Contraceptives and conditioning: Different profiles of fear and expectancy ratings during fear conditioning and extinction according to menstrual cycle phase and hormonal contraceptive use.

Hormonal contraceptives (HC) such as the oral contraceptive pill (OC) and the hormonal intrauterine device (IUD) have been associated with depressed mood, but research on their role in anxiety is scarce and inconsistent. In a fear acquisition and extinction paradigm, self-report fear, expectancy, and skin conductance responses (SCR) were assessed, along with sex hormone levels. Naturally cycling (NC) participants were measured during the mid-follicular and mid-luteal phases (within subjects, n = 26) and compared with OC (n = 36) and IUD (n = 25) users.

Emotion and birth control: Emotion regulation ERPs differ based on menstrual cycle phase and hormonal contraceptive use.

While hormonal contraceptives (HCs) like oral contraceptive pills (OCs) and intrauterine devices (IUDs) can reportedly influence mood, the evidence is mixed, and the mechanisms remain unclear. Emotion reactivity and regulation processes may be hormone-sensitive and underlie these mood changes. This study sought to investigate the role of the menstrual cycle and HC use in emotion regulation using ERP measures during an emotion regulation paradigm.

Depressive Symptoms and Plasma Markers of Alzheimer's Disease and Neurodegeneration: A Coordinated Meta-Analysis of 8 Cohort Studies.

Background: Depressive symptoms are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). There has been a recent emergence in plasma biomarkers for AD pathophysiology, such as amyloid-beta (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau), as well as for axonal damage (neurofilament light, NfL) and astrocytic activation (glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP). Hypothesizing that depressive symptoms may occur along the AD process, we investigated associations between plasma biomarkers of AD with depressive symptoms in individuals without dementia.

Plasma Markers of Alzheimer's Disease Pathology, Neuronal Injury, and Astrocytic Activation and MRI Load of Vascular Pathology and Neurodegeneration: The SMART-MR Study.

Background: Two of the main causes for dementia are Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular pathology, with most patients showing mixed pathology. Plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease-related pathology have recently emerged, including Aβ (amyloid-beta), p-tau (phosphorylated tau), NfL (neurofilament light), and GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein). There is a current gap in the literature regarding whether there is an association between these plasma biomarkers with vascular pathology and neurodegeneration.

Association of amyloid-beta with depression or depressive symptoms in older adults without dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Several lines of evidence have indicated that depression might be a prodromal symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the cross-sectional association between amyloid-beta, one of the key pathologies defining AD, and depression or depressive symptoms in older adults without dementia. A systematic search in PubMed yielded 689 peer-reviewed articles.

A taxonomy of threat and soothing influences in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases and central sensitivity syndromes.

Background: An imbalance in affect regulation, reflected by a hyperactive threat system and hypoactive soothing system, may impact physical symptoms in people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD) and central sensitivity syndromes (CSS), including chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome. This study aimed to identify and structure comprehensive overviews of threat and soothing influences that may worsen or alleviate physical symptoms in people with RMD or CSS.

Method: A concept mapping procedure was used.

Positive future thinking without task-relevance increases anxiety and frontal stress regulation.

Negative anticipatory biases can affect the way we interpret and subjectively experience events. Through its role in emotion regulation, positive future thinking may provide an accessible way to attenuate these biases. However, it is unclear whether positive future thinking works ubiquitously, independent of contextual relevance.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy or supportive counseling prior to exposure therapy in patients with panic disorder: study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial (IMPROVE).

Background: Exposure-based therapy is the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders, but many patients do not benefit sufficiently from it. Distressing images of threat related to the future or past may maintain the anxiety symptomatology or impede exposure therapy. An intervention that targets threat-related imagery is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.

Psychosocial factors and hippocampal subfields: The Medea-7T study.

Specific subfields within the hippocampus have shown vulnerability to chronic stress, highlighting the importance of looking regionally within the hippocampus to understand the role of psychosocial factors in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. A systematic review on psychosocial factors and hippocampal subfield volumes was performed and showed inconsistent results, highlighting the need for future studies to explore this relationship. The current study aimed to explore the association of psychosocial factors with hippocampal (subfield) volumes, using high-field 7T MRI.

Late-life depression, allostatic load, and risk of dementia: The AGES-Reykjavik study.

Background: The current study aimed to assess if the relation between depression and dementia could be explained by allostatic load (AL) profiles, as well as assessing their risk on incident all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and non-AD dementias.

Methods: The study included individuals without dementia at baseline from the population-based AGES-Reykjavik Study. Depressive symptoms assessed with the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 and AL markers were collected at baseline.

Stable Anxiety and Depression Trajectories in Late Adolescence for Oral Contraceptive Users.

Background: The use of oral contraceptives (OCs) has been associated with increased incidences of anxiety and depression, for which adolescents seem to be particularly vulnerable. Rather than looking at singular outcomes, we examined whether OC use is associated with depressive and anxiety symptom trajectories from early adolescence into early adulthood.

Materials And Methods: Data from 178 girls were drawn from the Research on Adolescent Development and Relationships (RADAR-Y) younger cohort study.

Individual treatment goals and factors influencing goal attainment in patients with somatic symptom disorder from the perspective of clinicians: A concept mapping study.

