Publications by authors named "Rune Jonassen"

Article Synopsis
  • Over-the-counter analgesics (OTCA) have been shown to affect emotional processing, potentially increasing anxiety and depression symptoms.
  • The study investigates the relationship between OTCA use and attentional bias in women aged 19-30, revealing that those with high OTCA usage tended to avoid focusing on fearful stimuli more than those with low or no usage.
  • The results suggest a need for further research into how high OTCA usage relates to attentional bias and emotional health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Residual symptoms represent risk factor for relapse. Attention bias modification (ABM) may reduce clinical and sub-clinical depressive symptoms, indicating that is may be of relevance when preventing relapse. Current evidence suggests that executive functions may moderate the outcome of interventions targeting depressive symptoms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite most episodes of low back pain (LBP) being short-lasting, some transition into persistent long-lasting problems. Hence, the need for a deeper understanding of the physiological mechanisms of this is pertinent. Therefore, the aims of the present study are (1) to map pain-induced changes in brain activity and blood gene expression associated with persistent LBP, and (2) to explore whether these brain and gene expression signatures show promise as predictive biomarkers for the development of persistent LBP.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The use of over-the-counter analgesics (OTCA) is common among adolescents and has been linked with increased symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, little is known about which specific symptoms are most strongly connected to OTCA usage. The current study assessed which anxiety and depression symptoms were most closely associated with OTCA usage in a large sample of adolescents and examined whether this differed across genders.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & Objectives: Basic attentional control, negative biases in attention and interpretation, and rumination are all cognitive processes associated with depression; however, less is known about their predictive role in depressive mood reactivity and -recovery in response to stress, and their relation to severity of depression.

Design & Methods: We experimentally induced stress based on an autobiographical imagery script in a sample of 92 participants with Major Depressive Disorder with or without comorbid anxiety disorders. We used simple regression analysis for investigating the roles of state- and trait rumination, attentional networks, and attentional and interpretation biases for predicting stress-induced depressive mood reactivity and -recovery, respectively, and whether they in parallel mediated the association between cognitive processes and depression severity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The present study reports on long-term outcomes of ABM over one year in self-reported and clinician-rated depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and relapse rates.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind randomized sham-controlled trial in 301 participants with recurrent major depression disorder between January 2015 and October 2016 (#NCT02658682). Participants were allocated to ABM or sham condition twice daily for 14 consecutive days.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Studies investigating the long-term effect of attention bias modification (ABM) in clinical samples are lacking. This study investigates the 6-months follow-up effect of ABM on depressive symptoms in participant with major depressive disorder with and without comorbid disorders.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind randomized sham-controlled trial in 101 participants between 19 November 2019, and 17 August 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the differences in the morphology of the human cerebral cortex across various psychiatric disorders, suggesting that early growth patterns in the cortex may influence later variations in surface area and mental health outcomes.
  • Using data from over 27,000 MRI scans, researchers identified significant differences in cortical area among individuals with conditions like ADHD, schizophrenia, and major depression, particularly in association cortices linked to cognitive processing.
  • The findings indicate a correlation between these structural differences and prenatal gene expression related to cell types important for brain development, highlighting how prenatal factors may play a crucial role in the risk of developing mental illnesses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Abnormal default mode network (DMN) connectivity has been found in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. However, there are limited studies on early onset psychosis (EOP), and their results show lack of agreement. Here, we investigated within-network DMN connectivity in EOP compared to healthy controls (HC), and its relationship to clinical characteristics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Over-the-counter analgesics (OTCA) such as Paracetamol and Ibuprofen are frequently used by adolescents, and the route of administration and access at home allows unsupervised use. Psychological distress and pain occur simultaneously and are more common among females than among males. There is a dynamic interplay between on-label pain indications and psychological distress, and frequent OTCA use or misuse can exacerbate symptoms.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A recent meta-analysis has questioned the relevance of attention bias modification (ABM) for depression outcomes. However, there might be patient characteristics not yet accounted for, that are relevant to the outcome. In the context of personalized treatment, the lack of moderator studies have limited the potential for matching ABM-treatment to individual patient characteristics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is a pressing need to improve treatment, and clinical trials should not only focus on efficacy, but also on identifying the underlying mechanisms through which treatments operate. Treatment with a serotonergic antidepressant is commonly used to treat pediatric anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Serotonergic antidepressants require considerable time to induce clinically observed responses, and tolerability and efficacy are difficult to predict.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Large-scale neuroimaging studies show differences in cortical thickness in various psychiatric disorders, but the biological reasons for these differences are not fully understood.
