Journal of psychiatric research最新文献

{"title":"Cognitive disengagement syndrome: The same as or different from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder? An examination based on biochemical parameters","authors":"Öznur Adıgüzel Akman ,&nbsp;Enes Sarıgedik","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.029","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.029","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in the biochemical blood parameters between individuals with Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and to investigate the relationship between vitamin levels and these disorders, as well as their impact on symptom severity.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>The study included 35 patients with ADHD, 35 patients with both ADHD and CDS, and 35 healthy control subjects who presented to the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic between January 2022 and 2023, matched for age and gender. Children aged 7–15 were included in the study. Participants were administered a sociodemographic data form, DSM-IV Based Screening and Assesment Scale for Disruptive Behavior Disorders- Parent form (DBSAS-DBD) and the Barkley Child Attention Scale (BCAS). Hemogram parameters, iron, ferritin, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), T3, T4, and vitamin levels (B12, folic acid, vitamin D) were analyzed for all participants.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Of the participants, 78 (74.3%) were male, and 27 (25.7%) were female. In the analysis, Vitamin B12 and D levels were found to be significantly lower in the ADHD + CDS group compared to both the ADHD group and the control group (p = 0.04; p = 0.03; p = 0.009 p = 0.004 respectively). Hemoglobin levels did not significantly differ between the ADHD + CDS group and the ADHD group, but were significantly higher in the ADHD + CDS group compared to the control group (p = 0.004). Ferritin levels were significantly lower in both the ADHD + CDS group and the ADHD group (p &lt; 0.001; p &lt; 0.001, respectively).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The significant decrease in vitamin B12 and vitamin D in the CDS + ADHD group may be related to daytime sleepiness and slow cognitive processes in the CDS clinic. Screening for nutritional deficiencies in individuals with CDS may be beneficial for clinical management, and identifying differences in blood parameters of CDS from ADHD will contribute to a better understanding of this clinical condition. This is an exploratory study with a rather small sample size, in which many outcomes were examined. Further studies with larger and more diverse samples will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the biochemical foundations of these two conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 270-276"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143007282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exercise as a mediator between childhood adversity and psychological distress: Can BDNF moderate the mediating effect?","authors":"Jia Chi Chan ,&nbsp;Chih-Ting Lee ,&nbsp;Yee-How Say ,&nbsp;Yu-Fang Lin ,&nbsp;Meng-Che Tsai","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Adverse childhood events (ACEs) have been associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in young adulthood. To identify at-risk individuals and potential strategies to combat the negative impacts of ACE, this study investigated the mediating role of exercise in the relationship between psychological distress and ACEs. Further, we examined the moderating effect of the BDNF polymorphism in the mediation relationship.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Participants (N = 750, M<em>age</em> = 20.1 years) completed questionnaires assessing ACEs divided into adverse environment (AE) and childhood maltreatment (CM), exercise, and psychological distress. Salivary genomic DNA was used for genotyping. The significance of the moderated mediation model was assessed using bootstrapping.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>There was a significant association between ACEs and psychological distress mediated by exercise. After addition of BDNF polymorphism, we found that the effect of ACEs on psychological distress through exercise was moderated by the BDNF polymorphism (index of moderated mediation = −0.19, [-0.48, −0.04], p-value ≤0.05). Further dividing ACE into AE and CM, the moderated mediation relationship remains significant only with AE (index of moderated mediation = −0.41, [-0.99, −0.10], p-value ≤0.05).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The interaction between BDNF polymorphism and exercise may be a suitable target for interventions in ACEs-experienced individuals for the prevention or reduction of psychological distress.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 277-283"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143007291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identifying major depressive disorder based on cerebral blood flow and brain structure: An explainable multimodal learning study","authors":"Jinlong Hu ,&nbsp;Yaqian Hou ,&nbsp;Bo Peng ,&nbsp;Bin Liao ,&nbsp;Ziyun Xu ,&nbsp;Gangqiang Hou ,&nbsp;Shoubin Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers non-invasive assessments of brain structure and function for analyzing brain disorders. With the increasing accumulation of multimodal MRI data in recent years, integrating information from various modalities has become an effective strategy for improving the detection of brain disorders. This study focuses on identifying major depressive disorder (MDD) by using arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion MRI in conjunction with structural MRI data. We collected ASL and structural MRI data from 260 participants, including 169 MDD patients and 91 healthy controls. We developed an explainable fusion method