Childhood Trauma Across the Schizophrenia Spectrum: A Comparison of Schizotypal Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia.

Background: The etiology of schizophrenia involves both biological and environmental risk factors. Studying childhood trauma in disorders along the schizophrenia spectrum, including schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), can inform early risk and protective factors for psychosis. However, no study has directly compared childhood trauma between SPD and schizophrenia.

The Role of Inflammation in Depression and Beyond: A Primer for Clinicians.

Purpose Of Review: We evaluate available evidence for the role of inflammation in depression. We reappraise literature involving systemic inflammation, neuroinflammation and neurotransmission and their association with depression. We review the connection between depression, autoimmunity and infectious diseases.

Training in Cognitive Reappraisal Normalizes Whole-Brain Indices of Emotion Regulation in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is the prototypical disorder of emotion dysregulation. We have previously shown that patients with BPD are impaired in their capacity to engage cognitive reappraisal, a frequently employed adaptive emotion regulation strategy.

Methods: Here, we report on the efficacy of longitudinal training in cognitive reappraisal to enhance emotion regulation in patients with BPD.

The MATRICS consensus cognitive battery for the assessment of cognitive impairment in schizotypal personality disorder.

Cognitive deficits are a core impairment across the range of schizophrenia (SZ) spectrum disorders, including schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) was developed to be a robust, specific, and valid cognitive assessment battery to assess cognition in clinical trials for treating cognitive impairments in SZ. Despite the similarity of cognitive impairments shown in SPD and SZ and the clear relevance of uniform assessment across a diagnostic spectrum, the MCCB has yet to be validated in SPD.

The effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination on Th17 and regulatory T cells in a pregnancy cohort in NYC.

Disturbances in T-cells, specifically the Th17/Treg balance, have been implicated in adverse pregnancy outcomes. We investigated these two T-cell populations following pre-pregnancy and pregnancy SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination in 351 participants from a pregnancy cohort in New York City (Generation C; 2020-2022). SARS-CoV-2 infection status was determined via laboratory or medical diagnosis and COVID-19 vaccination status via survey and electronic medical records data.

Increased postpartum anxiety symptoms after perinatal SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large, prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City.

Numerous studies reported an increase of postpartum mood symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, the link between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and perinatal mental health is less well understood. We investigated the associations between prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and postpartum depressive and anxiety symptoms, including examinations of infection timing and pandemic timeline.

Exploring real-world symptom impact and improvement in well-being domains for tardive dyskinesia in VMAT2 inhibitor-treated patients via clinician survey and chart review.

Introduction: Two vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) inhibitors are approved in the United States (US) for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia (TD). There is a paucity of information on the impact of VMAT2 inhibitor treatment on patient social and physical well-being. The study objective was to elucidate clinician-reported improvement in symptoms and any noticeable changes in social or physical well-being in patients receiving VMAT2 inhibitors.

Modafinil's effects on cognition and sleep quality in affectively-stable patients with bipolar disorder: a pilot study.

Introduction: Despite advances in the treatment of bipolar disorder (BD), most patients do not achieve complete inter-episode recovery and functional disability is common. During periods of relative remission, many patients continue to experience neurocognitive dysfunction, reduced daytime activity levels, and sleep disturbances. This 8-week, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study evaluated the feasibility, safety and preliminary efficacy of the wake-promoting drug, modafinil (Provigil), on neurocognitive functioning, daytime sleepiness, and sleep quality in affectively-stable BD patients.

Functional neuroimaging of resilience to trauma: convergent evidence and challenges for future research.

Resilience is broadly defined as the ability to adapt successfully following stressful life events. Here, we review functional MRI studies that investigated key psychological factors that have been consistently linked to resilience to severe adversity and trauma exposure. These domains include emotion regulation (including cognitive reappraisal), reward responsivity, and cognitive control.

Serotonin transporter availability in physically aggressive personality disordered patients: associations with trait and state aggression, and response to fluoxetine.

Rationale: Characterizing the neuroanatomical basis of serotonergic abnormalities in severe, chronic, impulsive aggression will allow for rational treatment selection, development of novel therapeutics, and biomarkers to identify at-risk individuals.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify associations between regional serotonin transporter (5-HTT) availability and trait and state aggression, as well as response to the anti-aggressive effects of fluoxetine.

Methods: We examined 5-HTT availability using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging with [C]DASB in personality disordered patients with current physical intermittent explosive disorder (IED; n = 18), and healthy comparison participants (HC; n = 11), in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala (AMY), ventral striatum (VST), and midbrain (MID).

Chronic Use of Antipsychotics in Schizophrenia: Are We Asking the Right Question?

There is an ongoing debate about the potential risks and benefits of long-term antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia. The data for and against the chronic use of these medicines is mostly indirect, either from observational studies potentially exposed to reverse causation bias or randomized controlled studies that do not cover beyond 2-3 years. We propose that perseverating on the question of what positive or negative outcomes are causally associated with chronic antipsychotic treatment may not lead to better answers than the limited ones that we have, given the limited feasibility of more conclusive studies.

The structure of antagonism: A hierarchical model of self- and interview-rated psychopathology.

Recent initiatives in the empirically based classification of psychopathology, namely, the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP), have made significant strides in addressing the limitations of traditional taxonomies (i.e., ).

