The Psychoexposome: A holistic perspective beyond health and disease.

BACKGROUND: The concept of the exposome has emerged as a new strategy for studying all environmental exposures throughout an individual’s life and their impact on human health. Nowadays, electronic devices are available to collect data about an individual’s geolocation, biological function, or exposure biomarkers. The appearance of “omic” sciences and advances in bioinformatics have allowed massive data-gathering and analysis from various scientific fields. OBJECTIVE: to propose the term Psychoexposome in line with the concept of the exposome from the field of environmental sciences. METHOD: a literature review of psychological terms associated with the exposome concept was carried out and the rationale and benefits of a psychoexposme approach for psychological sciences is discussed. RESULTS: the terms psychology, psychiatry and neurological diseases are scarce in the exposome approach. A long tradition in psychology of performing epidemiological studies and in the study of multifactorial influences traits places psychologists at an advantageous starting point for conducting psychoexposome studies. CONCLUSION: psychology may take advantage from both exposome and omic sciences to create an integrated psychoexposome approach that may help in deciphering the etiology of psychological disorders and improving people’s mental health.

Tipología circadiana y problemas de salud mental / Circadian typology and problems in mental health

La tipología circadiana (matutina, vespertina o intermedia) es una diferencia individual que se ha relacionado con numerosos aspectos de la salud mental. En este estudio se revisan los principales hallazgos publicados en el área. Tras la búsqueda bibliográfica en las principales bases de datos se seleccionaron un total de 70 artículos publicados en castellano e inglés entre los años 1990 y 2012, recogidos en las bases de datos ISI, Scopus y Medline, donde se muestra que los individuos vespertinos presentan una mayor prevalencia de trastorno afectivo estacional, depresión mayor, trastorno bipolar, esquizofrenia, trastornos de la conducta alimentaria, trastornos del sueño, conductas adictivas, TDAH y mayores niveles de ansiedad que los matutinos. La tipología vespertina se perfila como un factor de riesgo y la matutina como un factor protector para el desarrollo de diversas psicopatologías, apuntándose como posibles causas polimorfismos de los genes reloj, el jet-lag social y algunos rasgos de personalidad. La tipología circadiana debe considerarse en la evaluación, tratamiento y prevención de las psicopatologías, pues afecta al inicio, curso, remisión y recaída de las mismas. La utilización de terapia cronobiológica es un factor a tener en cuenta en el abordaje terapéutico cuando la expresión rítmica circadiana se halla alterada

Circadian typology (morning-type, neither-type, and evening-type) is an individual difference which has been related to numerous aspects of mental health. In this paper we present a review of the findings published on this topic. After searching in the main databases a total number of 70 works were selected, published in Spanish and English from 1990 to 2012 collected in the databases ISI, Scopus and Medline. These works show that individuals with evening-type typology exhibit a greater prevalence of seasonal affective disorder, mayor depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, sleep disorders, addictive behaviours, ADHD, and higher anxiety levels than morning-type typology individuals. In this sense, the evening-type is considered as a factor of risk whereas the morning-type would be a protective factor for the development of several mental disorders. This could be a result of clock gene polymorphisms, social jet lag and some personality traits. Circadian typology must be considered in the evaluation, treatment and prevention of the mental disorders, as it affects to the start, course, remission and relapse of diverse problems of mental health. Chronobiological therapy must be also considered in the therapeutic approaching when the circadian rhythmical expression is altered