Person-level contributions of bipolar polygenic risk score to the prediction of new-onset bipolar disorder in at-risk offspring.

Background: Previous work indicates that polygenic risk scores (PRS) for bipolar disorder (BD) are elevated in adults and youth with BD, but whether BD-PRS can inform person-level diagnostic prediction is unknown. Here, we test whether BD-PRS improves performance of a previously published risk calculator (RC) for BD.

Methods: 156 parents with BD-I/II and their offspring ages 6-18 were recruited and evaluated with standardized diagnostic assessments every two years for >12 years.

Polygenic Scores and Onset of Major Mood or Psychotic Disorders Among Offspring of Affected Parents.

Objective: Family history is an established risk factor for mental illness. The authors sought to investigate whether polygenic scores (PGSs) can complement family history to improve identification of risk for major mood and psychotic disorders.

Methods: Eight cohorts were combined to create a sample of 1,884 participants ages 2-36 years, including 1,339 offspring of parents with mood or psychotic disorders, who were prospectively assessed with diagnostic interviews over an average of 5.

Role of Polygenic Risk Score in the Familial Transmission of Bipolar Disorder in Youth.

Importance: Establishing genetic contributions to the transmission of bipolar disorder (BD) from parents to offspring may inform the risk of developing this disorder and further serve to validate BD in youth.

Objective: To evaluate the specific association of BD polygenic risk scores (PRSs) on the familial transmission and validity of pediatric BD.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This community-based case-control longitudinal study (Pittsburgh Biological Offspring Study) included parents with BD I/II and their offspring and parents without BD (healthy or non-BD psychopathology) and their offspring.

Genetic counselling for the prevention of mental health consequences of cannabis use: A randomized controlled trial-within-cohort.

Background: Cannabis use is a risk factor for severe mental illness. However, cannabis does not affect everyone equally. Genetic information may help identify individuals who are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of cannabis on mental health.

Cognitive-behavioural interventions for prevention and treatment of anxiety in young children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Anxiety disorders are common and impairing throughout the life course. Propensity to anxiety disorders manifests as distress and avoidance of novel stimuli (called behavioural inhibition) as early as in infancy. Already in preschool children, anxiety disorders impact emotional development and school readiness.

Cognition in offspring of parents with psychotic and non-psychotic severe mental illness.

Background: Cognitive impairment is a feature of severe mental illness (SMI; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder). Psychotic forms of SMI may be associated with greater cognitive impairment, but it is unclear if this differential impairment pre-dates illness onset or whether it reflects a consequence of the disorder. To establish if there is a developmental impairment related to familial risk of psychotic SMI, we investigated cognition in offspring of parents with psychotic and non-psychotic SMI.

Youth Experience Tracker Instrument: A self-report measure of developmental antecedents to severe mental illness.

Aim: We sought to examine the structure, internal consistency, convergent and criterion validity of the Youth Experience Tracker Instrument (YETI), a new brief self-report measure designed to facilitate early identification of risk for severe forms of mental illness, including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

Methods: We collected 716 YETIs from 315 individuals aged 8 to 27 with and without familial risk of severe mental illness. The YETI measures six developmental antecedents that precede and predict serious forms of mental illness: affective lability, anxiety, basic symptoms, depressive symptoms, psychotic-like experiences, and sleep.

A Randomized Sham-controlled Trial of 1-Hz and 10-Hz Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Civilian Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Un essai randomisé contrôlé simulé de stimulation magnétique transcrânienne repetitive (SMTr) de 1 Hz et 10 Hz du cortex préfrontal dorsolatéral droit dans le trouble de stress post-traumatique chez des civils.

Objective: Despite effective psychological and pharmacological treatments, there is a large unmet burden of illness in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive intervention and a putative treatment strategy for PTSD. The evidence base to date suggests that rTMS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), in particular the right DLPFC, leads to improvements in PTSD symptoms.

Visual memory and psychotic symptoms in youth.

Background: Psychotic symptoms are common during childhood and adolescence and may indicate transdiagnostic risk of future psychiatric disorders. Lower visual memory ability has been suggested as a potential indicator of future risk of mental illness. The relationship between visual memory and clinician-confirmed definite psychotic symptoms in youth has not yet been explored.

Active behaviors and screen time in offspring of parents with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Activities may be modifiable factors that moderate the risk and resilience in the development of mental health and illness. Youth who spend more time using screens are more likely to have poor mental health. Conversely, time spent engaged in active behaviors (i.

