Search

Emotional complexity (EC) involves the ability to distinguish between distinct emotions (differentiation) and the experience of a large range of emotions (diversity). Lower EC has been related to psychopathology in cross-sectional studies. This study aimed to investigate (a) whether EC prospectively predicts psychopathology and (b) whether this effect is contingent on stressful life events. To further explore EC, we compared the effects of differentiation and diversity. Adolescents from the general population (N = 401) rated 8 negatively valenced emotions 10 times a day for 6 consecutive days. Further, they completed the Symptom Checklist-90 (baseline and 1-year follow-up) and a questionnaire on past year's life events at follow-up. Logistic regression analyses tested whether EC-reflected by emotion differentiation (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]) and diversity (diversity index [DI])-predicted prognosis (good: remitting or lacking symptoms vs. bad: worsening or persisting symptoms). EC predicted prognoses but only when based on the ICC (OREC.ICC = 1.42, p = .02). An ECICC 1 SD above average increased the probability of good prognosis from .67 to .74. This effect was not related to stressful life events (OREC × Life events = 1.03, p = .86) and disappeared when emotion intensity (mean level) was taken into account (OREC = 1.20, p = .20). Predicting future prognosis does not necessitate complex measures of emotional experience (ICC, DI) but rather might be achieved through simpler indices (mean). The discrepant effects of the ICC and DI on prognosis suggest that impaired emotion representation (ICC) plays a more important role in vulnerability to mental ill health than does low diversity of emotions (DI). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents are known to provide a lasting basis for their children's social development. Understanding parent-driven socialization is particularly relevant in adolescence, as an increasing social independence is developed. However, the relationship between key parenting styles of care and control and the microlevel expression of daily-life social interactions has been insufficiently studied. Adolescent and young adult twins and their nontwin siblings (N = 635; mean age = 16.6; age range = 14.2-21.9; 58.6% female; 79.5% in or having completed higher secondary/tertiary education; 2.8% speaking language other than Dutch at home) completed the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) on parental care and control. Participants also completed a 6-day experience sampling period (10 daily beeps, mean compliance = 68.0%) to assess daily-life social interactions. Higher overall parental bonding quality (of both parents) related to more positive social experiences in daily life (e.g., belonging in company), but not to more social behaviors (e.g., being with others). Factor analysis indicated a three-factor structure of the PBI, with care, denial of psychological autonomy, and encouragement of behavioral freedom. Paternal care was uniquely predictive of better social experiences. These findings demonstrate how parenting styles may be uniquely associated with how adolescents experience their social world, with a potentially important role for fathers in particular. This complements the long-held idea of socialization through parenting by bringing it into the context of daily life and implies how both conceptualizations of social functioning and interventions aimed at alleviating social dysfunction might benefit from a stronger consideration of day-to-day social experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved). ispartof: DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY vol:58 issue:4 pages:792-805 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Adolescents and young adults are at high risk for experiencing loneliness, a well-established risk factor for mental health symptoms. Being physically active is known to reduce feelings of loneliness. We explored the association between physical activity and loneliness using the experience sampling method, allowing us to investigate moment-to-moment variations on the within-person level. The sample consisted of 784 participants (58.0% fe-males), aged 15-25 years (mean 16.9 years). They responded to a questionnaire ten times a day for six days. We hypothesized an inverse bidirectional relationship between within-person physical activity and within-person loneliness. Additionally, we hypothesized an interaction effect of the within-person affective valence and of depression and anxiety symptoms. Univariate multilevel models were used. Results did not show a significant association between physical activity and loneliness on the within-person level, but there was a significant interaction effect where physical activity was associated with less subsequent loneliness at moments with high affective valence. These findings indicate that only when physical activity is experienced as something young people enjoy doing, feel competent about and when it does not require too much effort, it decreases feelings of loneliness the subsequent moment. There was no significant interaction effect with depression and anxiety symptoms. In conclusion, the results of this study give us a better understanding of the association between physical activity and loneliness in young people. This study highlights the importance of contextual factors when investigating psychosocial outcomes of physical activity.

