported BoDV-1-dependent changes in event-related potentials (ERPs), thus indicating the use and added value of non-invasive studies in Borna research.

Serum Levels of the Steroid Hormone Dehydroepiandrosterone Are Associated with Psychological Trauma and Lymphocyte Telomere Integrity in Women Suffering from Depression.

Introduction: Emerging studies highlight the telomere system as an aging mechanism underlying the association between exposure to psychological trauma and the development of a wide range of physical and mental disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD). Here, we investigated associations of circulating levels of the steroid hormone dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) with immune cell telomere length (TL) in the context of lifetime trauma exposure and MDD.

Methods: Lifetime traumatic events (trauma load) were assessed using the Essener Trauma Inventory in n = 22 postmenopausal female inpatients with MDD and n = 22 non-depressed controls.

Association of polygenic score and the involvement of cholinergic and glutamatergic pathways with lithium treatment response in patients with bipolar disorder.

Lithium is regarded as the first-line treatment for bipolar disorder (BD), a severe and disabling mental health disorder that affects about 1% of the population worldwide. Nevertheless, lithium is not consistently effective, with only 30% of patients showing a favorable response to treatment. To provide personalized treatment options for bipolar patients, it is essential to identify prediction biomarkers such as polygenic scores.

Association of Polygenic Score and the involvement of Cholinergic and Glutamatergic Pathways with Lithium Treatment Response in Patients with Bipolar Disorder.

Lithium is regarded as the first-line treatment for bipolar disorder (BD), a severe and disabling mental disorder that affects about 1% of the population worldwide. Nevertheless, lithium is not consistently effective, with only 30% of patients showing a favorable response to treatment. To provide personalized treatment options for bipolar patients, it is essential to identify prediction biomarkers such as polygenic scores.

Association between mitochondria-related genes and cognitive performance in the PsyCourse Study.

Background: Mitochondria generate energy through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). The function of key OXPHOS proteins can be altered by variation in mitochondria-related genes, which may increase the risk of mental illness. We investigated the association of mitochondria-related genes and their genetic risk burden with cognitive performance.

Word recognition memory and serum levels of Borna disease virus specific circulating immune complexes in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background: Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1) is a non-segmented, negative-strand RNA virus that persistently infects mammals including humans. BoDV-1 worldwide occurring strains display highly conserved genomes with overlapping genetic signatures between those of either human or animal origin. BoDV-1 infection may cause behavioral and cognitive disturbances in animals but has also been found in human major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

A novel longitudinal clustering approach to psychopathology across diagnostic entities in the hospital-based PsyCourse study.

Biological research and clinical management in psychiatry face two major impediments: the high degree of overlap in psychopathology between diagnoses and the inherent heterogeneity with regard to severity. Here, we aim to stratify cases into homogeneous transdiagnostic subgroups using psychometric information with the ultimate aim of identifying individuals with higher risk for severe illness. 397 participants of the PsyCourse study with schizophrenia- or bipolar-spectrum diagnoses were prospectively phenotyped over 18 months.

Prominent Efficacy of Amantadine against Human Borna Disease Virus Infection In Vitro and In Vivo. Comment on Fink et al. Amantadine Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 In Vitro. 2021, , 539.

Amantadine (1-amino-adamantane) is a versatile antiviral compound which has been licensed for decades against influenza viruses. During the Corona pandemic, its effect to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro has been investigated. However, an in vivo oral inapplicability was concluded due to ID doses exceeding eight times the estimated maximum tolerable plasma levels reached by 600 mg orally daily.

Medication Adherence in a Cross-Diagnostic Sample of Patients From the Affective-to-Psychotic Spectrum: Results From the PsyCourse Study.

Introduction: According to the World Health Organization, medication adherence is defined as the extent to which a person's behavior corresponds with an agreed recommendation from a healthcare provider. Approximately 50% of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, and non-adherence can contribute to the progress of a disease. For patients suffering from mental diseases non-adherence plays an important role.

Interplay between the genetics of personality traits, severe psychiatric disorders and COVID-19 host genetics in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, with its impact on our way of life, is affecting our experiences and mental health. Notably, individuals with mental disorders have been reported to have a higher risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. Personality traits could represent an important determinant of preventative health behaviour and, therefore, the risk of contracting the virus.

Caution, "normal" BMI: health risks associated with potentially masked individual underweight-EPMA Position Paper 2021.

An increasing interest in a healthy lifestyle raises questions about optimal body weight. Evidently, it should be clearly discriminated between the standardised "normal" body weight and individually optimal weight. To this end, the basic principle of personalised medicine "one size does not fit all" has to be applied.

A genome-wide association study of the longitudinal course of executive functions.

Executive functions are metacognitive capabilities that control and coordinate mental processes. In the transdiagnostic PsyCourse Study, comprising patients of the affective-to-psychotic spectrum and controls, we investigated the genetic basis of the time course of two core executive subfunctions: set-shifting (Trail Making Test, part B (TMT-B)) and updating (Verbal Digit Span backwards) in 1338 genotyped individuals. Time course was assessed with four measurement points, each 6 months apart.

Reduced Jumping to Conclusion Bias after Experimentally Induced Enhancement of Subjective Body Boundaries in Psychosis.

Introduction: A disturbed sense of self is frequently discussed as an etiological factor for delusion symptoms in psychosis. Phenomenological approaches to psychopathology posit that lacking the sense that the self is localized within one's bodily boundaries (disembodiment) is one of the core features of the disturbed self in psychosis. The present study examines this idea by experimentally manipulating the sense of bodily boundaries.

Antiviral treatment perspective against Borna disease virus 1 infection in major depression: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial.

Background: Whether Borna disease virus (BDV-1) is a human pathogen remained controversial until recent encephalitis cases showed BDV-1 infection could even be deadly. This called to mind previous evidence for an infectious contribution of BDV-1 to mental disorders. Pilot open trials suggested that BDV-1 infected depressed patients benefitted from antiviral therapy with a licensed drug (amantadine) which also tested sensitive in vitro.

An Investigation of Psychosis Subgroups With Prognostic Validation and Exploration of Genetic Underpinnings: The PsyCourse Study.

Importance: Identifying psychosis subgroups could improve clinical and research precision. Research has focused on symptom subgroups, but there is a need to consider a broader clinical spectrum, disentangle illness trajectories, and investigate genetic associations.

Objective: To detect psychosis subgroups using data-driven methods and examine their illness courses over 1.

The role of environmental stress and DNA methylation in the longitudinal course of bipolar disorder.

Background: Stressful life events influence the course of affective disorders, however, the mechanisms by which they bring about phenotypic change are not entirely known.

Methods: We explored the role of DNA methylation in response to recent stressful life events in a cohort of bipolar patients from the longitudinal PsyCourse study (n = 96). Peripheral blood DNA methylomes were profiled at two time points for over 850,000 methylation sites.

The genetic relationship between educational attainment and cognitive performance in major psychiatric disorders.

Cognitive deficits are a core feature of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Evidence supports a genome-wide polygenic score (GPS) for educational attainment (GPS) can be used to explain variability in cognitive performance. We aimed to identify different cognitive domains associated with GPS in a transdiagnostic clinical cohort of chronic psychiatric patients with known cognitive deficits.