Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with advanced epigenetic age cross-sectionally, but the association between these variables over time is unclear. This study conducted meta-analyses to test whether new-onset PTSD diagnosis and changes in PTSD symptom severity over time were associated with changes in two metrics of epigenetic aging over two time points.

We conducted meta-analyses of the association between change in PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity and change in epigenetic age acceleration/deceleration (age-adjusted DNA methylation age residuals as per the Horvath and GrimAge metrics) using data from 7 military and civilian cohorts participating in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium PTSD Epigenetics Workgroup (total N = 1,367).

Meta-analysis revealed that the interaction between Time 1 (T1) Horvath age residuals and new-onset PTSD over time was significantly associated with Horvath age residuals at T2 (meta β = 0.16, meta p = 0.02, p-adj = 0.03). The interaction between T1 Horvath age residuals and changes in PTSD symptom severity over time was significantly related to Horvath age residuals at T2 (meta β = 0.24, meta p = 0.05). No associations were observed for GrimAge residuals.

Results indicated that individuals who developed new-onset PTSD or showed increased PTSD symptom severity over time evidenced greater epigenetic age acceleration at follow-up than would be expected based on baseline age acceleration. This suggests that PTSD may accelerate biological aging over time and highlights the need for intervention studies to determine if PTSD treatment has a beneficial effect on the aging methylome.

While the cross-sectional relationship between internet gaming disorder (IGD) and depression is well-established, whether IGD predicts future depression remains debated, and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. This large-scale, three-wave longitudinal study aimed to clarify the predictive role of IGD in depression and explore the mediating effects of resilience and sleep distress.

A cohort of 41,215 middle school students from Zigong City was assessed at three time points: November 2021 (T1), November 2022 (T2) and November 2023 (T3). IGD, depression, sleep distress and resilience were measured using standardized questionnaires. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the associations between baseline IGD and both concurrent and subsequent depression. Mediation analyses were conducted with T1 IGD as the predictor, T2 sleep distress and resilience as serial mediators and T3 depression as the outcome. To test the robustness of the findings, a series of sensitivity analyses were performed. Additionally, sex differences in the mediation pathways were explored.

(1) IGD was independently associated with depression at baseline (T1: adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 4.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.79–5.98, p < 0.001), 1 year later (T2: AOR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.16–1.74, p < 0.001) and 2 years later (T3: AOR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.01–1.53, p = 0.042); (2) A serial multiple mediation effect of sleep distress and resilience was identified in the relationship between IGD and depression. The mediation ratio was 60.7% in the unadjusted model and 33.3% in the fully adjusted model, accounting for baseline depression, sleep distress, resilience and other covariates. The robustness of our findings was supported by various sensitivity analyses; and (3) Sex differences were observed in the mediating roles of sleep distress and resilience, with the mediation ratio being higher in boys compared to girls.

IGD is a significant predictor of depression in adolescents, with resilience and sleep distress serving as key mediators. Early identification and targeted interventions for IGD may help prevent depression. Intervention strategies should prioritize enhancing resilience and improving sleep quality, particularly among boys at risk.

Mental health regional differences during pregnancy through the COVID-19 pandemic is understudied.

We aimed to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal mental health during pregnancy.

A cohort study with a web-based recruitment strategy and electronic data collection was initiated in 06/2020. Although Canadian women, >18 years were primarily targeted, pregnant women worldwide were eligible. The current analysis includes data on women enrolled 06/2020-11/2020. Self-reported data included mental health measures (Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Generalized Anxiety Disorders (GAD-7)), stress. We compared maternal mental health stratifying on country/continents of residence, and identified determinants of mental health using multivariable regression models.

Of 2,109 pregnant women recruited, 1,932 were from Canada, 48 the United States (US), 73 Europe, 35 Africa, and 21 Asia/Oceania. Mean depressive symptom scores were lower in Canada (EPDS 8.2, SD 5.2) compared to the US (EPDS 10.5, SD 4.8) and Europe (EPDS 10.4, SD 6.5) (p<0.05), regardless of being infected or not. Maternal anxiety, stress, decreased income and access to health care due to the pandemic were increasing maternal depression. The prevalence of severe anxiety was similar across country/continents. Maternal depression, stress, and earlier recruitment during the pandemic (June/July) were associated with increased maternal anxiety.

In this first international study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, CONCEPTION has shown significant country/continent-specific variations in depressive symptoms during pregnancy, whereas severe anxiety was similar regardless of place of residence. Strategies are needed to reduce COVID-19’s mental health burden in pregnancy.

No significant relationships.

To summarise and describe the clinical presentations, diagnostic approaches and airway management techniques in children with laryngotracheal trauma.

The clinical data related to laryngotracheal trauma diagnosed and treated at the Beijing Children's Hospital, between January 2013 and July 2018, were retrospectively reviewed. Disease diagnosis, treatment, management and outcomes were analysed.