OBJECTIVE: To test whether polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-S) interacts with childhood adversity and daily-life stressors to influence momentary mental state domains (negative affect, positive affect, and subtle psychosis expression) and stress-sensitivity measures. METHODS: The data were retrieved from a general population twin cohort including 593 adolescents and young adults. Childhood adversity was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Daily-life stressors and momentary mental state domains were measured using ecological momentary assessment. PRS-S was trained on the latest Psychiatric Genetics Consortium schizophrenia meta-analysis. The analyses were conducted using multilevel mixed-effects tobit regression models. RESULTS: Both childhood adversity and daily-life stressors were associated with increased negative affect, decreased positive affect, and increased subtle psychosis expression, while PRS-S was only associated with increased positive affect. No gene-environment correlation was detected. There is novel evidence for interaction effects between PRS-S and childhood adversity to influence momentary mental states [negative affect (b = 0.07, P = 0.013), positive affect (b = -0.05, P = 0.043), and subtle psychosis expression (b = 0.11, P = 0.007)] and stress-sensitivity measures. CONCLUSION: Exposure to childhood adversities, particularly in individuals with high PRS-S, is pleiotropically associated with emotion dysregulation and psychosis proneness. ispartof: ACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA vol:141 issue:5 pages:465-475 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Physical activity has positive effects on self-esteem and sense of belongingness and vice versa. The experience sampling method allows for a level of analysis of the within-subject temporal dynamics of these interactions. We hypothesized that physical activity would predict prospective increases of self-esteem and belongingness in the flow of daily life, and vice versa. Additionally, we hypothesized that belongingness would predict self-esteem at the beep level. The study included 781 individuals (17.4 ± 3.5 years; 59% female) who responded to 10 beeps daily for 6 days to items on physical activity, self-esteem and belongingness. Univariate and multivariate multilevel models were used to examine within-person prospective bidirectional associations. We found that physical activity predicted higher self-esteem and belongingness at t0+1. Participants who had a stronger increase of self-esteem following an increase in physical activity also had a concurrent stronger increase in belongingness. In contrast, self-esteem had no effect on physical activity at the next beep. Belongingness predicted self-esteem. We conclude that the interactions between physical activity, self-esteem and belongingness are complex and fluctuating in daily life. This has important implications for current theories describing the mental health benefits of physical activity.

Environmental and individual contextual factors profoundly influence how people regulate their emotions. The current article addresses the role of event intensity and psychopathology (an admixture of depression, anxiety, and psychoticism) on emotion regulation in response to naturally occurring events. For six days each evening, a youth sample (aged 15–25, N = 713) recorded the intensity of the most positive and most negative event of the day and their subsequent emotion regulation. The intensity of negative events was positively associated with summed total emotion regulation effort, strategy diversity, engaging in rumination, situation modification, emotion expression, and sharing and negatively associated with reappraisal and acceptance. The intensity of positive events was positively associated with strategy diversity, savoring, emotion expression, and sharing. Higher psychopathology symptoms were only related to ruminating more about negative events. We interpret these findings as support for the role of context in the degree of effort and type of emotion regulation that young people engage in.

Background Recent theories argue that an interplay between (i.e., network of) experiences, thoughts and affect in daily life may underlie the development of psychopathology. Objective To prospectively examine whether network dynamics of everyday affect states are associated with a future course of psychopathology in adolescents at an increased risk of mental disorders. Methods 159 adolescents from the East-Flanders Prospective Twin Study cohort participated in the study. At baseline, their momentary affect states were assessed using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). The course of psychopathology was operationalized as the change in the Symptom Checklist-90 sum score after 1 year. Two groups were defined: one with a stable level (n = 81) and one with an increasing level (n = 78) of SCL-symptom severity. Group-level network dynamics of momentary positive and negative affect states were compared between groups. Results The group with increasing symptoms showed a stronger connections between negative affect states and their higher influence on positive states, as well as higher proneness to form ‘vicious cycles’, compared to the stable group. Based on permutation tests, these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion Although not statistically significant, some qualitative differences were observed between the networks of the two groups. More studies are needed to determine the value of momentary affect networks for predicting the course of psychopathology.

Background Despite the increasing understanding of factors that might underlie psychiatric disorders, prospectively detecting shifts from a healthy towards a symptomatic state has remained unattainable. A complex systems perspective on psychopathology implies that such symptom shifts may be foreseen by generic indicators of instability, or early warning signals (EWS). EWS include, for instance, increasing variability, covariance, and autocorrelation in momentary affective states—of which the latter was studied. The present study investigated if EWS predict (i) future worsening of symptoms as well as (ii) the type of symptoms that will develop, meaning that the association between EWS and future symptom shifts would be most pronounced for congruent affective states and psychopathological domains (e.g., feeling down and depression). Methods A registered general population cohort of adolescents (mean age 18 years, 36% male) provided ten daily ratings of their affective states for 6 consecutive days. The resulting time series were used to compute EWS in feeling down, listless, anxious, not relaxed, insecure, suspicious, and unwell. At baseline and 1-year follow-up, symptom severity was assessed by the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). We selected four subsamples of participants who reported an increase in one of the following SCL-90 domains: depression (N = 180), anxiety (N = 192), interpersonal sensitivity (N = 184), or somatic complaints (N = 166). Results Multilevel models showed that EWS in feeling suspicious anticipated increases in interpersonal sensitivity, as hypothesized. EWS were absent for other domains. While the association between EWS and symptom increases was restricted to the interpersonal sensitivity domain, post hoc analyses showed that symptom severity at baseline was related to heightened autocorrelations in congruent affective states for interpersonal sensitivity, depression, and anxiety. This pattern replicated in a second, independent dataset. Conclusions The presence of EWS prior to symptom shifts may depend on the dynamics of the psychopathological domain under consideration: for depression, EWS may manifest only several weeks prior to a shift, while for interpersonal sensitivity, EWS may already occur 1 year in advance. Intensive longitudinal designs where EWS and symptoms are assessed in real-time are required in order to determine at what timescale and for what type of domain EWS are most informative of future psychopathology.

