Publications by authors named "Rhiannon Thompson"
Background: Although there is increasing evidence that environmental exposures are associated with the risk of neurodegenerative conditions, there is still limited mechanistic evidence evaluating potential mediators in human populations.
Methods: UK Biobank is a large long-term study of 500,000 adults enrolled from 2006 to 2010 age 40-69 years. ICD-10 classified reports of dementia cases up to 2022 (Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, dementia in other classified diseases, and unspecified dementia) were identified from health record linkage.
Background: There is increasing evidence that air pollution and noise may have detrimental psychological impacts, but there are few studies evaluating adolescents, ground-level ozone exposure, multi-exposure models, or metrics beyond outdoor residential exposure. This study aimed to address these gaps.
Methods: Annual air pollution and traffic noise exposure at home and school were modelled for adolescents in the Greater London SCAMP cohort (N=7555).
This study explores how young people's mental health was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic using artwork and semi-structured interviews. The mental health impacts of the pandemic are important to understand so that policy and practice professionals can support those affected, prepare and respond to future crises, and support young people who are isolated and restricted in other contexts. Co-designed participatory art workshops and interviews were conducted with 16-18-year-olds ( = 21, 62% female) from the London-based Longitudinal cohort Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (SCAMP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adolescents are susceptible to mental illness and have experienced substantial disruption owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital environment is increasingly important in the context of a pandemic when in-person social connection is restricted.
Objective: This study aims to estimate whether depression and anxiety had worsened compared with the prepandemic period and examine potential associations with sociodemographic characteristics and behavioral factors, particularly digital behaviors.
Background: Increasing evidence indicates that ambient outdoor temperature could affect mental health, which is especially concerning in the context of climate change. We aimed to comprehensively analyse the current evidence regarding the associations between ambient temperature and mental health outcomes.
Methods: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence regarding associations between ambient outdoor temperature and changes in mental health outcomes.
Background: This systematic review summarises and evaluates the literature investigating associations between exposure to air pollution and general population cognition, which has important implications for health, social and economic inequalities, and human productivity.
Methods: The engines MEDLINE, Embase Classic+Embase, APA PsycInfo, and SCOPUS were searched up to May 2022. Our inclusion criteria focus on the following pollutants: particulate matter, NOx, and ozone.
Converging global evidence highlights the dire consequences of climate change for human mental health and wellbeing. This paper summarises literature across relevant disciplines to provide a comprehensive narrative review of the multiple pathways through which climate change interacts with mental health and wellbeing. Climate change acts as a risk amplifier by disrupting the conditions known to support good mental health, including socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions, and living and working conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are both significant and pressing global challenges, posing threats to public health and wellbeing. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the distress both crises can cause, but understanding of the varied psychological responses to both issues is poor. We aimed to investigate these responses and their links with mental health conditions and feelings of agency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdolescents' thoughts and feelings about the local and global environment: a qualitative interview study.
Child Adolesc Ment Health
February 2022
Background: Despite a recent increase in engagement with environmental issues among young people, their impact upon adolescent mental health and wellbeing is not yet fully understood. Therefore, this study aimed to explore adolescents' thoughts and feelings about current environmental issues.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 15 UK-based adolescents aged 14-18 years (66.
Background: This systematic review provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent epidemiological evidence that environmental noise negatively impacts human cognition.
Methods: We update a prior review with recent publications (PROSPERO CRD42019151923). The strength of evidence for associations was assessed using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) framework.
Introduction: The impact of age on hallucination-proneness within healthy adult cohorts and its relation to underlying cognitive mechanisms is underexplored. Based on previously researched trends in relation to cognitive ageing, we hypothesised that older and younger adults, when compared to a middle adult age group, would show differential relations between hallucination-proneness and cognitive performance.
Methods: A mixed methods, between-groups study was conducted with 30 young adults, 26 older adults, and 27 from a "middle adulthood" group.
c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling contributes to functional plasticity in the brain and cognition. Accumulating evidence implicates a role for MAP kinase kinase 7 (MAP2K7), a JNK activator encoded by the Map2k7 gene, and other JNK pathway components in schizophrenia (ScZ). Mice haploinsufficient for Map2k7 (Map2k7+/- mice) display ScZ-relevant cognitive deficits, although the mechanisms are unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Schizophrenia is linked to genetic factors and altered glutamatergic function, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, and a specific gene called MAP2K7 is supported as a potential contributor to the disease.
- In studies of post-mortem brain tissue, lower levels of MAP2K7 were found in individuals with schizophrenia, and mice with a single Map2k7 gene deletion displayed working memory issues similar to cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia.
- Genetic association studies from Glasgow and Northern European populations indicated a significant relationship between a common variant of MAP2K7 and schizophrenia, suggesting that dysfunction of the MAP2K7 signaling pathway may play a role in the neurochemical changes associated with the disorder.
Objective: In the present study, we employ mathematical modeling (partial least squares regression, PLSR) to elucidate the functional connectivity signatures of discrete brain regions in order to identify the functional networks subserving PCP-induced disruption of distinct cognitive functions and their restoration by the procognitive drug modafinil.
Methods: We examine the functional connectivity signatures of discrete brain regions that show overt alterations in metabolism, as measured by semiquantitative 2-deoxyglucose autoradiography, in an animal model (subchronic phencyclidine [PCP] treatment), which shows cognitive inflexibility with relevance to the cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia.
Results: We identify the specific components of functional connectivity that contribute to the rescue of this cognitive inflexibility and to the restoration of overt cerebral metabolism by modafinil.