Neurodevelopmental and genetic determinants of exposure to adversity among youth at risk for mental illness.

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and lower cognitive ability have been linked with increased likelihood of exposure to adversity. We hypothesized that these associations may be partly due to genetic factors.

Methods: We calculated polygenic scores for ADHD and intelligence and assessed psychopathology and general cognitive ability in a sample of 297 youth aged 5-27 years enriched for offspring of parents with mood and psychotic disorders.

Psychotic symptoms are associated with lower cortical folding in youth at risk for mental illness.

Background: Cortical folding is essential for healthy brain development. Previous studies have found regional reductions in cortical folding in adult patients with psychotic illness. It is unknown whether these neuroanatomical markers are present in youth with subclinical psychotic symptoms.

Basic symptoms in offspring of parents with mood and psychotic disorders.

Background: Basic symptoms, defined as subjectively perceived disturbances in thought, perception and other essential mental processes, have been established as a predictor of psychotic disorders. However, the relationship between basic symptoms and family history of a transdiagnostic range of severe mental illness, including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, has not been examined.

Aims: We sought to test whether non-severe mood disorders and severe mood and psychotic disorders in parents is associated with increased basic symptoms in their biological offspring.

Affective lability in offspring of parents with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Affective lability, defined as the propensity to experience excessive and unpredictable changes in mood, has been proposed as a potential transdiagnostic predictor of major mood and psychotic disorders. A parental diagnosis of bipolar disorder has been associated with increased affective lability in offspring. However, the association between affective lability and family history of other mood and psychotic disorders has not been examined.

Observed psychopathology in offspring of parents with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Background: Children of parents with mood and psychotic disorders are at elevated risk for a range of behavioral and emotional problems. However, as the usual reporter of psychopathology in children is the parent, reports of early problems in children of parents with mood and psychotic disorders may be biased by the parents' own experience of mental illness and their mental state.

Methods: Independent observers rated psychopathology using the Test Observation Form in 378 children and youth between the ages of 4 and 24 (mean = 11.

Sleep in Offspring of Parents With Mood Disorders.

Sleep problems in childhood are an early predictor of mood disorders among individuals at high familial risk. However, the majority of the research has focused on sleep disturbances in already diagnosed individuals and has largely neglected investigating potential differences between weeknight and weekend sleep in high-risk offspring. This study examined sleep parameters in offspring of parents with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder during both weeknights and weekends.

Like father like daughter: sex-specific parent-of-origin effects in the transmission of liability for psychotic symptoms to offspring.

Children of parents with major mood and psychotic disorders are at increased risk of psychopathology, including psychotic symptoms. It has been suggested that the risk of psychosis may be more often transmitted from parent to opposite-sex offspring (e.g.

Genetic disposition to inflammation and response to antidepressants in major depressive disorder.

Background: Inflammation may play an important role in depression and its treatment. A previous study found that increased C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation, is associated with worse response to the serotonergic antidepressant escitalopram and better response to the noradrenergic antidepressant nortriptyline. It is unclear whether this reflects genetic disposition to inflammation.

Gene-environment interplay in the etiology of psychosis.

Schizophrenia and other types of psychosis incur suffering, high health care costs and loss of human potential, due to the combination of early onset and poor response to treatment. Our ability to prevent or cure psychosis depends on knowledge of causal mechanisms. Molecular genetic studies show that thousands of common and rare variants contribute to the genetic risk for psychosis.

Marital satisfaction and divorce in couples in stepfamilies.

We review research and theory examining stress and coping in stepfamilies as predictors of marital quality and divorce. Although the divorce rate in first-marriages has stabilized after years of increase in North America, the divorce rate of remarriages continues to increase. We argue that depression and marital distress are both mechanisms through which stepfamily stress impacts marital stability, with parenting stressors particularly potent determinants of divorce.

Hot and cold executive functions in youth with psychotic symptoms.

Background: Psychotic symptoms are common in children and adolescents and may be early manifestations of liability to severe mental illness (SMI), including schizophrenia. SMI and psychotic symptoms are associated with impairment in executive functions. However, previous studies have not differentiated between 'cold' and 'hot' executive functions.

Etiology in psychiatry: embracing the reality of poly-gene-environmental causation of mental illness.

Intriguing findings on genetic and environmental causation suggest a need to reframe the etiology of mental disorders. Molecular genetics shows that thousands of common and rare genetic variants contribute to mental illness. Epidemiological studies have identified dozens of environmental exposures that are associated with psychopathology.