Background: Adolescence is a period of both great social change, and of vulnerability to psychiatric distress. However, little is known about the associations between early psychopathology and social interactions at the fundamental level of daily life. To better understand the social correlates of subclinical psychopathology in adolescence, we assessed associations between general psychopathology and the quantity and quality of daily-life social interactions.& nbsp;Methods: During a six-day experience sampling period, adolescent and young adult participants in Study 1 (n = 663) and Study 2 (n = 1027) reported the quantity and quality of their everyday social interactions. General psychopathology was assessed using the Symptom Checklist-90 and Brief Symptom Inventory-53. The rela-tionship between psychopathology and each outcome variable was tested in separate multilevel linear and lo-gistic regression models.& nbsp;Results: General psychopathology was associated with social interaction quality. Associations between psychopa-thology and the number of social interactions were less apparent: In Study 1, participants with more psychopa-thology were not more alone, whereas Study 2 participants with higher levels of psychopathology were alone more. Limitations: Limitations include no separate investigation of distinct types of psychopathology, and relatively low compliance to the experience sampling in Study 2.& nbsp;Conclusions: Consistent associations between subclinical psychopathology and the quality of social interactions support the fundamentally social nature of early psychopathology. Moreover, negative experiences of social interactions may be more valuable markers of early psychopathology than a reduced quantity of social behaviors. Conceptualizations of daily-life social functioning, and prevention/intervention efforts would benefit from a greater consideration of the quality of everyday social experiences.

Introduction There is growing evidence that mental disorders behave like complex dynamic systems. Complex dynamic systems theory states that a slower recovery from small perturbations indicates a loss of resilience of a system. This study is the first to test whether the speed of recovery of affect states from small daily life perturbations predicts changes in psychopathological symptoms over 1 year in a group of adolescents at increased risk for mental disorders. Methods We used data from 157 adolescents from the TWINSSCAN study. Course of psychopathology was operationalized as the 1-year change in the Symptom Checklist-90 sum score. Two groups were defined: one with stable and one with increasing symptom levels. Time-series data on momentary daily affect and daily unpleasant events were collected 10 times a day for 6 days at baseline. We modeled the time-lagged effect of daily unpleasant events on negative and positive affect after each unpleasant event experienced, to examine at which time point the impact of the events is no longer detectable. Results There was a significant difference between groups in the effect of unpleasant events on negative affect 90 min after the events were reported. Stratified by group, in the Increase group, the effect of unpleasant events on both negative (B = 0.05, p B = − 0. 08, p Conclusion Findings cautiously suggest that adolescents who develop more symptoms in the following year may display a slower affect recovery from daily perturbations at baseline. This supports the notion that mental health may behave according to the laws of a complex dynamic system. Future research needs to examine whether these dynamic indicators of system resilience may prove valuable for personalized risk assessment in this field.

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to replicate findings in adults indicating that higher sensitivity to stressful events is predictive of both onset and persistence of psychopathological symptoms in a sample of adolescents and young adults. In addition, we tested the hypothesis that sensitivity to mild stressors in particular is predictive of the developmental course of psychopathology.Methods: We analyzed experience sampling and questionnaire data collected at baseline and one-year follow-up of 445 adolescent and young adult twins and non-twin siblings (age range: 15-34). Linear multilevel regression was used for the replication analyses. To test if affective sensitivity to mild stressors in particular was associated with follow-up symptoms, we used a categorical approach adding variables on affective sensitivity to mild, moderate and severe daily stressors to the model.Results: Linear analyses showed that emotional stress reactivity was not associated with onset (β = .02; P = .56) or persistence (β = −.01; P = .78) of symptoms. There was a significant effect of baseline symptom score (β = .53; P β = .19; P β = .25; P β = −.03; P = .65) or severe (β = −.06; P = .42), stressors was associated with symptom persistence one year later.Discussion: We were unable to replicate previous findings relating stress sensitivity linearly to symptom onset or persistence in a younger sample. Whereas sensitivity to more severe stressors may reflect adaptive coping, high sensitivity to the mildest of daily stressors may indicate an increased risk for psychopathology.

Introduction: Negative social evaluation is associated with psychopathology. Given the frequency of evaluation through increasingly prevalent virtual social networks, increased understanding of the effects of this social evaluation is urgently required. Methods: A new digital social peer evaluation experiment (digi-SPEE) was developed to mimic everyday online social interactions between peers. Participants received mildly negative feedback on their appearance, intelligence, and congeniality. Two hundred and forty-one young people [58.9% female, aged 18.9 years (15 to 34)] from an ongoing novel general population twin study participated in this study. Positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), implicit self-esteem, and cortisol were assessed before and after exposure to the social evaluation experiment. Results: The social evaluation experiment decreased PA (B=-5.25, p

