Psychoneuroendocrinology最新文献

Objectives

Approximately one in five adults experiences chronic pain, often in co-occurrence with depression, insomnia, anxiety, and lower self-rated health. Elevated levels of cytokines, e.g. tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 8 (IL-8), and interleukin 10 (IL-10), have been identified in patients with chronic pain. Depression, insufficient sleep, poor self-rated health, and pain intensity have also been associated with inflammatory biomarkers. This study aimed to investigate the interrelationships between inflammatory biomarkers and depression, insomnia, anxiety, self-rated health, sickness behavior, and pain intensity in patients with chronic pain.

Methods

Self-report questionnaires and blood samples analyzed for plasma levels of inflammatory biomarkers were collected from 80 adult patients with chronic pain. Associations between inflammatory biomarkers (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)) and depression, insomnia, anxiety, self-rated health, sickness behavior, and pain intensity, were analyzed using bivariate Spearman rank correlation coefficients and regression analyses.

Results

Participants were mainly women (72.5 %), with a mean age of 50.8 years, and a reported mean pain duration of 16.7 years. There were significant correlations between insomnia and CRP (r_s =.26, p <.05); sex and ESR (r_s =.29, p <.05); age and IL-6 (r_s =.29, p <.05) and IL-8 (r_s =.30, p <.05); BMI and IL-6 (r_s =.50, p <.001), CRP (r_s =.63, p <.001) and ESR (r_s =.42, p <.001). Ratings of depression were positively and significantly related to ratings of sickness behavior and anxiety (β =.32 and β =.40, respectively), explaining 49 % of the total variance in depression ratings. Insomnia was positively and significantly related to sickness behavior (β =.37) explaining 31 % of the total variance in insomnia ratings. Inflammatory biomarkers, however, did not contribute significantly to the models.

Conclusions

Participants reported high levels of symptoms, yet the associations between these ratings and the inflammatory biomarkers were either absent or weak. Also, despite high levels of self-reported sickness behavior, overall the inflammatory status remained within the normal range. Ratings of sickness behavior contributed more than inflammatory markers in explaining ratings of depression and insomnia. The present results point to the complexity of chronic pain, and the challenges of identifying biomarkers that explain symptomatology.

Hormonal changes in ovarian hormones like estradiol (E2) during the menstrual cycle affect emotional processes, including emotion recognition, memory, and regulation. So far, the neural underpinnings of the effect of E2 on emotional experience have been investigated using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional connectivity. In the present study, we examined whether the intrinsic network dynamics at rest (i.e., directed effective connectivity) related to emotion regulation are (1) modulated by E2 levels and (2) linked to behavioral emotion regulation ability. Hence, 29 naturally cycling women participated in two resting-state fMRI scans in their early follicular phase after being administered a placebo or an E2 valerate, respectively. Emotion regulation ability was assessed using a standard emotion regulation task in which participants were asked to down-regulate their emotions in response to negative images. The regions of two functionally predefined neural networks related to emotional down-regulation and reactivity were used to investigate effective connectivity at rest using spectral dynamic causal modelling. We found that E2, compared to placebo, resulted in changes in effective connectivity in both networks. In the regulation network, prefrontal regions showed distinct connectivity in the E2 compared to the placebo condition, while mixed results evolved in the emotional reactivity network. Stepwise regressions revealed that in the E2 condition a connection from the parietal to the prefrontal cortex predicted regulation ability. Our results demonstrate that E2 levels influence effective connectivity in networks underlying emotion regulation and emotional reactivity. Thus, E2 and its potential modification via hormonal administration may play a supporting role in the treatment of mental disorders that show a dysregulation of emotions.

Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, resulting from deficits in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. Whilst the role of insulin in the peripheral nervous system has been ascertained in countless studies, its role in the central nervous system (CNS) is emerging only recently. Brain insulin has been lately associated with brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, obsessive compulsive disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Thus, understanding the role of insulin as a common risk factor for mental and somatic comorbidities may disclose novel preventative and therapeutic approaches. We evaluated general metabolism (glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, energy expenditure, lipid metabolism, and polydipsia) and cognitive capabilities (attention, cognitive flexibility, and memory), in adolescent, young adult, and adult male and female TALLYHO/JngJ mice (TH, previously reported to constitute a valid experimental model of T2DM due to impaired insulin signaling). Adult TH mice have also been studied for alterations in gut microbiota diversity and composition. While TH mice exhibited profound deficits in cognitive flexibility and altered glucose metabolism, we observed that these alterations emerged either much earlier (males) or independent of (females) a comprehensive constellation of symptoms, isomorphic to an overt T2DM-like phenotype (insulin resistance, polydipsia, higher energy expenditure, and altered lipid metabolism). We also observed significant sex-dependent alterations in gut microbiota alpha diversity and taxonomy in adult TH mice. Deficits in insulin signaling may represent a common risk factor for both T2DM and CNS-related deficits, which may stem from (partly) independent mechanisms.

Aim

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a highly prevalent phenomenon during adolescence. Nonetheless, research on predictors of the clinical course of NSSI over time is still scarce. The present study aimed at investigating the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning on the longitudinal course of NSSI.

Methods

In a sample of n = 51 help-seeking adolescents engaging in NSSI, diurnal cortisol secretion (CAR, cortisol awakening response; DSL, diurnal slope), hair cortisol concentrations and ACE were assessed at baseline. Clinical outcome was defined by change in the frequency of NSSI in the past 6 months measured 12 and 24 months after the baseline assessments. Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to test for effects of ACE and HPA axis functioning on the course of NSSI.