Hyperreactivity and Impaired Habituation of Startle Amplitude During Unpleasant Pictures in Borderline but Not Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Quantifying Emotion Dysregulation.

Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by greater intensity of reactions to unpleasant emotional cues and a slower-than-normal return of these responses to baseline. Habituation is defined as decreased response to repeated stimulation. Affect-modulated startle (AMS), a translational psychophysiological approach, is mediated by the amygdala and used to study emotion processing in both humans and animals.

An umbrella review on the use of antipsychotics in anxiety disorders: A registered report protocol.

Anxiety disorders, including panic disorder (PD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), agoraphobia, and specific phobia, are among the most common psychiatric disorders. Although the traditional pharmacologic treatments for anxiety included barbiturates and then benzodiazepines, the introduction of tricyclic antidepressants, followed by the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), marked a tidal shift in the treatment of anxiety. Although not approved for treatment of anxiety disorders (with the exception of trifluoperazine) there is ongoing off-label, unapproved use of both first-generation "typical" antipsychotics (FGAs) and second-generation or "atypical" antipsychotics (SGAs) for anxiety.

Frontotemporal thalamic connectivity in schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder.

Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) resembles schizophrenia, but with attenuated brain abnormalities and the absence of psychosis. The thalamus is integral for processing and transmitting information across cortical regions and widely implicated in the neurobiology of schizophrenia. Comparing thalamic connectivity in SPD and schizophrenia could reveal an intermediate schizophrenia-spectrum phenotype to elucidate neurobiological risk and protective factors in psychosis.

Shift in Social Media App Usage During COVID-19 Lockdown and Clinical Anxiety Symptoms: Machine Learning-Based Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Background: Anxiety symptoms during public health crises are associated with adverse psychiatric outcomes and impaired health decision-making. The interaction between real-time social media use patterns and clinical anxiety during infectious disease outbreaks is underexplored.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the usage pattern of 2 types of social media apps (communication and social networking) among patients in outpatient psychiatric treatment during the COVID-19 surge and lockdown in Madrid, Spain and their short-term anxiety symptoms (7-item General Anxiety Disorder scale) at clinical follow-up.

Intensive Dialectical Behavior Treatment for Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder With and Without Substance Use Disorders.

Treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) with comorbid substance use disorder can be challenging due to symptom overlap and limited assessment methods. Preliminary evidence has shown promising effectiveness of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) for BPD with comorbid substance use disorders. The current study compared the benefits of a 28-day transitional DBT treatment program for individuals with BPD with and without substance use disorders through evaluating the changes in coping skills, generalized anxiety, and depression symptom scales at admission and discharge.

Pramipexole to Improve Cognition in Bipolar Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Adults with bipolar disorder (BD) often experience neurocognitive impairment that negatively impacts functioning and quality of life. Previous trials have found that dopamine agonist agents improve cognition in healthy volunteers and that adults with BD who have stable mood and mild cognitive deficits may also benefit. We hypothesized that pramipexole, a dopamine agonist, would improve neurocognitive function in patients with BD.

Predicting Emotional States Using Behavioral Markers Derived From Passively Sensed Data: Data-Driven Machine Learning Approach.

Background: Mental health disorders affect multiple aspects of patients' lives, including mood, cognition, and behavior. eHealth and mobile health (mHealth) technologies enable rich sets of information to be collected noninvasively, representing a promising opportunity to construct behavioral markers of mental health. Combining such data with self-reported information about psychological symptoms may provide a more comprehensive and contextualized view of a patient's mental state than questionnaire data alone.

Alexithymia, Affective Lability, Impulsivity, and Childhood Adversity in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Long-standing theories of borderline personality disorder (BPD) suggest that symptoms develop at least in part from childhood adversity. Emotion dysregulation may meaningfully mediate these effects. The current study examined three factors related to emotion dysregulation-alexithymia, affective lability, and impulsivity-as potential mediators of the relation between childhood adversity and BPD diagnosis in 101 individuals with BPD and 95 healthy controls.

Computer Vision-Based Assessment of Motor Functioning in Schizophrenia: Use of Smartphones for Remote Measurement of Schizophrenia Symptomatology.

Introduction: Motor abnormalities have been shown to be a distinct component of schizophrenia symptomatology. However, objective and scalable methods for assessment of motor functioning in schizophrenia are lacking. Advancements in machine learning-based digital tools have allowed for automated and remote "digital phenotyping" of disease symptomatology.

Social media and smartphone app use predicts maintenance of physical activity during Covid-19 enforced isolation in psychiatric outpatients.

There is growing concern that the social and physical distancing measures implemented in response to the Covid-19 pandemic may negatively impact health in other areas, via both decreased physical activity and increased social isolation. Here, we investigated whether increased engagement with digital social tools may help mitigate effects of enforced isolation on physical activity and mood, in a naturalistic study of at-risk individuals. Passively sensed smartphone app use and actigraphy data were collected from a group of psychiatric outpatients before and during imposition of strict Covid-19 lockdown measures.

Actigraphic recording of motor activity in depressed inpatients: a novel computational approach to prediction of clinical course and hospital discharge.

Depressed patients present with motor activity abnormalities, which can be easily recorded using actigraphy. The extent to which actigraphically recorded motor activity may predict inpatient clinical course and hospital discharge remains unknown. Participants were recruited from the acute psychiatric inpatient ward at Hospital Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid, Spain).