A total of 13 cases were enrolled, including 7 cases of penetrating laryngotracheal trauma. The six cases of blunt laryngotracheal trauma were caused by collisions with hard objects. In all cases, voice, airway and swallowing outcomes were graded as ‘good’, except for one patient who had residual paralysis of the vocal folds.

Flexible fibre-optic laryngoscopy and computed tomography can play an important role in diagnosing laryngotracheal trauma. The airway should be secured and, if necessary, opened by tracheal intubation or tracheostomy.

The aim of the present study was to perform a retrospective review of the lesion sites in congenital middle-ear cholesteatoma and any accompanying ossicular defects, as well as to explore the possible aetiology of congenital middle-ear cholesteatoma associated with such ossicular chain defects.

The clinical characteristics and pathogenic mechanisms of ossicular chain defects were investigated in 10 patients with early-stage congenital middle-ear cholesteatoma confirmed by surgery, from August 2011 to February 2019.

Monofocal cholesteatoma was located in the anterosuperior quadrant in 3 cases and in the posterosuperior quadrant in 7 cases; all 10 cases showed an absence of the long crus of incus, and 8 cases showed a complete or partial absence of stapes superstructure. The lesions were confined to the vestibular window and the stapes region and had no contact with the long crus of the incus or stapes in nine cases. None of the 10 patients had any recurrence of cholesteatoma.

Although cholesteatoma can cause erosion of ossicles, the present cases suggest that residual epithelium of the cholesteatoma may coexist with ossicular malformations. Therefore, the aetiology of the clinical characteristics in these patients may derive from residual epithelial hinderance of ossicle development.

To investigate the association between parity and the risk of incident dementia in women.

We pooled baseline and follow-up data for community-dwelling women aged 60 or older from six population-based, prospective cohort studies from four European and two Asian countries. We investigated the association between parity and incident dementia using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for age, educational level, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and cohort, with additional analysis by dementia subtype (Alzheimer dementia (AD) and non-Alzheimer dementia (NAD)).

Of 9756 women dementia-free at baseline, 7010 completed one or more follow-up assessments. The mean follow-up duration was 5.4 ± 3.1 years and dementia developed in 550 participants. The number of parities was associated with the risk of incident dementia (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02–1.13). Grand multiparity (five or more parities) increased the risk of dementia by 30% compared to 1–4 parities (HR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.02–1.67). The risk of NAD increased by 12% for every parity (HR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.02–1.23) and by 60% for grand multiparity (HR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.00–2.55), but the risk of AD was not significantly associated with parity.

Grand multiparity is a significant risk factor for dementia in women. This may have particularly important implications for women in low and middle-income countries where the fertility rate and prevalence of grand multiparity are high.

Studies revealed that prenatal stress (PS) may increase the vulnerability to depression in their offspring, and ERK-CREB signal system might play a role in its mechanism.

The present study investigated the effect of MK-801 on depressive-like behavior and its impacts on ERK2, CREB, Bcl-2 mRNA expression in PS female rat offspring.

The pregnant rats were randomly divided into three groups, the control group (Con) was left undisturbed, the PS-saline group (PS-saline) and the PS-MK-801 group (PS-MK-801) were subjected to restraint stress on days 14–20 of pregnancy three times daily for 45 min, and received an i.p. administration of saline or MK-801(sigma, 0.2 mg/kg) 30 min before the first stress respectively. Forced swimming test was undertaken to assess depressive-like behavior in one month female offspring. ERK2, CREB, Bcl-2 mRNA in the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and striatum were detected by RT-PCR.

PS-saline spent significantly more immobile time compared to Con and PS-MK-801 (P < 0.05). ERK2 and CREB mRNA expression in hippocampus and frontal cortex was significantly decreased in PS-saline compared to Con and PS-MK-801 (P < 0.05), while in striatum CREB mRNA expression in PS-saline was lower than Con (P < 0.05). Bcl-2 mRNA expression in hippocampus and striatum was significantly decreased in PS-saline (P < 0.05), and in frontal cortex, its expression was significantly lower in PS-saline and PS-MK-801 (P < 0.05).

PS may suppress ERK-CREB signal pathway in female offspring rats, which could be partly prevented by MK- 801. (Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No: 30970952).

Studies have convinced that the rodents' exposure to prenatal stress (PNS) may induce depression and anxiety to their offspring. We focused on the glutamatergic system to explore the mechanisms.

By examining EAAT2,EAAT3 (Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2,3), which are the only substances to inactivate glutamate in nervous system, we explored the effect of PNS on glutamatergic system.

Pregnant rats were assigned to Control group (CON), Middle period of PNS group (MPS) and Late period of PNS group (LPS). MPS and LPS rats were exposed to restraint stress on days 7–13, 14–20 of pregnancy three times daily for 45 min. EAAT2 and EAAT3 mRNA expression in the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and striatum of one month rat offspring were checked by RT-PCR.

