Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Children Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2024 Nov;9(11):1141-1177. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.07.002. Epub 2024 Jul 15.
According to person-by-environment models, individual differences in traits may moderate the association between stressors and the development of psychopathology; however, findings in the literature have been inconsistent and little literature has examined adolescent brain structure as a moderator of the effects of stress on adolescent internalizing symptoms. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique opportunity to examine the associations between stress, brain structure, and psychopathology. Given links of cortical morphology with adolescent depression and anxiety, the current study investigated whether cortical morphology moderated the relationship between stress from the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of internalizing symptoms in familial high-risk adolescents.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 72 adolescents (27 male) completed a measure of depressive and anxiety symptoms and underwent magnetic resonance imaging. T1-weighted images were acquired to assess cortical thickness and surface area. Approximately 6 to 8 months after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, adolescents reported their depressive and anxiety symptoms and pandemic-related stress.
Adjusting for pre-pandemic depressive and anxiety symptoms and stress, increased pandemic-related stress was associated with increased depressive but not anxiety symptoms. This relationship was moderated by cortical thickness and surface area in the anterior cingulate and cortical thickness in the medial orbitofrontal cortex such that increased stress was only associated with increased depressive and anxiety symptoms among adolescents with lower cortical surface area and higher cortical thickness in these regions.
Results further our understanding of neural vulnerabilities to the associations between stress and internalizing symptoms in general and during the COVID-19 pandemic in particular.
根据人与环境模型，个体特质差异可能会调节压力源与精神病理学发展之间的关系；然而，文献中的研究结果并不一致，很少有研究探讨青少年大脑结构作为压力对青少年内化症状影响的调节因素。COVID-19 大流行提供了一个独特的机会，可以检验压力、大脑结构和精神病理学之间的关联。鉴于皮质形态与青少年抑郁和焦虑有关，本研究调查了皮质形态是否调节了 COVID-19 大流行期间的压力与家族性高风险青少年内化症状发展之间的关系。
在 COVID-19 大流行之前，72 名青少年（27 名男性）完成了抑郁和焦虑症状的测量，并进行了磁共振成像。采集 T1 加权图像以评估皮质厚度和表面积。在 COVID-19 宣布为全球大流行大约 6 到 8 个月后，青少年报告了他们的抑郁和焦虑症状以及与大流行相关的压力。
调整大流行前的抑郁和焦虑症状以及压力，与大流行相关的压力增加与抑郁症状增加有关，但与焦虑症状无关。这种关系在前扣带皮质的皮质厚度和表面积以及内侧眶额皮质的皮质厚度中受到调节，即只有在这些区域的皮质表面积较低和皮质厚度较高的青少年中，压力增加才与抑郁和焦虑症状的增加有关。
结果进一步了解了在压力与内化症状之间的关联中的神经易损性，尤其是在 COVID-19 大流行期间。
