Publications by authors named "Lisa R Steenkamp"

Background: Childhood trauma is associated with a variety of negative outcomes in psychosis, but it is unclear clear if childhood trauma affects day-to-day social experiences. We aimed to examine the association between childhood trauma and functional and structural characteristics of real-world social relationships in psychosis.

Methods: Participants with psychotic disorders or affective disorders with psychosis completed ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) over ten days (N = 209).

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Background And Hypothesis: Previous studies have shown a robust relationship between childhood adversity and subsequent psychotic symptoms. However, the role of familial risk factors underlying this relationship remains largely unclear. Here, we tested whether offspring childhood adversity and postnatal maternal psychopathology mediated the relationship between maternal childhood adversity and offspring psychotic experiences.

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Article Synopsis
  • Psychotic disorders have been linked to structural brain changes, but this study specifically looks at how brain structure relates to hallucinations in children over time, offering insights beyond past cross-sectional research.
  • The research involved neuroimaging of over 2,000 children at age 10, with a subset scanned again at 14, assessing hallucinations as a binary variable using advanced statistical models to explore associations.
  • Results showed that smaller brain volumes and cortical surface areas at age 10 were related to an increased likelihood of experiencing hallucinations by age 14, highlighting a potential neurodevelopmental risk factor for your psychological well-being.
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Background: Peer connections in school classrooms play an important role in social-emotional development and mental health. However, research on the association between children's peer relationships and white matter connections in the brain is scarce. We studied associations between peer relationships in the classroom and white matter structural connectivity in a pediatric population-based sample.

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Background: Psychotic experiences predict adverse health outcomes, particularly if they are persistent. However, it is unclear what distinguishes persistent from transient psychotic experiences.

Aims: In a large population-based cohort, we aimed to (a) describe the course of hallucinatory experiences from childhood to adolescence, (b) compare characteristics of youth with persistent and remittent hallucinatory experiences, and (c) examine prediction models for persistence.

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Previous studies have shown that schizophrenia polygenic risk predicts a multitude of mental health problems in the general population. Yet it is unclear by which mechanisms these associations arise. Here, we explored a possible gene-environment correlation in the association of schizophrenia polygenic risk with mental health problems via childhood adversity.

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Objective: Psychotic experiences, such as hallucinations, occur commonly in children and have been related to bullying victimization. However, whether bullying perpetration, peer rejection, or peer acceptance are related to hallucinatory experiences has remained under-examined. We used a novel peer nomination method to examine whether (i) bullying perpetration and (ii) social positions within peer networks were associated with future hallucinatory experiences.

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Background: Psychotic experiences are common in childhood and an important risk indicator of adverse mental health outcomes. However, little is known about the association of psychotic experiences with functional outcomes in childhood, particularly regarding school performance. The aim of the present study was to examine whether psychotic experiences were prospectively related to school performance in childhood.

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Background: Oxidative stress is implicated in both depression and anxiety, but it is currently unclear whether this relates to syndromal diagnoses or trans-diagnostic dimensional symptoms. We examined the relationship between oxidative stress and severity of depression and anxiety symptoms in individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

Methods: Plasma oxidative stress markers F2-isoprostanes and oxidized glutathione (GSSG), and the antioxidant reduced glutathione (GSH), were assessed in 69 physically healthy, medication-free MDD subjects.

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