Maternal Parenting Stress, Disengagement Strategies for Managing Parenting Stress, and Hazardous Alcohol Use among Mothers of Adolescents.

Objective: According to the reward- stress dysregulation model of addiction and parenting, parenting stress may play a critical role in the etiology and maintenance of substance misuse. To date, limited work has examined how parenting stress may relate to hazardous alcohol use among mothers of adolescents. The present study examined if parenting stress interacted with maternal stress responses (i.e., disengagement coping, involuntary disengagement stress responses) in relation to maternal hazardous alcohol use. Method: Two hundred and fifty-three mothers (n = 147 hazardous alcohol users; 58% of the sample) of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 years participated in the current study. Mothers were recruited using Qualtrics panel services. Mothers reported on their parenting stress, strategies for managing parenting stress, and use of alcohol. Mothers also reported basic demographic information (Mage = 41.10 years, 86.6% identified as white, 81.1% of mothers were married). Interaction analyses were used to test hypotheses. Results: Maternal parenting stress interacted with maternal involuntary disengagement stress responses in relation to maternal hazardous alcohol use, such that at average and high levels of disengagement stress responses, parenting stress was associated with hazardous alcohol use. These results were robust to covariates (i.e., family income, maternal anxiety symptoms, maternal depressive symptoms, general levels of maternal stress, maternal cigarette use). Maternal disengagement coping strategies were not related to maternal hazardous alcohol use. Conclusion: Results suggest that parenting stress and involuntary disengagement stress responses may be associated with hazardous alcohol use among mothers of adolescents.

An initial examination of the associations between appearance-related safety behaviors, socioemotional, and body dysmorphia symptoms during adolescence.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescence is characterized by the onset of a relatively specific set of socioemotional disorders (i.e., depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and eating disorders) as well as body dysmorphia symptoms. Appearance-related concerns are a central feature of these disorders. Emerging evidence in adults suggests that appearance-related safety behaviors may play an instrumental role in the onset and maintenance of a number of disorders. To date, no work has examined appearance-related safety behaviors during adolescence. The present study examined the extent to which appearance-related safety behaviors may be associated with socioemotional and body dysmorphia symptoms during adolescence. METHODS: Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 years old (N = 387, Mage = 14.82 years, 31.3% identified as male, 47.0% identified as female, and 19.1% identified as nonbinary/third gender, 2.6% declined to report gender identity) completed measures assessing negative affect, anxiety-relevant safety behavior use, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, appearance-related safety behaviors, body dysmorphia symptoms, and socioemotional symptoms. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test hypotheses. RESULTS: The results of this study suggest that appearance-related safety behaviors evidenced associations with latent factors corresponding to affective (i.e., depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety), eating disorders, and body dysmorphia symptoms after controlling for previously established vulnerability factors. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that appearance-related safety behaviors may evidence transdiagnostic associations with socioemotional symptoms and body dysmorphia symptoms during adolescence.

Shared Neural Phenotypes for Mood and Anxiety Disorders A Meta-Analysis of 226 Task-Related Functional Imaging Studies.

(Appeared originally in JAMA Psychiatry 2020;77(2):172-179).

Cigarette use, anxiety, and insomnia from adolescence to early adulthood: A longitudinal indirect effects test.

BACKGROUND: Cigarette use during adolescence has been linked to increased risk for insomnia symptoms, but limited work has examined factors that may account for this association. Adolescent cigarette use and anxiety symptoms characterized by physiological hyperarousal evidence bidirectional associations, as do anxiety symptoms and insomnia symptoms. This suggests that adolescent cigarette use, anxiety symptoms characterized by physiological hyperarousal, and insomnia symptoms may increase and maintain one another. The current study tests physiological hyperarousal anxiety symptoms as a potential indirect effect in the cigarette-insomnia symptoms link across adolescence and young adulthood. METHODS: We examined data from adolescents and young adults from Waves 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 2,432 with full data). Insomnia symptoms were assessed at baseline (ages 12-16 years), 1 year later (13-17 years), and 14 years after baseline (26 - 30 years) among a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Cigarette use was assessed at baseline, 1 year later, 6 years after baseline, and 14 years after baseline. Anxiety symptoms were assessed at baseline and 1 year later. RESULTS: Structural equation models indicated that anxiety symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the longitudinal associations between adolescent cigarette use and adult insomnia symptoms. Anxiety symptoms and cigarette use evidenced bidirectional associations during adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that increases in anxiety symptoms characterized by physiological hyperarousal may be one mechanism whereby cigarette use during adolescence is associated with increased insomnia symptoms during early adulthood. Prevention efforts aimed at reducing cigarette use during adolescence may have long term additional benefits for anxiety symptoms and insomnia symptoms.

Pre-pandemic disgust proneness predicts increased coronavirus anxiety and safety behaviors: Evidence for a diathesis-stress model.

