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Investigating Shared Cardiovascular Factors and Genetic Overlap of Pregnancy-Related Disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, and Alzheimer’s Disease

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

In their latest work, Oppenheimer and colleagues found that shared cardiovascular factors genetically link pregnancy-related disorders with major depressive disorder and Alzheimer's disease, highlighting BMI as a crucial modifiable factor for prevention.

GABAergic neuroactive steroids and network states: relevance to peripartum depression

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

In this review, Maguire and colleagues review how neuroactive steroids like allopregnanolone prepare the maternal brain and how their disruption contributes to peripartum depression by altering GABAergic signaling and brain networks.

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of allopregnanolone analogs, which function as positive allosteric modulators at GABAA receptors, for the treatment of postpartum depression is a major adva...

Transcriptional profiling of the cortico-accumbal pathway reveals sex-specific alterations underlying stress susceptibility

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

Latest work by Pessoni and colleagues finds that chronic stress induces sex-specific transcriptional alterations in mPFC neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens, with the Xlr4b gene driving stress susceptibility in males but not females.

Anxiety and depressive disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD), affect millions of people every year, imposing significant socio-economic burdens and highlighting the need to better under...

Sex differences in brain cell-type specific chromatin accessibility in schizophrenia

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

Examining sex differences in chromatin accessibility in schizophrenia, Ma and colleagues found that sex-specific enhancer-promoter interactions regulate genes involved in X-chromosome inactivation, contributing to the disorder.

Our understanding of the sex-specific role of the non-coding genome in serious mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia (SCZ), remains largely incomplete.

A framework for advancing mechanistic neuro-behavioral biomarkers in psychiatry

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

In this review, @kangjoolee.bsky.social and colleagues propose a provisional formalism, considering mechanism type, severity, and time, to map neuropsychiatric behavioral pathology to its underlying dynamic neural mechanisms to advance the development of precision treatments.

Neuropsychiatry has yet to surmount the fundamental challenge of mapping behavioral pathology to its underlying neural pathology. This gap limits the development of treatments for specific circuit pat...

Geographic measures of early life course social exposome in the evaluation of structural neuroanatomy: A scoping review

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

In this scoping review, Melcher and colleagues find that adverse, geospatially defined early-life social exposome exposures are consistently linked to altered structural neuroanatomy from infancy to late adolescence, emphasizing their impact on brain development and disease risk.

Life course social exposome exposures may influence structural neuroanatomy in early-life thereby altering risk and protective factors implicated in the biological mechanisms of disease. The literatur...

www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org

Limbic System White Matter in Children and Adolescents with ADHD: A Longitudinal Diffusion MRI Analysis

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

Using diffusion MRI, Connaughton and colleagues show that ADHD is characterized by disrupted white matter in the limbic system, particularly in the cingulum bundle from childhood to adolescence, with symptom severity linked to fewer and less efficient limbic connections.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasingly recognized as a disorder linked to atypical white matter development across large-scale brain networks. However, current research predom...

www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org

A Placebo-Controlled Randomized Trial of the Effects of Escitalopram on Depressive Symptoms and Immune Function in People with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

Evans and colleagues demonstrated that while depressive symptoms improved substantially in people with HIV receiving either an SSRI or placebo alongside computer-assisted CBT, there was no significant difference between the two treatments, nor any evidence of direct immunologic benefits.

This study was a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and improvement in depressive symptoms on innate immunity and inflammation in ...

Emotional Blunting and Time Estimation in Depression

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

Mura and colleagues find that depressive symptoms disrupt the typical emotional modulation of time perception. Instead, individuals with depressive symptoms show a unique link between EEG beta band brain activity and time estimates, particularly during neutral emotional states.

Various cognitive and emotional factors shape our perception of time. Notably, individuals experiencing depressive symptoms often report changes in their time perception, characterized by a phenomenon...

Stress-Induced Dysregulation of the Guidance Cue Receptor DCC Alters Corticolimbic Circuit Architecture

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 14h

Recent work from Mahmud and colleagues shows DCC receptors in the prefrontal cortex influence susceptibility to stress-induced depression-like behaviors in male mice by remodeling dendritic spines, particularly in neuron projecting to the nucleus accumbens.

www.bpsgos.org/article/S266...

Elevated expression of the guidance cue receptor gene DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer) in the adult prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a hallmark of major depressive disorder. DCC receptors regulate neurona...

La nicotine, bien plus qu’une molécule addictive ?

Reposted by Biological Psychiatry

CNRS Biologie @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social · 5d

#ResultatScientifique 🔎| Plus qu’une addiction : la nicotine augmente la motivation pour des récompenses naturelles sans accroître le plaisir, éclairant de nouveaux circuits cérébraux 🚬
✍️ Jacques Barik
📕 @biologicalpsych.bsky.social | buff.ly/hQScjfQ

Publiée dans Biological Psychiatry, une nouvelle étude met en lumière l’effet de la nicotine sur la motivation envers les récompenses naturelles.

www.insb.cnrs.fr

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Reposted by Biological Psychiatry

Kangjoo Lee @kangjoolee.bsky.social · 4d

🚀 Excited to share our new review article published in Biological Psychiatry (In Press)! doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...
💡 ❓ I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and ideas on how we can push the boundaries of psychiatric research together and make real clinical impact.

