Torture Exposure Modulates Cognitive Control and Attention Neural Network Connectivity During a Go/NoGo Task.

Background: Torture trauma is characterized by intentional uncontrollable acts, but the long-term effects of torture exposure on cognitive control brain mechanisms are unknown.

Methods: A final sample of 33 torture survivors (TSs) and 44 non-TSs, all with a refugee background, completed a Go/NoGo response inhibition task during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Data-driven independent component analysis identified active networks across the task and on Go, NoGo, and error of commission trials.

Opponent intrinsic brain network connectivity profiles associated with posttraumatic fear and dysphoria symptoms in trauma-exposed refugees.

Objective: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) studies report functional alterations in the connectivity between intrinsic brain networks in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but PTSD heterogeneity is rarely considered. Evidence points to fear (e.g.

Refugee visa insecurity disrupts the brain's default mode network.

Background: Research has largely focused on the psychological consequences of refugee trauma exposure, but refugees living with visa insecurity face an uncertain future that also adversely affects psychological functioning and self-determination.

Objective: This study aimed to examine how refugee visa insecurity affects the functional brain.

Method: We measured resting state brain activity via fMRI in 47 refugees with insecure visas (i.

Significant age by childhood trauma interactions on grey matter volumes: A whole brain VBM analysis.

Background: Childhood trauma is deleterious to long term brain development. The changes are variable, and depend on gender, age and the nature of the trauma. In this exploratory analysis, we investigated the effects of exposure to emotional trauma on grey matter (GM) volumes in adolescent females.

Torture exposure and the functional brain: investigating disruptions to intrinsic network connectivity using resting state fMRI.

Torture has profound psychological and physiological consequences for survivors. While some brain structures and functions appear altered in torture survivors, it is unclear how torture exposure influences functional connectivity within and between core intrinsic brain networks. In this study, 37 torture survivors (TS) and 62 non-torture survivors (NTS) participated in a resting-state fMRI scan.

Activating the attachment system modulates neural responses to threat in refugees with PTSD.

Social attachment systems are disrupted for refugees through trauma and forced displacement. This study tested how the attachment system mitigates neural responses to threat in refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Refugees with PTSD (N = 28) and refugee trauma-exposed controls (N = 22) viewed threat-related stimuli primed by attachment cues during a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan.

Irritability and mood symptoms in adolescent girls: Trait anxiety and emotion dysregulation as mediators.

Background: Irritability is a common symptom in youth that is thought to be predictive of mood disorders. Its effects on mood are likely to be age-dependent, with direct and indirect mediators. We assessed age-related effects and mediators of irritability in adolescent girls with subthreshold depressive and manic symptoms.

Eating disorder features in bipolar disorder: clinical implications.

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with elevated rates of eating disorders (EDs), but the nature and impact of specific ED features are unclear.

Aims: This study sought to identify which ED features are common in BD, and whether these relate to quality of life (QoL) impairment and body mass index (BMI).

Method: A clinical sample of 73 adults with BD completed self-report measures of health, ED features, emotion regulation ability, impulsivity, and QoL.

"The Food Matches the Mood": Experiences of Eating Disorders in Bipolar Disorder.

Approximately 33% of those with bipolar disorder (BD) have a comorbid eating disorder (ED). However, the trajectory of these conditions has received little research attention. Nine participants who met criteria for BD and an ED participated in qualitative interviews exploring experiences of illness onset, the interaction of these conditions, and service provision.

The impact of torture on interpersonal threat and reward neurocircuitry.

Objective: Torture adversely influences emotional functioning, but the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning its impact are unknown. This study examined how torture exposure affects the neural substrates of interpersonal threat and reward processing.

Methods: Male refugees with ( = 31) and without ( = 27) torture exposure completed a clinical interview and functional magnetic resonance imaging scan where they viewed fear, happy and neutral faces.

Lithium therapy and its interactions.

Lithium is one of the most effective mood stabilisers for people with a mood disorder. However, many of these patients are also taking other medicines that could potentially interact with lithium To minimise the risk of relapse, it is usually necessary to maintain the lithium serum concentration between 0.6 mmol/L and 0.

Cognitive side-effects of electroconvulsive therapy: what are they, how to monitor them and what to tell patients.

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is recommended in treatment guidelines as an efficacious therapy for treatment-resistant depression. However, it has been associated with loss of autobiographical memory and short-term reduction in new learning.

Aims: To provide clinically useful guidelines to aid clinicians in informing patients regarding the cognitive side-effects of ECT and in monitoring these during a course of ECT, using complex data.

Role of self-focussed reappraisal of negative emotion in emergence of emotional symptoms in adolescent girls.

Background: Adolescent subthreshold emotional symptoms arise from impaired self-referential information-processing and approach-avoidance behaviour network integration, which compromises goal evaluation and pursuit strategies.

Aims: We investigated whether impairment of negative emotion (goal) reappraisal strategies (self-focussing and self-distancing) generates emotional symptoms (emotional disorders precursors).

Method: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a triple-network model (default mode, executive control and salience), functional connectivity differences within and between networks, and their modulation by task and relationships with emotional symptoms were determined in healthy adolescent girls (N = 202) grouped by presence or absence of emotional symptoms.

Interactions of OXTR rs53576 and emotional trauma on hippocampal volumes and perceived social support in adolescent girls.

Oxytocin (OXT) is a neuropeptide involved in social behaviour and is sensitive to environmental influences to alter individual vulnerability or resilience to stress resulting in both negative and positive outcomes. The effects of the OXT receptor (OXTR) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs53576 on hippocampal and amygdala structure and functions in adults are differentially associated with susceptibility to adversity and social behaviours, but this evidence is lacking in healthy adolescents. Adolescence is a developmental period characterised by neurobiological and psychosocial changes resulting in higher susceptibility to mood disorders, particularly among girls.

Switching antidepressants in the treatment of major depression: When, how and what to switch to?

Background: Switching antidepressant medications is recommended when an initial antidepressant is not effective, when it is unable to be tolerated or when there are significant drug interactions. The aim of this paper is to review the evidence regarding when to switch antidepressants and the optimal approach to switching.

Methods: Clinical and academic experts in mood disorders from Australia and New Zealand (Treatment Algorithm Group, TAG) met to discuss the key considerations regarding switching antidepressants in the treatment of depression and formulate recommendations about switching strategies.

Getting irritable about irritability?

Despite irritability being considered a symptom of several psychiatric disorders, there is no standardised definition or measurement of the construct within psychiatry. This lack of definition is in part due to a fundamental lack of understanding of what it means to be irritable and the foundational mechanisms that lead to its manifestation. This then poses a cyclical problem, whereby because the concept of irritability is poorly defined and is defined variably in different contexts, research utilising these various definitions and measures is inherently inconsistent.