BackgroundThe earliest stages of the pluripotent psychopathology on the pathway to psychotic disorders is represented by emotional dysregulation and subtle psychosis expression, which can be measured using the Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). However, it is not clear to what degree common genetic and environmental risk factors for psychosis contribute to variation in these early expressions of psychopathology.MethodsIn this largest ever EMA study of a general population twin cohort including 593 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 35 years, we tested whether polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-S) interacts with childhood adversity (the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire score) and daily-life stressors to influence momentary mental state domains (negative affect, positive affect, and subtle psychosis expression) and stress-sensitivity measures.ResultsBoth childhood adversity and daily-life stressors were associated with increased negative affect, decreased positive affect, and increased subtle psychosis expression, while PRS-S was only associated with increased positive affect. No gene–environment correlation was detected. We have provided novel evidence for interaction effects between PRS-S and childhood adversity to influence momentary mental states [negative affect (b = 0.07, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.13, P = 0.013), positive affect (b = −0.05, 95% CI −0.10 to −0.00, P = 0.043), and subtle psychosis expression (b = 0.11, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.19, P = 0.007)] and stress-sensitivity measures.ConclusionExposure to childhood adversities, particularly in individuals with high PRS-S, is pleiotropically associated with emotional dysregulation and psychosis proneness.

PURPOSE: Whilst childhood trauma (CT) is a known risk factor across the spectrum of psychosis expression, little is known about possible interplay with genetic liability. METHODS: The TwinssCan Study collected data in general population twins, focussing on expression of psychosis at the level of subthreshold psychotic experiences. A multilevel mixed-effects linear regression analysis was performed including 745 subjects to assess the interaction between genetic liability and CT. The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R) score of the co-twin was used as an indirect measure of genetic liability to psychopathology, while the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short-Form (CTQ-SF) was used to assess CT in the domains of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, as well as physical and emotional neglect. The Community Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE) questionnaire was used to phenotypically characterize psychosis expression. RESULTS: In the model using the CAPE total score, the interaction between CT and genetic liability was close to statistical significance (χ2 = 5.6, df = 2, p = 0.06). Analyses of CAPE subscales revealed a significant interaction between CT and genetic liability (χ2 = 8.8, df = 2, p = 0.012) for the CAPE-negative symptoms subscale, but not for the other two subscales (i.e. positive and depressive). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the impact of CT on subthreshold expression of psychosis, particularly in the negative subdomain, may be larger in the co-presence of significant genetic liability for psychopathology. ispartof: SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY vol:54 issue:9 pages:1045-1054 ispartof: location:Germany status: published

Background: Converging evidence supports childhood trauma as possible causal risk for psychosis and related psychopathology. However, studies have shown that baseline psychotic symptoms may actually increase risk for subsequent victimization, suggesting that exposure to CT is not random but may result from pre-existing vulnerability. Therefore, studies testing whether the association between CT and psychopathology persists when accounting for gene-environment correlation are much needed.Methods: A monozygotic (MZ) twin differences approach was used to examine whether differences in CT exposure among MZ twin pairs would be associated with MZ differences in symptoms. As MZ twins are genetically identical, within-pair correlations between CT exposure and psychopathology rule out the possibility that the association is solely attributable to gene-environment correlation. 266 monozygotic twins (133 pairs) from a larger general population study were available for analysis.Results: CT was associated with symptoms of psychosis (B = 0.62; SE = 0.08, p Conclusion: While it is not unlikely that pre-existing vulnerability may increase the risk for traumatic exposures, such gene-environment correlation does not explain away the association between CT and psychopathology. The present findings thus suggest that at least part of the association between CT and psychopathology may be causal. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder has been linked to an inability to differentiate between negative emotions. The current study investigates whether emotion differentiation improves when individuals with major depressive disorder are required to report on specific emotions multiple times a day through the experience sampling method (ESM) - a structured self-report diary technique. METHODS: Seventy-nine patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder participated in this study, of whom 55 used ESM for 6 weeks (3 days a week, 10 times a day). Changes from baseline to post assessment in positive and negative emotion differentiation were compared between the participants who did and those who did not use ESM. RESULTS: Engaging in ESM related to an improvement in both positive and negative emotion differentiation, but only the latter reached statistical significance. The relationship between the number of ESM measurements (dose) and emotion differentiation change (response) was not significant. LIMITATIONS: The sample size for the dose-response analysis was relatively small (N = 55). It is unknown whether emotion differentiation improvements generalize beyond the emotions (N = 12) we probed in this study. Other factors could also have contributed to the change (e.g., meetings with the researchers). CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that patients with depression using ESM for 3 days a week for 6 weeks can improve their negative emotion differentiation. Future studies should assess after what period of ESM changes in emotion differentiation become apparent, and whether these changes are persistent and relate to actual improvement in depressive symptoms. ispartof: Journal of Affective Disorders vol:244 pages:71-77 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: published