to identify MDD, utilizing cerebral blood flow (CBF) data from ASL perfusion MRI and brain tissue volumes from structural MRI. The fusion model, which integrates multimodal data, demonstrated superior predictive performance for MDD. By combining MRI regional volumes with CBF data, we achieved more effective results than using each modality independently. Additionally, we analyzed feature importance and interactions to explain the fusion model. We identified fourteen important features, comprising eight regional volumes and six regional CBF measures, that played a crucial role in the identification of MDD. Furthermore, we found three feature interactions among the important features and seven interactions between structural and functional features, which were particularly prominent in the model. The results of this study suggest that the fusion learning approach, which integrates ASL and structural MRI data, is effective in detecting MDD. Moreover, the study demonstrates that the model explanation method can reveal key features that influence the decisions of models, as well as potential interactions among these key features or between functional and structural features in identifying MDD.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 304-311"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143007294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The relevance of endoplasmic reticulum lumen and Anoctamin-8 for major depression: Results from a systems biology study","authors":"Sofia Cid de Azevedo ,&nbsp;Jacson Gabriel Feiten ,&nbsp;Marcelo P. Fleck ,&nbsp;Marco Antonio Caldieraro","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.039","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.039","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent and debilitating disorder, yet its pathophysiology has not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study is to identify novel potential proteins and biological processes associated with MDD through a systems biology approach. Original articles involving the measurement of proteins in the blood of patients diagnosed with MDD were selected. Data on the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in each article were extracted and imported into R, and the pathfindR package was used to identify the main gene ontology terms involved. Data from the STRING database were combined with the DEPs identified in the original studies to create expanded networks of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). An R script was developed to obtain the five most reliable connections from each DEP and to create the networks, which were visualized through Cytoscape software. Out of 510 articles found, eight that contained all the values necessary for the analysis were selected, including 1112 adult patients with MDD and 864 controls. A total of 240 DEPs were identified, with the most significant gene ontology term being “endoplasmic reticulum lumen” (46 DEPs, <em>p</em>-value = 5.5x10⁻¹³). An extended PPI network was obtained, where Anoctamin-8 was the most central protein. Using systems biology contributed to the interpretation of data obtained in proteomic studies on MDD and expanded the findings of these studies. The combined use of these methodologies can provide new insights into the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, identifying novel biomarkers to improve diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment strategies in MDD.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 329-337"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143028955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Altered controllability of functional brain networks in obsessive-compulsive disorder","authors":"Ya Tian ,&nbsp;Wenqing Shi ,&nbsp;Qiuying Tao ,&nbsp;Huiting Yang ,&nbsp;Huirong Guo ,&nbsp;Baohong Wen ,&nbsp;Zijun Liu ,&nbsp;Jin Sun ,&nbsp;Huafu Chen ,&nbsp;Yong Zhang ,&nbsp;Jingliang Cheng ,&nbsp;Shaoqiang Han","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.052","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.052","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Disruptions in the dynamic transitions between brain states have been implicated in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dysregulations across various mental disorders. However, the irregularities in dynamic brain state transitions associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain unclear. The present study included 99 patients with OCD and 104 matched healthy controls (HCs) to investigate alterations in dynamic brain state transitions by using network control theory. Functional controllability metrics were computed and compared between the OCD group and HCs. Additionally, abnormal functional connectivity (FC) between the brain regions with statistical differences in functional controllability and remaining brain regions were assessed. Patients with OCD exhibited significantly decreased average controllability (AC) and increased modal controllability (MC) in the right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), compared to the HCs. Further analysis showed significantly decreased FC between the right PHG and bilateral superior temporal gyrus and occipital gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, and right cingulate gyrus in OCD patients. The results suggest aberrant brain state transitions in OCD patients, alongside widespread disruptions within the brain functional connectome. This study highlights the critical role of altered functional controllability within the right PHG in the neuropathological mechanisms of OCD, providing novel insights into the pathogenesis of OCD.