  • - The study aimed to identify neurobiological correlates of cortical thickness variations between affected individuals and controls across six disorders: ADHD, ASD, BD, MDD, OCD, and schizophrenia.
  • - Using data from 145 cohorts and advanced imaging techniques, the analysis revealed distinct patterns of cortical thickness associated with specific gene expressions in disorders, involving a total of over 28,000 participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Brainstem regions support vital bodily functions, yet their genetic architectures and involvement in common brain disorders remain understudied. Here, using imaging-genetics data from a discovery sample of 27,034 individuals, we identify 45 brainstem-associated genetic loci, including the first linked to midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata volumes, and map them to 305 genes. In a replication sample of 7432 participants most of the loci show the same effect direction and are significant at a nominal threshold.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A key objective in the field of translational psychiatry over the past few decades has been to identify the brain correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD). Identifying measurable indicators of brain processes associated with MDD could facilitate the detection of individuals at risk, and the development of novel treatments, the monitoring of treatment effects, and predicting who might benefit most from treatments that target specific brain mechanisms. However, despite intensive neuroimaging research towards this effort, underpowered studies and a lack of reproducible findings have hindered progress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Mental disorders and individual characteristics such as intelligence and personality are complex traits sharing a largely unknown neuronal basis. Their genetic architectures are highly polygenic and overlapping, which is supported by heterogeneous phenotypic expression and substantial clinical overlap. Brain network analysis provides a noninvasive means of dissecting biological heterogeneity, yet its sensitivity, specificity, and validity in assessing individual characteristics relevant for brain function and mental health and their genetic underpinnings in clinical applications remain a challenge.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Previous structural and functional neuroimaging studies have implicated distributed brain regions and networks in depression. However, there are no robust imaging biomarkers that are specific to depression, which may be due to clinical heterogeneity and neurobiological complexity. A dimensional approach and fusion of imaging modalities may yield a more coherent view of the neuronal correlates of depression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Depression is a highly recurrent disorder with limited treatment alternatives for reducing risk of subsequent episodes. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and attention bias modification (ABM) separately have shown some promise in reducing depressive symptoms. This study investigates (a) if group-based ACT had a greater impact in reducing residual symptoms of depression over a 12-month follow-up than a control condition, and (b) if preceding ACT with ABM produced added benefits.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Common risk factors for psychiatric and other brain disorders are likely to converge on biological pathways influencing the development and maintenance of brain structure and function across life. Using structural MRI data from 45,615 individuals aged 3-96 years, we demonstrate distinct patterns of apparent brain aging in several brain disorders and reveal genetic pleiotropy between apparent brain aging in healthy individuals and common brain disorders.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Attentional bias modification (ABM) may lead to more adaptive emotion perception and emotion regulation. Understanding the neural basis of these effects may lead to greater precision for the development of future treatments. Task-related functional MRI (fMRI) after ABM training has not been investigated in depression so far.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Following treatment, many depressed patients have significant residual symptoms. However, large randomised controlled trials (RCT) in this population are lacking. When Attention bias modification training (ABM) leads to more positive emotional biases, associated changes in clinical symptoms have been reported.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alterations in resting state networks (RSNs) are associated with emotional- and attentional control difficulties in depressed individuals. Attentional bias modification (ABM) training may lead to more adaptive emotional processing in depression, but little is known about the neural underpinnings associated with ABM. In the current study a sample of 134 previously depressed individuals were randomized into 14 days of computerized ABM- or a closely matched placebo training regime followed by a resting state magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF