Opioid use disorder and brain health: observational and genetic associations.

Background: The long-term impact of opioid use disorder (OUD) on brain health has been little explored although of potentially high public health importance.

Objectives: To investigate the potential causal impact of OUD on later life brain health outcomes, including dementia, stroke and brain structure.

Methods: Observational and Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were conducted.

Brain change trajectories in healthy adults correlate with Alzheimer's related genetic variation and memory decline across life.

Throughout adulthood and ageing our brains undergo structural loss in an average pattern resembling faster atrophy in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using a longitudinal adult lifespan sample (aged 30-89; 2-7 timepoints) and four polygenic scores for AD, we show that change in AD-sensitive brain features correlates with genetic AD-risk and memory decline in healthy adults. We first show genetic risk links with more brain loss than expected for age in early Braak regions, and find this extends beyond APOE genotype.

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I and risk of dementia: 25-year longitudinal study in the Whitehall II cohort.

Objective: We hypothesise that subclinical myocardial injury during midlife, indexed by increases in cardiac troponin I, is associated with accelerated cognitive decline, smaller structural brain volume, and higher risk of dementia.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Civil service departments in London (Whitehall II study).

Association between cannabis use and brain structure and function: an observational and Mendelian randomisation study.

Background: Cannabis use during adolescence and young adulthood has been associated with brain harm, yet despite a rapid increase in cannabis use among older adults in the past decade, the impact on brain health in this population remains understudied.

Objective: To explore observational and genetic associations between cannabis use and brain structure and function.

Methods: We examined 3641 lifetime cannabis users (mean (SD) age 61.

Nuclei-specific hypothalamus networks predict a dimensional marker of stress in humans.

The hypothalamus is part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis which activates stress responses through release of cortisol. It is a small but heterogeneous structure comprising multiple nuclei. In vivo human neuroimaging has rarely succeeded in recording signals from individual hypothalamus nuclei.