Objective: Overviews of treatment goals and influencing factors may support shared decision making and optimize customized treatment to the patient with somatic symptom disorder (SSD). The aim of this study was to identify and structure comprehensive sets of treatment goals and factors influencing goal attainment in patients with SSD from the perspective of clinicians.

Methods: Using a concept mapping procedure, clinicians participated in interviews (N = 17) and card sorting tasks comprising 55 treatment goals and 55 factors influencing goal attainment (N = 38).

Depression and Dementia: The Role of Cortisol and Vascular Brain Lesions. AGES-Reykjavik Study.

Background: Late-life depression (LLD) is related to an increased risk of developing dementia; however, the biological mechanisms explaining this relationship remain unclear.

Objective: To determine whether the relationship between LLD and dementia can be best explained by the glucocorticoid cascade or vascular hypothesis.

Methods: Data are from 4,354 persons (mean age 76±5 years) without dementia at baseline from the AGES-Reykjavik Study.

Association of childhood maltreatment and cortisol with the severity and stability of depression symptoms.

Background: Little is known about patterns of depression symptoms over time in older adults. This study aims to assess the association of childhood maltreatment and cortisol levels with latent classes of depression symptoms over ten years in older adults.

Methods: A total of 752 participants (mean age 61.

Depressive symptom profiles predict dementia onset and brain pathology in older persons. The AGES-Reykjavik study.

Late-life depression (LLD) increases risk for dementia and brain pathology, but possibly this is only true for one or more symptom profiles of LLD. In 4354 participants (76 ± 5 years; 58% female) from the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES)-Reykjavik Study, we identified five LLD symptom profiles, based on the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (no LLD (57%); apathy (31%); apathy with emptiness (2%), mild LLD (8%) and severe LLD (2%)). Cox regression analyses showed that severe LLD, mild LLD and apathy increased risk of dementia up to 12 years, compared to no LLD.

Forgetting the Future: Emotion Improves Memory for Imagined Future Events in Healthy Individuals but Not Individuals With Anxiety.

Negative thoughts about future events are a central aspect of anxiety disorders. It is important to gain a deeper understanding of how these imagined events are retained over time when considering the impact of negative future thoughts on anxiety. Prior research indicates that emotional intensity fades faster for negative than positive memories in healthy individuals.

Fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19): Predictors in an online study conducted in March 2020.

Fear is an adaptive response in the presence of danger. However, when threat is uncertain and continuous, as in the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, fear can become chronic and burdensome. To identify predictors of fear of the coronavirus, we conducted an online survey (N = 439) three days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic (i.

The Association of Individual Changes in Stressful Life Events and Telomere Length Over Time in Twins 50 Years and Older.

Objective: Exposure to adverse stressors has been associated with shortening of leukocyte telomere length (LTL). The present longitudinal study investigates the time course of exposure to life events and LTL to determine whether increases in exposure to life events are related to subsequent accelerated LTL shortening.

Methods: In the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging, we assessed late-life stressful events and LTL in 543 individual participants (mean age = 68.

Prospective biomarkers of major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Leading biological hypotheses propose that biological changes may underlie major depressive disorder onset and relapse/recurrence. Here, we investigate if there is prospective evidence for biomarkers derived from leading theories. We focus on neuroimaging, gastrointestinal factors, immunology, neurotrophic factors, neurotransmitters, hormones, and oxidative stress.

Long-term glucocorticoid levels measured in hair in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders.

Background: Depressive and anxiety disorders have been linked to a dysregulated hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis. Hair cortisol levels (HairF) reflect integrated long-term cortisol regulation and are therefore promising endocrine markers of chronic (psychological and physical) stress. Our aim was to assess hair cortisol levels in persons with a depressive and/or anxiety disorder and to compare their levels with that of persons in remission and healthy controls.

HPA Axis Genes, and Their Interaction with Childhood Maltreatment, are Related to Cortisol Levels and Stress-Related Phenotypes.

Stress responses are controlled by the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA)-axis and maladaptive stress responses are associated with the onset and maintenance of stress-related disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD). Genes that play a role in the HPA-axis regulation may likely contribute to the relation between relevant neurobiological substrates and stress-related disorders. Therefore, we performed gene-wide analyses for 30 a priori literature-based genes involved in HPA-axis regulation in 2014 subjects (34% male; mean age: 42.

Influence of Negative Life Events and Widowhood on Risk for Dementia.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of negative life events and widowhood on the incidence of dementia.

Methods: Data were from four Swedish longitudinal cohort studies with a total of nearly 2,000 participants and 8-25 years of follow-up. Seven stressful events were examined for which data were available in all cohorts.

Late-Life Depression, Hippocampal Volumes, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Regulation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the association of late-life depression (LLD) with hippocampal volume (HCV) and total brain volume (TBV), and of cortisol levels with HCV, including subgroup analyses of depression characteristics and methodological aspects.

Methods: We searched PubMed and Embase for original studies that examined the cross-sectional relationship between LLD and HCV or TBV, and 46 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Standardized mean differences (Hedges' g) between LLD and control subjects were calculated from crude or adjusted brain volumes using random effects.

Longitudinal decline of leukocyte telomere length in old age and the association with sex and genetic risk.

Telomeres are DNA-protein structures at the ends of chromosomes. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortening has been associated with advanced age. However, most studies use cross-sectional data, hence, the aim of our study was to model longitudinal trajectories of LTL attrition across 20 years at old age.