Adolescents and young adults are highly focused on peer evaluation, but little is known about sources of their differential sensitivity. We examined to what extent sensitivity to peer evaluation is influenced by interacting environmental and genetic factors. A sample of 354 healthy adolescent twin pairs (n = 708) took part in a structured, laboratory task in which they were exposed to peer evaluation. The proportion of the variance in sensitivity to peer evaluation due to genetic and environmental factors was estimated, as was the association with specific a priori environmental risk factors. Differences in sensitivity to peer evaluation between adolescents were explained mainly by non-shared environmental influences. The results on shared environmental influences were not conclusive. No impact of latent genetic factors or gene-environment interactions was found. Adolescents with lower self-rated positions on the social ladder or who reported to have been bullied more severely showed significantly stronger responses to peer evaluation. Not genes, but subjective social status and past experience of being bullied seem to impact sensitivity to peer evaluation. This suggests that altered response to peer evaluation is the outcome of cumulative sensitization to social interactions. ispartof: Child Psychiatry and Human Development vol:49 issue:5 pages:766-779 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Background: The network analysis of intensive time series data collected using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) may provide vital information in gaining insight into the link between emotion regulation and vulnerability to psychopathology. The aim of this study was to apply the network approach to investigate whether genetic liability (GL) to psychopathology and childhood trauma (CT) are associated with the network structure of the emotions "cheerful," "insecure," "relaxed," "anxious," "irritated," and "down"-collected using the ESM method. Methods: Using data from a population-based sample of twin pairs and siblings (704 individuals), we examined whether momentary emotion network structures differed across strata of CT and GL. GL was determined empirically using the level of psychopathology in monozygotic and dizygotic co-twins. Network models were generated using multilevel time-lagged regression analysis and were compared across three strata (low, medium, and high) of CT and GL, respectively. Permutations were utilized to calculate p values and compare regressions coefficients, density, and centrality indices. Regression coefficients were presented as connections, while variables represented the nodes in the network. Results: In comparison to the low GL stratum, the high GL stratum had significantly denser overall (p = 0.018) and negative affect network density (p < 0.001). The medium GL stratum also showed a directionally similar (in-between high and low GL strata) but statistically inconclusive association with network density. In contrast to GL, the results of the CT analysis were less conclusive, with increased positive affect density (p = 0.021) and overall density (p = 0.042) in the high CT stratum compared to the medium CT stratum but not to the low CT stratum. The individual node comparisons across strata of GL and CT yielded only very few significant results, after adjusting for multiple testing. Conclusions: The present findings demonstrate that the network approach may have some value in understanding the relation between established risk factors for mental disorders (particularly GL) and the dynamic interplay between emotions. The present finding partially replicates an earlier analysis, suggesting it may be instructive to model negative emotional dynamics as a function of genetic influence. ispartof: Frontiers in Psychology vol:8 issue:NOV ispartof: location:Switzerland status: published

BackgroundAn association between white noise speech illusion and psychotic symptoms has been reported in patients and their relatives. This supports the theory that bottom-up and top-down perceptual processes are involved in the mechanisms underlying perceptual abnormalities. However, findings in nonclinical populations have been conflicting.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to examine the association between white noise speech illusion and subclinical expression of psychotic symptoms in a nonclinical sample. Findings were compared to previous results to investigate potential methodology dependent differences.MethodsIn a general population adolescent and young adult twin sample (n = 704), the association between white noise speech illusion and subclinical psychotic experiences, using the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R) and the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), was analyzed using multilevel logistic regression analyses.ResultsPerception of any white noise speech illusion was not associated with either positive or negative schizotypy in the general population twin sample, using the method by Galdos et al. (2011) (positive: ORadjusted: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.6-1.12, p = 0.217; negative: ORadjusted: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.56-1.02, p = 0.065) and the method by Catalan et al. (2014) (positive: ORadjusted: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.79-1.57, p = 0.557). No association was found between CAPE scores and speech illusion (ORadjusted: 1.25, 95% CI: 0.88-1.79, p = 0.220). For the Catalan et al. (2014) but not the Galdos et al. (2011) method, a negative association was apparent between positive schizotypy and speech illusion with positive or negative affective valence (ORadjusted: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.24-0.81, p = 0.008).ConclusionContrary to findings in clinical populations, white noise speech illusion may not be associated with psychosis proneness in nonclinical populations.

Meta-analyses suggest that clinical psychopathology is preceded by dimensional behavioral and cognitive phenotypes such as psychotic experiences, executive functioning, working memory and affective dysregulation that are determined by the interplay between genetic and nongenetic factors contributing to the severity of psychopathology. The liability to mental ill health can be psychometrically measured using experimental paradigms that assess neurocognitive processes such as salience attribution, sensitivity to social defeat and reward sensitivity. Here, we describe the TwinssCan, a longitudinal general population twin cohort, which comprises 1202 individuals (796 adolescent/young adult twins, 43 siblings and 363 parents) at baseline. The TwinssCan is part of the European Network of National Networks studying Gene-Environment Interactions in Schizophrenia project and recruited from the East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey. The main objective of this project is to understand psychopathology by evaluating the contribution of genetic and nongenetic factors on subclinical expressions of dimensional phenotypes at a young age before the onset of disorder and their association with neurocognitive processes, such as salience attribution, sensitivity to social defeat and reward sensitivity.