Results

ACE and HPA axis functioning did not show main but interaction effects in the prediction of NSSI frequency over time: Adolescents with a low severity of ACE and either an increased CAR or a flattened DSL showed a steep decline of NSSI frequency in the first year followed by a subsequent increase of NSSI frequency in the second year.

Conclusions

Our findings could be interpreted in the sense of high diurnal cortisol concentrations in the absence of ACE being favorable for clinical improvement on the short-term but bearing a risk of allostatic load and subsequent increase of NSSI frequency. In contrast, adolescents with severe ACE may benefit from elevated cortisol concentrations leading to slower but lasting decreases of NSSI frequency.

Increased sensitivity to ovarian hormone changes is implicated in the etiology of reproductive mood disorders across the female lifespan, including menstrually-related mood disorders, perinatal mood disorders, and perimenopausal depression. Developing a method to accurately quantify sensitivity to endogenous hormone fluctuations may therefore facilitate the prediction and prevention of these mental health conditions. Here, we propose one such method applying a synchrony analysis to compute time-lagged cross-correlations between repeated assessments of endogenous hormone levels and self-reported affect. We apply this method to a dataset containing frequent repeated assessments of affective symptoms and the urinary metabolites of estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) in 94 perimenopausal females. These preliminary findings suggest that, with further refinement and validation, the proposed method holds promise as a diagnostic tool to be used in clinical practice and to advance research investigating the etiology of reproductive mood disorders.

Background

The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is a system involved in stress and pregnancy regulation, and hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is a promising biomarker of its activity. Assessing factors that influence HCC in the prenatal period is critical to understand whether and how HPA axis (dys-)regulation influences maternal health and child development, particularly in high-risk populations from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Aims

This study aimed at characterizing preconception and pregnancy HCC with respect to multiple sociodemographic, pregnancy-related, and hair-related factors.

Methods

In a sample of N = 2581 pregnant women in Perú, participants from two cohort studies provided a 6 cm scalp hair sample at three prenatal timepoints. Each hair sample was cut into two segments of 3 cm that represent cortisol secretion at four times: preconception, first-, second- and third trimester of pregnancy. Hair cortisol was extracted using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Spearman correlations, paired t-tests, and ANOVA were used to assess differences in log-transformed values of HCC (logHCC) across maternal sociodemographic, pregnancy-related, and hair-related factors. Multivariable linear regressions were used to examine independent associations of HCCs with selected correlates.

Results

Mean logHCC values showed an increase across the four prenatal periods. Preconception BMI was consistently associated with HCC in all three trimesters, while difficulty accessing basic foods, education, hair dyeing, and infant sex showed time-specific associations with HCCs. In sensitivity analyses, we detected no substantial segment effects in the associations of HCCs with maternal characteristics.

Conclusion

This study is the largest to characterize HCC in pregnant women from a LMIC. Our findings provide a foundation for the use of HCC as a biomarker of prenatal HPA axis activity for future studies. This foundation may contribute to finding valid biomarkers of stress-response systems to promote maternal and child health.

Exhaustion disorder (ED) is a stress-related disorder characterized by physical and mental symptoms of exhaustion. Recent data suggest that pathophysiological processes in the central nervous system are involved in the biological mechanisms underlying ED. The aims of this study were to investigate if plasma levels of neuro-related proteins differ between patients with ED and healthy controls, and, if so, to investigate if these differences persist over time. Using the Olink Neuro Exploratory panel, we quantified the plasma levels of 92 neuro-related proteins in 163 ED patients at the time of diagnosis (baseline), 149 patients at long-term follow-up (7–12 years later, median follow-up time 9 years and 5 months), and 100 healthy controls. We found that the plasma levels of 40 proteins were significantly higher in the ED group at baseline compared with the control group. Out of these, the plasma levels of 36 proteins were significantly lower in the ED group at follow-up compared with the same group at baseline and the plasma levels of four proteins did not significantly differ between the groups. At follow-up, the plasma levels of two proteins were significantly lower in the ED group compared with the control group. These data support the hypothesis that pathophysiological processes in the central nervous system are involved in the biological mechanisms underlying ED.

Objective

To examine the longitudinal associations between irisin and executive function among children, as well as the sex difference in this correlation.

Methods

The study involving 330 children aged 6–10 years conducted in Guangzhou, China. Baseline surveys and fasting blood samples were collected in 2017. Plasma irisin concentration was measured using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Executive function was assessed by the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) scale in 2017 and followed up after 2 years. Multivariable linear regression was used for association analysis.

Results

The plasma irisin concentration was 9.04±2.18 ng/mL. There was no statistical difference in plasma irisin and change values of BRIEF T-scores between boys and girls. No significant associations were found between plasma irisin and change values of BRIEF T-scores (P > 0.05) in the overall sample. Further subgroup analyses according to sex revealed that plasma irisin was negatively associated with change values of behavior regulation index (BRI, β=-0.521, 95 %CI: −1.036 ∼ −0.006), emotional control (β=-0.649, 95 %CI: −1.249 ∼ −0.049), working memory T-scores (β=-0.774, 95 %CI: −1.350 ∼ −0.199) in girls. Moreover, we firstly identified a sex effect modification in the association of plasma irisin with change values of working memory T-score (P_interference=0.012).

Conclusions

Higher irisin concentration was associated with better executive function performance in girls. Further studies that included populations in other regions or countries are needed to confirm these findings.