Publications by authors named "Murray Stein"
Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are common after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but their biological drivers are uncertain. We therefore explored whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived for PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD) are associated with the development of cognate TBI-related phenotypes.
Methods: Meta-analyses were conducted using data from two multicenter, prospective observational cohort studies of patients with mTBI: the CENTER-TBI study (ClinicalTrials.
Article Synopsis
- The study explores the biological differences linked to PTSD by examining DNA methylation changes in blood, suggesting they could indicate susceptibility or effects of trauma.
- Conducted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, the research included nearly 5,100 participants to identify specific genetic markers associated with PTSD.
- Results showed 11 significant CpG sites related to PTSD, with some also showing correlations between blood and brain tissue methylation, highlighting their potential role in understanding PTSD biology.
Article Synopsis
- PTSD affects a notable percentage of the global population, with significant sex differences influencing its symptoms, yet the genetic factors behind these differences had been underexplored.
- A study conducted a multivariate genome-wide association study (GWAS) on UK Biobank individuals, revealing distinct symptom patterns for males and females and identifying specific significant genetic loci in females but not in males.
- The findings highlight the importance of considering sex when studying PTSD, suggesting that genetic factors may contribute to differing symptomatology and warrants further investigation into this area.
Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious, debilitating, and prevalent psychiatric condition occurring in people who are traumatized and experience intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings that persist. BNC210 is a novel α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-negative allosteric modulator developed to treat PTSD.
Methods: ATTUNE was a randomized, double-blind, phase 2b, placebo-controlled trial.
Objective: To examine the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the US veteran population, and physical, mental, and cognitive health conditions associated with TBI.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Setting: A nationally representative sample of US military veterans surveyed in 2019-2020.
This study explores the genetic and epidemiologic correlates of long-term photoplethysmography-derived pulse rate variability (PRV) measurements with anxiety disorders. Individuals with whole-genome sequencing, Fitbit, and electronic health record data (N = 920; 61,333 data points) were selected from the All of Us Research Program. Anxiety polygenic risk scores (PRS) were derived with PRS-CS after meta-analyzing anxiety genome-wide association studies from three major cohorts- UK Biobank, FinnGen, and the Million Veterans Program (N =364,550).
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- * The research identified 12 significant genetic markers linked to MG, with certain markers associated specifically with early-onset (under 50) and late-onset (50 and older) forms of the disease.
- * Additionally, the study highlighted the potential role of genetic factors in determining the age of disease onset and demonstrated that polygenic risk scores could help predict MG status, explaining over 4% of the variation in disease presence.
Background: Contemporary surgical practices for traumatic brain injury (TBI) remain unclear. We describe the clinical profile of an 18-centre US TBI cohort with cranial surgery.
Methods: The prospective, observational Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury Study (2014-2018; ClinicalTrials.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to create a composite score to measure how well US Army combat arms soldiers can handle combat-related stressors (CRS) before deployment and how this relates to persistent PTSD symptoms afterwards.!* -
- Researchers collected pre-deployment survey data from 2,542 soldiers and assessed PTSD levels two to nine months after returning from deployment, finding that 5.4% developed persistent PTSD, mostly among those with high levels of CRS.!* -
- The findings indicate that a reliable pre-deployment resilience score can predict how soldiers might be affected by high CRS, suggesting that such a score could help target preventative measures against PTSD.!*
Background: An improved understanding of pathways to alcohol use disorder (AUD) among service members may inform efforts to reduce the substantial impact of AUD on this population. This study examined whether the relationship between a service-related risk factor (combat exposure) and later AUD varied based on individual differences in genetic liability to AUD.
Methods: The sample consisted of 1203 US Army soldiers of genetically determined European ancestry who provided survey and genomic data in the Army STARRS Pre/Post Deployment Study (PPDS; 2012-2014) and follow-up survey data in wave 1 of the STARRS Longitudinal Study (2016-2018).
Article Synopsis
- A large-scale, cross-national study examined the impact of removing the "excessiveness" requirement for diagnosing generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) among individuals living in challenging circumstances.
- Data from over 133,000 adults across various income countries revealed that eliminating this criterion raises the global prevalence of GAD from 2.6% to 4.0%, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
- Non-excessive worriers, while less severe, exhibit similar socio-demographic traits and impairment levels as excessive worriers, indicating they are significant cases deserving diagnosis and treatment.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers aimed to create and validate Methylation Risk Scores (MRS) using machine learning to identify individuals at risk for PTSD based on genomic and trauma exposure data.
- The study developed three models: eMRS (which combines trauma exposure and methylation data), MoRS (which relies only on methylation data), and MoRSAE (which adjusts MoRS for trauma exposure).
- The eMRS model showed the best performance with a 92% accuracy, and all models were able to predict post-deployment PTSD significantly, suggesting that including trauma exposure improves risk assessment.
In this lecture, I wish to speak about the faithless analyst. This is an analyst without fixed religious notions, without specific preferences with regard to religious faith and practice, without religious commitments or attachments of the kind that would influence the course of the analysis. Is this possible? Analysts like everyone else grow up in specific cultures that are deeply entangled with religious traditions.
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- Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a big problem worldwide, causing many deaths and disabilities, and there aren't great treatments to help recovery.
- Researchers studied whether TBI shares similar causes with other brain conditions, like Alzheimer's and schizophrenia, to find new treatment ideas.
- They found specific brain pathways related to TBI recovery that might also be important for those other conditions, especially pathways dealing with important brain chemicals like serotonin and acetylcholine.
Background: Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience higher risk of adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. This study explores shared loci, and genes between PTSD and CV conditions from three major domains: CV diagnoses from electronic health records (CV-EHR), cardiac and aortic imaging, and CV health behaviors defined in Life's Essential 8 (LE8).
Methods: We used genome-wide association study (GWAS) of PTSD (N=1,222,882), 246 CV diagnoses based on EHR data from Million Veteran Program (MVP; N=458,061), UK Biobank (UKBB; N=420,531), 82 cardiac and aortic imaging traits (N=26,893), and GWAS of traits defined in the LE8 (N = 282,271 ~ 1,320,016).
Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and often resolve within 3 months post-injury. However, the degree to which individual patients follow this course is unknown. We characterized trajectories of neuropsychiatric symptoms over 12 months post-TBI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAt the 39th meeting of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, four leading scientists and clinicians were invited to reflect on their careers, focusing on the biological mechanisms and markers of traumatic stress. Dr. Raul Andero has contributed to understanding how stress alters memory networks in the brain, influencing the development of novel treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPersonality is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors and is associated with other psychiatric traits such as anxiety and depression. The 'big five' personality traits, which include neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, are a widely accepted and influential framework for understanding and describing human personality. Of the big five personality traits, neuroticism has most often been the focus of genetic studies and is linked to various mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.
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- The study investigates the link between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and differences in DNA methylation, a type of gene regulation, in blood samples from individuals diagnosed with PTSD compared to trauma-exposed controls.
- Researchers conducted a large-scale analysis involving over 5,000 participants from various civilian and military studies, using standardized procedures for PTSD assessment and DNA methylation testing.
- The results revealed 11 specific DNA methylation sites associated with PTSD, and found similarities in methylation patterns between blood and brain tissues, suggesting a biological basis for the condition.