Brain Reactivity and Vulnerability to Social Feedback Following Acute Stress in Early Adolescence.

Introduction: Early adolescence is a time of high psychosocial stress exposure and high stress reactivity, associated with the development of mental disorders. Understanding how the brain reacts to acute and social stressors during this period might help us detect and protect those at risk.

Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate acute social stress reactivity in non-clinical adolescents between ages 13 and 15 years (N = 61) with a range of depression scores (Beck Depression Inventory scores 0-32).

Improving Pathways to Care for Patients at High Psychosis Risk in Switzerland: PsyYoung Study Protocol.

Aims: Psychotic disorders are one of the main causes of chronic disability in young people. An at-risk mental state (ARMS) is represented by subclinical symptoms that precede the first episode of psychosis (FEP). The PsyYoung project aims to optimize the detection of an ARMS while reducing unnecessary psychiatric treatments.

On the complex and dimensional relationship of maternal posttraumatic stress disorder during early childhood and child outcomes at school-age.

Background: Several studies have shown associations between maternal interpersonal violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), child mental health problems, and impaired socioemotional development. However, the existing literature lacks evidence linking constellations of risk factors such as maternal interpersonal-violence-related PTSD, psychopathology, and interactive behavior with toddlers and outcome measures at school-age.

Methods: This study involved a prospective, longitudinal investigation of 62 mothers and examined the relationship between maternal variables measured when children were in early childhood (mean age 27 months), and child outcomes when children were school-age (age mean = 83.

Families With Violence Exposure and the Intergenerational Transmission of Somatization.

Introduction: Adults who have histories of childhood trauma have been noted to display greater somatization, dissociative symptoms and affect dysregulation. What happens in the parent-child relationship when those traumatized children become parents? A potential link to somatization in the child has been suggested by several prior studies. Children who have early attachment disturbances had more physical complaints if their mothers displayed less maternal sensitivity during observed parent-child interactions.