BACKGROUND: Emotional dysregulation and subtle psychosis expression mark the earliest manifestation of psychopathology. Furthermore, using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), studies indicate that emotional and psychotic reactivity to daily-life stressors are associated with psychosis expression in individuals at varying clinical stages (e.g. service users, clinical high-risk, or first episode psychosis). The question arises how fluctuations of those momentary mental states persist and transit into more distinct clinical outcomes (e.g. psychotic spectrum disorder). In this context, studies using the EMA previously showed that environmental vulnerabilities (i.e. childhood adversities) are consistently associated with increased and persistent emotional and psychotic reactivity. However, the effects of molecular genetic liability for schizophrenia on this association have not been investigated. Therefore, in the largest EMA study to date, we aim to test whether polygenic risk for schizophrenia (PRS) interacts with childhood adversity on momentary mental states (negative affect, positive affect and subtle psychosis expression). METHODS: A prospective population-based twin cohort from multi-birth registry in Flanders, Belgium, collected data from April 2010 to April 2014 in the first wave of the TwinssCan project. The study sample included 593 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 35 years. Childhood Adversity was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Momentary mental state domains (negative affect, positive affect and subtle psychosis expression) were measured using EMA. Emotional states were the mean sore of items concerning negative affect (I feel anxious, lonely, down, insecure and irritated) and positive affect (I feel cheerful, satisfied, relaxed, and globally feeling well, respectively). Subtle psychosis expression was the mean score of items concerning psychotic-like experiences (suspiciousness, being afraid of losing control, racing thoughts, pervasive thoughts, and difficulties to express thoughts). Genetic risk was estimated by PRS, which was trained on the latest Psychiatric Genetics Consortium schizophrenia meta-analysis, adjusted for the first 2 population principal components. The analyses were conducted using multilevel tobit regression with age and sex included as a priori covariates. RESULTS: Exposure to childhood adversity was associated with increased negative affect (b = 0.13, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.19, P < 0.001), decreased positive affect (b = -0.12, 95% CI 0.17 to -0.06, P < 0.001), and increased subtle psychosis expression (b = 0.18, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.26, P < 0.001). PRS was only associated with increased positive affect (b = 0.08, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.14, P < 0.001), and no gene–environment correlation was detected (b = -0.01, 95% CI -0.03 to 0.02, P = 0.676). PRS moderated the association of childhood adversity with all momentary mental states, negative affect (b = 0.07, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.13, P = 0.013), positive affect (b = -0.05, 95% CI -0.10 to -0.00, P = 0.043), and subtle psychosis expression (b = 0.11, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.19, P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: PRS moderated the influence of childhood adversity on all emotional regulation and subtle psychosis expression. This is in line with hypothesis arguing that the experience of early-life stressors during critical neurodevelopmental periods may lead to the imbalance of stress mechanisms and subsequently cause emotional and behavioral problems. Genetic vulnerability and early-lifetime stressors pleiotropically co-participate in driving emotional dysregulation and psychosis proneness.

Objective To review the literature on psychological and biological findings on resilience (i.e. the successful adaptation and swift recovery after experiencing life adversities) at the level of the individual, and to integrate findings from animal and human studies. Method Electronic and manual literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE and PSYCHINFO, using a range of search terms around biological and psychological factors influencing resilience as observed in human and experimental animal studies, complemented by review articles and cross-references. Results The term resilience is used in the literature for different phenomena ranging from prevention of mental health disturbance to successful adaptation and swift recovery after experiencing life adversities, and may also include post-traumatic psychological growth. Secure attachment, experiencing positive emotions and having a purpose in life are three important psychological building blocks of resilience. Overlap between psychological and biological findings on resilience in the literature is most apparent for the topic of stress sensitivity, although recent results suggest a crucial role for reward experience in resilience. Conclusion Improving the understanding of the links between genetic endowment, environmental impact and gene-environment interactions with developmental psychology and biology is crucial for elucidating the neurobiological and psychological underpinnings of resilience.

Background Experience sampling, a method for real-time self-monitoring of affective experiences, holds opportunities for person-tailored treatment. By focussing on dynamic patterns of positive affect, experience sampling method interventions (ESM-I) accommodate strategies to enhance personalized treatment of depression―at potentially low-costs. This study aimed to investigate the cost-effectiveness of an experience sampling method intervention in patients with depression, from a societal perspective. Methods Participants were recruited between January 2010 and February 2012 from out-patient mental health care facilities in or near the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Maastricht, and through local advertisements. Out-patients diagnosed with major depression (n = 101) receiving pharmacotherapy were randomized into: (i) ESM-I consisting of six weeks of ESM combined with weekly feedback regarding the individual’s positive affective experiences, (ii) six weeks of ESM without feedback, or (iii) treatment as usual only. Alongside this randomised controlled trial, an economic evaluation was conducted consisting of a cost-effectiveness and a cost-utility analysis, using Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) as outcome, with willingness-to-pay threshold for a QALY set at €50,000 (based on Dutch guidelines for moderate severe to severe illnesses). Results The economic evaluation showed that ESM-I is an optimal strategy only when willingness to pay is around €3000 per unit HDRS and around €40,500 per QALY. ESM-I was the least favourable treatment when willingness to pay was lower than €30,000 per QALY. However, at the €50,000 willingness-to-pay threshold, ESM-I was, with a 46% probability, the most favourable treatment (base-case analysis). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these results. Conclusions We may tentatively conclude that ESM-I is a cost-effective add-on intervention to pharmacotherapy in outpatients with major depression. Trial registration Netherlands Trial register, NTR1974. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-017-1577-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective: The daily life, affective phenotypes of momentary negative affect (NA), positive affect (PA) variability and NA variability are associated with future depressive symptomatology. This study investigates the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to the inter-individual differences in these daily life, affective phenotypes. Method: Two hundred and seventy-nine female twins from the Flemish (Belgium) general population participated in an experience sampling study measuring affect in daily life. Structural equation modelling was used to fit univariate and bivariate models. Results: Genetic factors explained, respectively, 18%, 18% and 35% of the inter-individual differences in momentary NA, PA variability and NA variability. Non-shared environmental factors were found to explain the remaining inter-individual variation. In addition, 41% of the association between positive and NA variability was attributed to shared genetic factors. Conclusion: Results of this study show that daily life patterns of affective expression are subject to substantial environmental influence. Prospective assessments of the effect of interventions on these expressions may therefore represent a powerful tool to prevent transition from subclinical depressive symptomatology to a clinical outcome or to reduce symptomatology in those with clinical depression.