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 522-529"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dorsal bed nucleus of the stria terminalis GABA neurons are necessary for chronic unpredictable stress-induced depressive behaviors in adolescent male mice","authors":"Wenjing Hu ,&nbsp;Qiyuan Wang ,&nbsp;Lifang Jiang ,&nbsp;Lina Zhang ,&nbsp;Huichao Sun ,&nbsp;Junying Bao ,&nbsp;Xiao Chen ,&nbsp;Gaole Yuan ,&nbsp;Kai Yan ,&nbsp;Yun Liu ,&nbsp;Jian Wu ,&nbsp;Tao Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.034","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.034","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Previous studies have shown that neurons in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis (BNST) respond to stress and play a key role in mental health. However, the cellular bases of BNST in adolescent depression remain elusive.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Male C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to the control (Ctrl) or chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) groups. The CUS mice, aged 28 days, were subjected to diverse stressors at various times of the day for 12 days. Depression-like behaviors were assessed through the sucrose preference test (SPT) and tail suspension test (TST). Immunostaining was used to investigate the neural activity and subtypes in the brain. A chemogenetic tool was conducted to examine the role of specific neural activity in CUS-induced depression-like behaviors.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>CUS led to a significant decrease in preference for sucrose solution in the SPT and increased immobility time in the TST. C-Fos immunostaining showed hyperactivity of the GABAergic neurons within the dorsal BNST (dBNST^GABA). Chemogenetic activation of dBNST^GABA neurons increased depression-like behaviors. Conversely, chemogenetic inhibition of dBNST^GABA neurons led to a decrease in CUS-induced depression.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These results suggest that adolescent CUS induces hyperactivity of dBNST^GABA neurons, subsequently giving rise to depression-like behaviors and that reducing dBNST^GABA neuronal activity might constitute a novel and efficacious therapeutic approach for adolescent depression.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 347-357"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143028990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hypothalamic resting-state functional connectivity and self-evaluated aggression in young adults","authors":"Yuxing Jared Yao ,&nbsp;Yu Chen ,&nbsp;Chiang-Shan R. Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>The hypothalamus plays a pivotal role in supporting motivated behaviors, including aggression. Previous work suggested differential roles of the medial (MH) and lateral hypothalamus (LH) in aggressive behaviors, but little is known about how their resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) may relate to aggression in humans.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We employed the data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and examined the rsFC's of LH and MH in 745 young adults (393 women). We also explored sex differences in the rsFC's. We processed the imaging data with published routines and evaluated the results of voxel-wise regression on the aggression score, as obtained from Achenbach Adult Self Report, with a corrected threshold.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The analyses revealed significant rsFC's between the LH and clusters in the middle temporal and occipital gyri across all subjects and in the thalamus for men, both in negative correlation with the aggression score. The slope test confirmed sex difference in the correlation between the LH-thalamus rsFC and aggression score. No significant rsFC was observed for the MH.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings suggest a role of the LH rsFC's and sex differences in the LH-thalamus rsFC in the manifestation of aggression in humans. The findings highlight the need for further research into sex-specific neural pathways in aggression and other related behavioral traits of importance to mental health.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 421-429"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143074584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mental health assessment of transgender youth - Should standardised psychological measures be scored by norms of birth-registered sex?","authors":"Liz A Saunders ,&nbsp;Blake S Cavve ,&nbsp;Cati S Thomas ,&nbsp;Penelope Strauss ,&nbsp;Simone Mahfouda ,&nbsp;Hans-Willem van Hall ,&nbsp;Georgia Chaplyn ,&nbsp;Julia K Moore ,&nbsp;Ashleigh Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.019","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.019","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Standardised psychometric measures are used in mental health care and research settings to identify risk, assist diagnosis, and assess symptom severity. Standardised scoring of these measures involves transforming respondents’ raw scores using binary sex norms. However, scoring manuals offer no guidance as to appropriate scoring methods for trans and non-binary respondents. The Child and Adolescent Health Service - Gender Diversity Service (GDS) implemented a practice to score psychometric measures twice, according to both birth-registered sex (BRS) and the other sex (OS) norms (i.e., “double-scoring”). As it was unclear which choice of norm was the most clinically useful for the identification of risk, this study investigated whether there was any clinically meaningful difference in levels of psychopathology when scoring measures by OS versus BRS norms.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We analysed clinical-range classification of scores (clinically significant versus sub-clinical) on four sex-normed psychometric assessment measures (Child Behavior Check List, Youth Self Report, Social Responsiveness Scale 2, and Beck Youth Inventory) completed by GENder identiTy Longitudinal Experience (GENTLE) participants, as part of standard initial assessment at the GDS (<em>N</em> = 233).