Depression and Quarantine
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- Written by Miljan Jović
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and more than 264 million people all around the world suffer from depression (WHO, 2020). It has been shown that depression can lead to problems at work, at school, and in the family among affected persons, and at its worst, depression can even lead to suicide (WHO, 2020).
Will Big Data provide insights into psychiatry?
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- Written by Hema Sekhar Reddy Rajula
The extracted information from brain imaging datasets provides more accurate inferences about diseases, causes and which features would be useful for diagnostics. Can experts in Big Data look at brain scans from patients living with schizophrenia and healthy controls and determine which person is living with schizophrenia and which is not?
How mother's smoking during pregnancy might harmfully impact offspring's health?
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- Written by Ville Karhunen
Mother’s smoking during pregnancy is known to be associated with the offspring’s health outcomes, such as childhood behaviour and other health conditions later in life; some of these are related to mental health. However, the biological mechanisms that could be involved are not yet understood.
It has been suggested that epigenetics might play a role; epigenetics is the study of changes in DNA that do not alter the DNA sequence itself. These changes might influence gene activity and, consequently, gene functioning and development.
What is heritability?
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- Written by Ashley Thompson
Heritability is a word often used in popular science articles; however it is frequently misunderstood, even by scientists. Heritability is the difference, or variance, of a trait between people that can be attributed to differences in genetic factors. To phrase this in another way, heritability does not explain the fraction of trait caused by genes, but the impact of genes on the difference of a particular trait between you and the person next to you.
Genetic prediction of cognitive traits in adolescence
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- Written by Andrea Giuseppe Allegrini
Differences in cognitive characteristics in children and adolescents may in part be predicted by analysing the combined effect of tiny DNA differences across the population. By adding up these changes in DNA code it is possible to calculate so-called ‘polygenic scores’: an index reflecting the individual genetic predisposition to a particular trait (e.g. a certain behaviour).
Common metric for internalising problems and ADHD
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- Written by Kratika Agarwal
Mental health disorders are common in children and adolescents. It is therefore important to do research into the causal mechanisms and the development of mental health symptoms across the life-span and to study the effect of interventions and prevention. Mental health symptoms are often measured by means of questionnaires. These questionnaires are known for their association with clinical diagnoses and are therefore widely used in clinical practice.
Co-morbidity and long-term outcomes of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents
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- Written by Sabrina Doering
Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders, for example, specific phobia, where people are extremely afraid of a specific object or situation that normally poses little or no real danger. Another example is a social anxiety disorder, where people are scared to talk to other people, thinking that they will embarrass themselves and will be talked about badly behind their backs.
Will Big Data analysis provide insights into childhood and adolescent psychopathology?
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- Written by Elizabeth Diemer
Health research in the 21st century has been marked by a massive increase in the availability and use of Big Data, data that include more participants and are more complex than conventional datasets.
This availability, combined with technological developments and predictions around Big Data, such as deep learning, has transformed many industries. Consequently, many have been asking if Big Data will allow us to finally develop cures for psychiatric conditions. The short answer to this is no.
Genetic Influences in Psychiatric Disorders
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- Written by Marica Leone
In recent years, impressive progress has been made in the field of psychiatric genetics. The latest research shows how much DNA contributes to people’s predisposition, not only towards physical health conditions but also towards mental health disorders. In fact, one of the main findings is that all major psychiatric disorders show significant genetic influences.
Usually, these traits are at least 50% heritable, meaning that 50+% of the differences in a particular psychological trait between individuals can be explained by their inherited DNA differences. This is astonishing when considering that prostate cancer is about 58% heritable and breast cancer is only 30%.
Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders: an example of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
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- Written by Elis Haan
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), 10-20% of children and adolescents worldwide suffer from mental health problems. Half of all mental disorders start by the age of 14 years and if support is not provided at the right time, mental health problems may get more serious and can have negative effects on the future and quality of life of young people.
Comorbidity in childhood psychopathology
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- Written by Omowonuola Akingbuwa
Comorbidity is the co-occurrence of more than one disorder in the same individual. One of the most frequent childhood examples is seen in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), who also frequently have comorbid symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder (CD). However, emotional disorders like anxiety and depression also frequently co-occur with behavioural disorders such as ADHD and CD, as well as with each other.
Risk factors for psychopathology – Nature or Nurture?
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- Written by Laura Schellas
I started studying clinical psychology with a vision to reduce the burden of mental ill-health. The most logical way to accomplish this was to investigate factors that may lead to the development of mental health problems as early in life as possible. Therefore, I began to investigate the effect of problematic parent-interactions on children’s mental health. I spent hours and hours observing video material of parents affected by depression interacting with their young children.
The role of genes in the development of mental health problems
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- Written by Eshim Shahid
It is highly probable that an individual living with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety or depression has a family member that also has mental health problems. Similar to traits like height and eye color, psychiatric problems are also heritable. This is why health practitioners often ask for the family history of mental illness when making a diagnosis.
Research suggests that psychiatric disorders are strongly influenced by genetic factors. In the past, studies in twins were the most popular method of investigating the genetic basis of psychiatric traits.