Background Studies using the event sampling method (ESM), a structured diary technique measuring subjective experiences and emotional fluctuations in daily life, have consistently shown that individuals reporting psychotic experiences display a heightened emotional reactivity to minor stressors—a neuropsychological mechanism that likely contributes to the development and perpetuation of psychotic experiences. Except a few undersized non-replicated candidate-gene studies showing an association between genetic variations and elevated momentary stress reactivity, genetic underpinnings of emotion reactivity to momentary stressors have not been investigated. Therefore, by leveraging a large general population twin dataset of ESM, we aimed to investigate—for the first time—whether the polygenic risk score (PRS) for schizophrenia moderates stress reactivity (psychotic experiences (PE) and negative affect (NA) in response to momentary stress). Methods Data were derived from a general population adolescent and young adult twin sample. The total sample included 638 participants (Monozygotic = 202, Dizygotic = 436). ESM variables were randomly measured at 10 times/day over 6 consecutive days. For the main analyses, we assessed ESM information on PE (suspiciousness, loss of control, racing thoughts, pervasive thoughts, difficulties to express thoughts), NA (feeling lonely, anxious, listless, down, guilty), and event-related stress (pleasantness of the most important event since last entry); and for additional explorative analyses we assessed social stress (participants were asked with whom they are (e.g. nobody or family) and to rate the pleasantness of the social situation). PRS were trained on the results from the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium-2 SZ. Multilevel regression analyses, taking into account of multiple observations nested within twins who were clustered within family, were used to analyze the moderating effects of PRS (at p-value < 0.05) on the relationship between momentary stress and NA or PE. All analyses were adjusted for age, sex and 2 principle components. Results There were significant main effects of momentary stress (event stress: b = 0.065, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.048, 0.082; social stress: b = 0.128; p < 0.001; 95% CI = 0.111, 0.145) on PE. However, neither the main effects of PRS on PE nor the interaction between PRS and momentary stress on PE were significant. The analysis with NA as dependent variable indicated main effects of momentary stress (event stress: b = 0.096; p

BackgroundInterventions based on the experience sampling method (ESM) are ideally suited to provide insight into personal, contextualized affective patterns in the flow of daily life. Recently, we showed that an ESM-intervention focusing on positive affect was associated with a decrease in symptoms in patients with depression. The aim of the present study was to examine whether ESM-intervention increased patient empowerment.MethodsDepressed out-patients (n = 102) receiving psychopharmacological treatment who had participated in a randomized controlled trial with three arms: (i) an experimental group receiving six weeks of ESM self-monitoring combined with weekly feedback sessions, (ii) a pseudo-experimental group participating in six weeks of ESM self-monitoring without feedback, and (iii) a control group (treatment as usual only). Patients were recruited in the Netherlands between January 2010 and February 2012. Self-report empowerment scores were obtained pre- and post-intervention.ResultsThere was an effect of group × assessment period, indicating that the experimental (B = 7.26, P = 0.061, d = 0.44, statistically imprecise) and pseudo-experimental group (B = 11.19, P = 0.003, d = 0.76) increased more in reported empowerment compared to the control group. In the pseudo-experimental group, 29% of the participants showed a statistically reliable increase in empowerment score and 0% reliable decrease compared to 17% reliable increase and 21% reliable decrease in the control group. The experimental group showed 19% reliable increase and 4% reliable decrease.ConclusionsThese findings tentatively suggest that self-monitoring to complement standard antidepressant treatment may increase patients’ feelings of empowerment. Further research is necessary to investigate long-term empowering effects of self-monitoring in combination with person-tailored feedback.