For the female offspring, EAAT2 mRNA expression of hippocampus in LPS and MPS was significantly lower compared to CON(P = 0.008,p = 0.003); EAAT2 and EAAT3 mRNA expression of frontal cortex in LPS were significantly lower than CON (p = 0.003,p = 0.013). for the male offspring, EAAT2 and EAAT3 mRNA expression of hippocampus in LPS and MPS were significantly lower (p = 0.005, p = 0.05); EAAT2 mRNA expression of frontal cortex was significantly lower in LPS (p = 0.022); EAAT2 mRNA in LPS group and MPS were significantly lower (p = 0.009, p = 0.014), and EAAT3 mRNA expression of striatum in MPS was significantly lower (p = 0.049).

Decreased EAAT2 and EAAT3 of PNS may explain the increase of glutamate in synaptic cleft and its downstream excitotoxicity. (Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No: 30970952)

Epidemiological studies have convinced that prenatal stress (PS) might cause offspring depression.

Our pervious research work certified that PS can increases the glutamate level of hippocampus of rat offspring, which inspired us to explore the pathogenesis of depression by focusing on glutamatergic system.

Pregnant rats were randomly assigned to control group (CON), mid prenatal stress group (MPS) and late prenatal stress group (LPS). The pregnant rats of MPS and LPS were exposed to restraint stress on days 7–13, 14–20 of pregnancy three times for 45 min respectively. Tail suspension test (TST) was performed to examine the depression like behavior and Western-blot were used to test phosphorylated GluR1(pGluR1) of AMPAR expression in the hippocampus, striatum and frontal cortex of one month rat offspring.

For both male and female offspring, the time of immobility of TST in LPS (156±11, 155±12) and MPS (173±15, 155±12) was significantly longer (P< 0.05) than CON(118±8,113±12), the latency in MPS (18±3, 24±3) was significantly shorter (P< 0.05) than CON (30±5, 58±11). The pGluR1 expression in hippocampus and frontal cortex in LPS (1.77±0.45, 1.00±0.09) and MPS (1.65±0.51, 1.05±0.18) were significantly lower (P< 0.05) than CON (3.72±0.86, 2.05±0.34) in male rat offspring.

It is suggested that the PS may induce depression like behavior in rat offspring, and glutamate receptors subunit pGluR1 might be involved in the etiology of depression.

(The research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No: 30970952, 18110059).

Many MRI studies have cited major depression, with or without anti-depressive treatment, associated with structural plasticity changing in several brain regions. Few of these studies researched the effect of the anti-depressive treatment, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), on depression.

To assess the influence of ECT on the brain structure change during the treatment process by utilizing the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis.

To determine whether ECT alter brain structure.

We performed HAMD ratings and MRI scans on 12 depressive patients during ECT, analyzing the data by VBM with SPM8 software's family-wise error correction (FWE).

The researchers found volumes changes in white matter in 37 regions between pre-ECT and post-ECT1, but only one region changing between pre-ECT and post-ECT8. Seven regions changing in grey matter between pre-ECT and post-ECT 1⌧but none regions changing between pre-ECT and post-ECT8.

The density changes in several brain regions after a single ECT stimuli, but return to the original level after completing the eighth ECT. Our finding supports that ECT may play a temporary role in treating major depression but do not permanently alter the structures of brain.

Childhoods in urban or rural environments may differentially affect risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we leveraged on dramatic urbanization and rural-urban migration since the 1980s in China to explore the hypothesis that rural or urban childhoods may differentially influence memory processing and neural responses to neutral and aversive stimuli.

Explore the underlying mechanisms of childhood environment effect on brain function and neuropsychiatric risk.

We examined 420 adult subjects with similar current socioeconomic status and living in Beijing, China, but with differing rural (n = 227) or urban (n = 193) childhoods. In an episodic memory paradigm scanned in a 3 T GE MRI, subjects viewed blocks of neutral or aversive pictures in the encoding and retrieval sessions.

Episodic memory accuracy for neutral stimuli was less than for aversive stimuli (P < 0.001). However, subjects with rural childhoods apparently performed less accurately for memory of aversive but not neutral stimuli (P < 0.01). In subjects with rural childhoods, there was relatively increased engagement of bilateral striatum at encoding, increased engagement of bilateral hippocampus at retrieval of neutral and aversive stimuli, and increased engagement of amygdala at aversive retrieval (P < 0.05 FDR corrected, cluster size > 50).

Rural or urban childhoods appear associated with physiological and behavioural differences, particularly in the neural processing of aversive episodic memory at medial temporal and striatal brain regions. It remains to be explored the extent to which these effects relate to individual risk for neuropsychiatric or stress-related disorders.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.