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Sub-domains within all four measures resulted in inconsistent classifications of between 0 and 15% of participants into clinical versus sub-clinical ranges when scored using OS versus BRS norm.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Scoring sex-normed standardised psychometric measures by BRS or OS results in different scores, in varying domains, and not in a uniform way. For clinical use, we suggest it is preferable to err on the side of sensitivity. For research purposes, we recommend standardised use of birth-registered sex norms for current measures. We suggest developing universal non-gendered psychometric measures which rate psychological symptoms according to distress and functional impairment, resulting in a more inclusive, equitable framework for evaluating mental health in gender diverse populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 513-521"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143138849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"EEG alpha activity as predictor for TBS-rTMS treatment outcome in depression","authors":"Barbora Provaznikova,&nbsp;Anna Monn,&nbsp;Erich Seifritz,&nbsp;Golo Kronenberg,&nbsp;Sebastian Olbrich","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an established psychiatric procedure for patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Biomarker identification to predict rTMS outcomes may assist the clinician in optimizing treatment selection. In recent years, different electrophysiological markers, in particular electroencephalographic (EEG) markers, were shown to yield discriminative power between responders and non-responders to various TRD treatments. However, so far, predictive markers for the Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS) protocol have remained scarce. The present study, therefore, aimed to identify such markers. Resting state EEGs of 10–15 min were done in a group of 46 TRD patients prior to rTMS TBS treatment (600 stimuli over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Each patient underwent 19–21 sessions with 4–5 sessions per week. Depression was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory II. Our study demonstrated that responders exhibited significantly lower FAA values in a baseline EEG indicating that left frontal alpha dominance was associated with a positive response to TBS-rTMS in TRD patients. FAA was independent of both gender and age. No other biomarker, including alpha peak frequency, or alpha power, showed a significant difference between responders and non-responders. Taken together, FAA observed in EEG readings is emerging as a promising indicator of treatment outcomes in patients with TRD. Given these findings, we suggest considering FAA as a predictive factor when assessing the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. Further studies replicating these results in larger, diverse populations are needed to confirm FAA as a reliable biomarker of clinical outcome.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 4-12"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142965408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of pandemic-related pregnancy stress from seven western countries using Rasch analyses","authors":"Blanca Riquelme-Gallego ,&nbsp;Jorge Luis Ordoñez-Carrasco ,&nbsp;Claudia Suárez-Yera ,&nbsp;Antonio Jose Rojas-Tejada ,&nbsp;Heidi Preis ,&nbsp;Marci Lobel ,&nbsp;Brittain Mahaffey ,&nbsp;Rita Amiel Castro ,&nbsp;Shir Atzil ,&nbsp;Matteo Balestrieri ,&nbsp;Anna Brandt-Salmeri ,&nbsp;Chiara Colli ,&nbsp;Lorenza Driul ,&nbsp;Marco Garzitto ,&nbsp;Michalina Ilska ,&nbsp;Anna Kołodziej-Zaleska ,&nbsp;Pearl La Marca-Ghaemmaghami ,&nbsp;Hannah Meyerhoff ,&nbsp;Chiara Penengo ,&nbsp;Inbal Reuveni ,&nbsp;Rafael A. Caparros-Gonzalez","doi":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.12.045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.12.045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>This study examined psychometric properties of the Pandemic-Related Pregnancy Stress Scale (PREPS) using a Rasch Model (RM) in a large sample of pregnant women from Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America (USA).</div></div><div><h3>Material and methods</h3><div>Rasch analyses were used to analyze a sample of 7185 pregnant women who completed the PREPS during the COVID-19 pandemic onset from April to August 2020. Psychological, sociodemographic, and obstetric factors were also collected and analyzed.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>12-item and 15-item PREPS versions showed acceptable fit indices. The separation index for persons on both versions allows to distinguish more than two levels of performance and for items (high and low performers). For items, it was above 30 and the strata value for items was above 45. The category probability curves for the 12-item version showed that threshold parameter categories showed a coherent order with the meaning of the response options. However, this did not occur in the 15-item version<strong>.</strong> The item-person map showed that each item is represented by an equal length of the segment, and its threshold parameters differ only in the stress severity values. Also, there is an overlap of items. Finally, DIF analysis showed many CC-rated items as well as many items with a BB rating could be revised.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The implications of this psychometric study lie in the importance of having accurate measures of the stress that pregnant women in various parts of the world have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16868,"journal":{"name":"Journal of psychiatric research","volume":"182 ","pages":"Pages 92-99"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142978878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}