Redirecting

doi.org

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 10d

Can genetic testing effectively identify clinically significant variants for schizophrenia?

Find out more ⬇️

Aaron Besterman @abesterman.bsky.social · 10d

1/ 🚀 New paper out in @BiologicalPsyc1

“Clinical Genetic Testing in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”
We synthesize 31 studies to estimate how often clinical genetic testing returns positive results in schizophrenia.

www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000...

Clinical Genetic Testing in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Genetic testing may provide important diagnostic information for individuals with schizophrenia, but the frequency with which clinically significant variants are identified across different testing ap...

Investigating links between prenatal cannabis exposure and brain development using MRI techniques: a narrative review

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Reposted by Biological Psychiatry

ABCD-ReproNim @abcd-repronim.bsky.social · 11d

Want to learn more about the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study?👀 Check out the ABCD-ReproNim course! The Fall 2025 course is going on NOW✨ Students may have the opportunity to participate in the 2026 hackathon in Miami🏝️ For more info: abcd-repronim.org 🎉

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

In this narrative review of recent MRI studies, Gonçalves and colleagues found that while prenatal cannabis exposure is linked to brain differences from in utero to adolescence, diverse methodologies and confounding factors currently prevent a consistent understanding of its impact.

Understanding the impact of prenatal cannabis exposure (PCE) on brain development is increasingly important given the rising cannabis use in pregnancy. Many existing reviews on this topic are over fiv...

Predicting repetitive negative thinking in daily life: Insights from the brain-based graph-theoretical predictive modeling

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Using brain-based graph-theoretical predictive modeling, Schettino and colleagues identified specific properties within the default mode, frontoparietal, and limbic networks that accurately predict the severity, fluctuations, and clinical features of repetitive negative thinking in daily life.

Abnormalities in the functional connectivity of large-scale brain networks, including the default mode (DMN), salience (SN), fronto-parietal (FPN), and limbic networks, have been implicated in repetit...

www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org

A tale of two receptors: simultaneous targeting of NMDARs and 5-HT4Rs exerts additional effects against stress

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Latest work from @brikchen.bsky.social @drchristineannd.bsky.social and others shows that combining ketamine and prucalopride is more effective than either drug alone at reducing stress-induced physiology at the neural and behavioral levels, suggesting a promising new treatment approach.

Serotonin (5-HT) receptors and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) have been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety disorders. Here, we evaluated whether targeting both recept...

Task and resting state fMRI modelling of brain-behavior relationships in developmental cohorts

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

In this review, @lucinauddin.bsky.social and Hugh Garavan examine how task and resting-state fMRI can reveal brain-behavior relationships in youth, highlighting current controversies and challenges, outlining solutions, and proposing future directions in developmental neuroscience research.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data are often used to inform individual differences in cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric phenotypes. These so-called “brain-behavior” association stu...

digitaleditions.sheridan.com

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Check out the entire issue here:

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Commentary on Chowdhury et al. by Hossein

Changing the Channel: Effects of a KCNQ Channel Opener (Ezogabine) on the Functional Connectivity of Reward Circuitry

In recent years, researchers investigating depression have hoped that subtypes of depression would serve as a new north star of depression treatment research, guiding the way to novel treatments and t...

Effects of the KCNQ (Kv7) Channel Opener Ezogabine on Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Striatal Brain Reward Regions, Depression, and Anhedonia in Major Depressive Disorder: Results From a Ran...

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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Chowdhury et al. analyzed data from a RCT to demonstrate that ezogabine, a potassium channel opener, reduced depression and anhedonia symptoms by decreasing connectivity between reward and the mid/posterior cingulate regions.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with available treatments often showing limited efficacy. Recent research suggests that targeting specific subtypes of depre...

Heterogeneity Matters: Parsing One-to-One and Many-to-One Brain-Symptom Mappings in Depression

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Commentary on Hannon et al. by Rosso

The road to robust neural markers and precision treatments of depression runs through its heterogeneity. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a clinically defined syndrome recognized to reflect heteroge...

Parsing Clinical and Neurobiological Sources of Heterogeneity in Depression

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Hannon et al. found that depression subtypes with distinct clinical features show different brain imaging patterns, and some patients with identical presentations can have different neuroimaging profiles, revealing complex relationships between clinical and neurobiological heterogeneity.

Patients with depression vary from one another in their clinical and neuroimaging presentation, but the relationship between clinical and neuroimaging sources of variation is poorly understood. Determ...

Sex-Specific Vulnerabilities in the Kynurenine Pathway: Toward Precision Biomarkers for Adolescent Depression

Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 12d

Early Career Investigator Commentary on Nikkheslat et al. by Youn

The kynurenine (KYN) pathway has garnered increasing attention in psychiatry as a mechanism by which immune, endocrine, and neural signaling can be integrated (1). Under proinflammatory conditions, tr...