Although health anxiety and corresponding safety behaviors can facilitate disease transmission avoidance, they can be maladaptive in excess, including during the coronavirus pandemic. Disgust proneness (i.e., tendency to experience and be sensitive to disgust) is one factor that may predict elevated coronavirus anxiety and safety behaviors during the pandemic, given the role of disgust in avoiding disease transmission. The present study examined the relations between pre-pandemic disgust proneness and coronavirus anxiety and safety behaviors in community adults who completed a 2016 study and were re-contacted on 4/1/2020 (N = 360). Interactions between pre-pandemic disgust proneness and current perceived stress were tested to examine a diathesis-stress model of the role of disgust proneness in anxiety response to the pandemic. Increased pre-pandemic disgust proneness predicted increased coronavirus anxiety and safety behaviors, controlling for number of COVID-19 cases by state. Consistent with a diathesis-stress model, current perceived stress moderated this effect, such that highest coronavirus anxiety and safety behaviors were reported by those with high disgust proneness and high stress. Trait disgust proneness may be a vulnerability factor for anxiety responses to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly among individuals experiencing high stress. Assessing disgust proneness and current stress may facilitate targeted anxiety intervention during the pandemic.

Baseline brain structural and functional predictors of clinical outcome in the early course of schizophrenia.

Although schizophrenia is considered a brain disorder, the role of brain organization for symptomatic improvement remains inadequately defined. We investigated the relationship between baseline brain morphology, resting-state network connectivity and clinical response after 24-weeks of antipsychotic treatment in patients with schizophrenia (n = 95) using integrated multivariate analyses. There was no significant association between clinical response and measures of cortical thickness (r = 0.37, p = 0.98) and subcortical volume (r = 0.56, p = 0.15). By contrast, we identified a strong mode of covariation linking functional network connectivity to clinical response (r = 0.70; p = 0.04), and particularly to improvement in positive (weight = 0.62) and anxious/depressive symptoms (weight = 0.49). Higher internal cohesiveness of the default mode network was the single most important positive predictor. Key negative predictors involved the functional cohesiveness of central executive subnetworks anchored in the frontoparietal cortices and subcortical regions (including the thalamus and striatum) and the inter-network integration between the default mode and sensorimotor networks. The present findings establish links between clinical response and the functional organization of brain networks involved both in perception and in spontaneous and goal-directed cognition, thereby advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Shared Neural Phenotypes for Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-analysis of 226 Task-Related Functional Imaging Studies.

Importance: Major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders are highly comorbid and have shared clinical features. It is not yet known whether their clinical overlap is reflected at the neurobiological level. Objective: To detect transdiagnostic convergence in abnormalities in task-related brain activation. Data Source: Task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging articles published in PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar during the last decade comparing control individuals with patients with mood, posttraumatic stress, and anxiety disorders were examined. Study Selection: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses reporting guidelines, articles were selected if they reported stereotactic coordinates of whole-brain-based activation differences between adult patients and control individuals. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Coordinates of case-control differences coded by diagnosis and by cognitive domain based on the research domain criteria were analyzed using activation likelihood estimation. Main Outcomes and Measures: Identification of transdiagnostic clusters of aberrant activation and quantification of the contribution of diagnosis and cognitive domain to each cluster. Results: A total of 367 experiments (major depressive disorder, 149; bipolar disorder, 103; posttraumatic stress disorder, 55; and anxiety disorders, 60) were included comprising observations from 4507 patients and 4755 control individuals. Three right-sided clusters of hypoactivation were identified centered in the inferior prefrontal cortex/insula (volume, 2120 mm3), the inferior parietal lobule (volume, 1224 mm3), and the putamen (volume, 888 mm3); diagnostic differences were noted only in the putamen (χ23 = 8.66; P = .03), where hypoactivation was more likely in bipolar disorder (percentage contribution = 72.17%). Tasks associated with cognitive systems made the largest contribution to each cluster (percentage contributions >29%). Clusters of hyperactivation could only be detected using a less stringent threshold. These were centered in the perigenual/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (volume, 2208 mm3), the left amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus (volume, 2008 mm3), and the left thalamus (volume, 1904 mm3). No diagnostic differences were observed (χ23 < 3.06; P > .38), while tasks associated with negative valence systems made the largest contribution to each cluster (percentage contributions >49%). All findings were robust to the moderator effects of age, sex, and magnetic field strength of the scanner and medication. Conclusions and Relevance: In mood disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders, the most consistent transdiagnostic abnormalities in task-related brain activity converge in regions that are primarily associated with inhibitory control and salience processing. Targeting these shared neural phenotypes could potentially mitigate the risk of affective morbidity in the general population and improve outcomes in clinical populations.

Abnormal auditory tonotopy in patients with schizophrenia.

Auditory hallucinations are among the most prevalent and most distressing symptoms of schizophrenia. Despite significant progress, it is still unclear whether auditory hallucinations arise from abnormalities in primary sensory processing or whether they represent failures of higher-order functions. To address this knowledge gap, we capitalized on the increased spatial resolution afforded by ultra-high field imaging at 7 Tesla to investigate the tonotopic organization of the auditory cortex in patients with schizophrenia with a history of recurrent hallucinations. Tonotopy is a fundamental feature of the functional organization of the auditory cortex that is established very early in development and predates the onset of symptoms by decades. Compared to healthy participants, patients showed abnormally increased activation and altered tonotopic organization of the auditory cortex during a purely perceptual task, which involved passive listening to tones across a range of frequencies (88-8000 Hz). These findings suggest that the predisposition to auditory hallucinations is likely to be predicated on abnormalities in the functional organization of the auditory cortex and which may serve as a biomarker for the early identification of vulnerable individuals.