In depression, the ability to experience daily life positive affect predicts recovery and reduces relapse rates. Interventions based on the experience sampling method (ESM-I) are ideally suited to provide insight in personal, contextualized patterns of positive affect. The aim of this study was to examine whether add-on ESM-derived feedback on personalized patterns of positive affect is feasible and useful to patients, and results in a reduction of depressive symptomatology. Depressed outpatients (n=102) receiving pharmacological treatment participated in a randomized controlled trial with three arms: an experimental group receiving add-on ESM-derived feedback, a pseudo-experimental group participating in ESM but receiving no feedback, and a control group. The experimental group participated in an ESM procedure (three days per week over a 6-week period) using a palmtop. This group received weekly standardized feedback on personalized patterns of positive affect. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale – 17 (HDRS) and Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (IDS) scores were obtained before and after the intervention. During a 6-month follow-up period, five HDRS and IDS assessments were completed. Add-on ESM-derived feedback resulted in a significant and clinically relevant stronger decrease in HDRS score relative to the control group (p

The current meta-analysis explores the strength of effects of cognitive bias modification training for interpretation bias (CBM-I) on positive (i.e., adaptive) interpretations and mood as well as the training and sample characteristics influencing these effects. Data-bases were searched with the key words “interpret* bias AND training” and “interpret* bias AND modif*”. Reference lists of identified articles were checked and authors of identified articles were contacted for further relevant articles and unpublished data. Studies were reviewed for inclusion with eligibility criteria being that the study (a) aimed to target interpretation biases through any kind of training, (b) assessed mood and/or interpretation bias as outcome measures, (c) allocated individuals to training conditions at random, and (d) recruited adult samples. A meta-analytic multilevel mixed-effects model was employed to assess standardized mean changes in interpretation bias, negative mood, and emotional reactivity. In addition, several training and sample characteristics were explored for their potential to enhance benign training effectiveness. On average, benign CBM-I resulted in an increase in positive interpretation bias (p

OBJECTIVE: Positive affect (PA) is closely linked to prevention of, and recovery from, depression. Previous studies have investigated PA reactivity to pleasant situations with respect to its protective properties in relation to mood disorder. The purpose of this study was to examine, and replicate, whether moment-to-moment transfer of PA in daily life (PA persistence) is relevant to the prediction of future course of depression. METHOD: Individuals from three different studies (one general population sample (n=540), and two patient samples (n=43 and n=50) with matching controls (n=39 and n=21, respectively)) participated in an Experience Sampling Method (ESM) study. Time-lagged multilevel analyses were used to assess the degree of transfer (or persistence) of momentary positive affective states over time, in relation to naturalistic outcome (study 1) or treatment outcome (studies 2 and 3). Depressive symptoms were measured using the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90R) in sample 1 and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) in samples 2 and 3. RESULTS: In study 1, participants with greater momentary PA persistence were less likely to show depressive symptoms at follow-up. In study 2, patients were more likely to respond to treatment if they displayed greater momentary PA persistence, particularly in those with recurrent depression. In study 3, patients with greater momentary PA persistence were similarly more likely to respond to treatment, especially when treated with imipramine rather than placebo. CONCLUSION: The ability to transfer PA from one moment to the next is an important factor in the prevention of and recovery from depressive symptoms. Patients with recurrent depression and those who receive antidepressants rather than placebo may benefit most from this effect. The results suggest that treatment-induced improvement in depression is mediated by increased levels of momentary transfer of PA in daily life, acquisition of which may be contingent on duration of exposure to depressive experience.

Positive affect (PA) has an important role in resilience against depression and has been shown to increase with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). To elucidate the underlying mechanisms of change in PA as well as develop insights that may benefit personalized medicine, the current study examined the contribution of genetic variation to individual differences in change in PA in response to MBCT. Individuals (n=126) with residual depressive symptoms were randomized to either an MBCT group or treatment as usual. PA was assessed using experience sampling methodology (ESM). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes known to be involved in reward functioning were selected. SNPs in the genes for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M2 (CHRM2), the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) and the μ1 opioid receptor (OPRM1) significantly moderated the impact of treatment condition over time on PA. Genetic variation in the genes for CHRM2 and OPRM1 specifically had an impact on the level of PA following MBCT. The current study shows that variation in response to MBCT may be contingent on genetic factors associated with the regulation of PA. These findings contribute to our understanding of the processes moderating response to treatment and prediction of treatment outcome. ispartof: Translational Psychiatry vol:4 issue:4 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Momentary positive affect (PA) and reward experience may underlie subjective wellbeing, and index mental health resilience. This study examines their underlying sources of variation and the covariation with stress-sensitivity. The experience sampling method was used to collect multiple appraisals of mood and daily life events in 520 female twins. Structural equation model fitting was employed to determine sources of variation of PA, reward experience, and the association between reward experience and stress-sensitivity. PA was best explained by shared and non-shared environmental factors, and reward experience by non-shared environmental factors only, although the evidence was also suggestive of a small genetic contribution. Reward experience and stress-sensitivity showed no association. PA was not heritable. Most-if not all-variance of reward experience was explained by environmental influences. Stress-sensitivity, indexing depression vulnerability, and reward experience were non-overlapping, suggesting that resilience traits are independent from stress-sensitivity levels in a general population sample.