{"title":"A Beacon of Hope: Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Refractory Self-Injurious Behavior in Children","authors":"Jordan J. Lo , Stephen Z. Shapiro , Lora W. Kahn","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.04.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.04.005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"97 12","pages":"Pages 1106-1107"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144169852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Uncovering the Genetic Architecture of Differentiation Between Childhood Behavioral and Emotional Problems: A Predominant Overlap With Neurodevelopmental Conditions","authors":"Geneviève Morneau-Vaillancourt","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.04.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.04.004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"97 12","pages":"Pages 1111-1112"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144169845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuefeng Huang, Eduardo R Butelman, Ahmet O Ceceli, Greg Kronberg, Sarah G King, Natalie E McClain, Yui Ying Wong, Maggie Boros, K Rachel Drury, Rajita Sinha, Nelly Alia-Klein, Rita Z Goldstein
{"title":"Sex and hormonal effects on drug cue-reactivity and its regulation in human addiction.","authors":"Yuefeng Huang, Eduardo R Butelman, Ahmet O Ceceli, Greg Kronberg, Sarah G King, Natalie E McClain, Yui Ying Wong, Maggie Boros, K Rachel Drury, Rajita Sinha, Nelly Alia-Klein, Rita Z Goldstein","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.016","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The underlying cortico-striatal mechanisms of sex and hormonal effects in addiction are unknown, limiting the development of personalized treatments.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Thirty-two women (age=38.85±9.84) with heroin or cocaine use disorder (HUD=16; CUD=16) and 49 age-matched men (age=41.96±9.71) with HUD were scanned using functional MRI, with a subgroup of women (HUD=3; CUD=13) scanned twice, during the late-follicular and mid-luteal phases.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Women showed higher medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) drug cue-reactivity while men showed higher frontal eye field (FEF)/dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) drug reappraisal as associated with lower cue-induced drug craving. In the women, drug cue-reactivity was higher during the follicular phase in the FEF/dlPFC, whereas drug reappraisal was higher during the luteal phase in the anterior PFC/orbitofrontal cortex. The more the estradiol during the follicular vs. luteal phase (Δ), the higher the Δdrug cue-reactivity in the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC), which also correlated with higher Δdrug craving (observed also in the inferior frontal gyrus). The more this Δestradiol, the lower the Δdrug reappraisal in the vmPFC, anterior PFC and striatum. Conversely, during the luteal vs. follicular phase, Δprogesterone/estradiol ratio was positively associated with Δdrug reappraisal in the dlPFC.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Compared to men with HUD, women with HUD/CUD show more cortico-striatal drug cue-reactivity and less PFC drug reappraisal activity, driven by the follicular compared to luteal phase and directly related to craving and fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone with the former constituting a vulnerability and the latter a protective factor; providing insights for developing precisely timed and hormonally informed treatments for women with HUD/CUD.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144180714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shelby D Leverett, Olivia Poolos, Rebecca G Brady, Rebecca Tillman, Rachel E Lean, Emily D Gerstein, Berenice Anaya, Regina L Triplett, Dimitrios Alexopoulos, Barbara Warner, Joan L Luby, Christopher D Smyser, Cynthia E Rogers, Deanna M Barch
{"title":"Neonatal Brain Volumes and Early Parenting Behavior as Mediators in Associations Between Prenatal Social Disadvantage and Socioemotional Problems in Toddlers.","authors":"Shelby D Leverett, Olivia Poolos, Rebecca G Brady, Rebecca Tillman, Rachel E Lean, Emily D Gerstein, Berenice Anaya, Regina L Triplett, Dimitrios Alexopoulos, Barbara Warner, Joan L Luby, Christopher D Smyser, Cynthia E Rogers, Deanna M Barch","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.015","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.015","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Social disadvantage has been associated with early socioemotional difficulties. In this study, we examined mechanisms that relate prenatal social disadvantage (PSD) to the development of early socioemotional problems by testing whether these associations were mediated by 1) neonatal brain volumes (BVs) and/or 2) early parenting behaviors.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Women were recruited early in their pregnancies and followed prospectively. PSD encompassed access to material (e.g., income-to-needs, health insurance, area deprivation, nutrition, education) resources during pregnancy. Shortly after birth, neonates underwent structural magnetic resonance scanning. Mother-child dyads returned for parenting observations at child age 1 year, and parents reported child socioemotional problems (Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment: externalizing, dysregulation, internalizing) at age 2 years (N = 267; 45% female). Simple and parallel mediation models were used to test hypotheses.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Greater PSD was associated with increased externalizing and dysregulation symptoms at age 2 years. PSD-associated reductions in neonatal BVs (cortical gray matter, white matter, total brain) mediated both PSD-externalizing and PSD-dysregulation associations. The PSD-externalizing association was additionally mediated by early parenting behaviors, particularly nonsupportive parenting behaviors. Thus, for externalizing symptoms, nonsupportive parenting behaviors and mediating brain metrics were examined simultaneously in parallel mediation models. Nonsupportive parenting remained a significant mediator, while neonatal BVs were no longer significant.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>PSD-associated brain structural alterations at birth may serve as early risk factors for the development of multidimensional socioemotional difficulties in toddlerhood. However, parenting emerged as a stronger mediator for externalizing problems, lending support to parenting behaviors as key intervention targets for the prevention of externalizing problems during early childhood.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melvin G. McInnis , Ben Coleman , Eric Hurwitz , Peter N. Robinson , Andrew E. Williams , Melissa A. Haendel , Julie A. McMurry
{"title":"Integrating Knowledge: The Power of Ontologies in Psychiatric Research and Clinical Informatics","authors":"Melvin G. McInnis , Ben Coleman , Eric Hurwitz , Peter N. Robinson , Andrew E. Williams , Melissa A. Haendel , Julie A. McMurry","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ontologies are structured frameworks for representing knowledge by systematically defining concepts, categories, and their relationships. While widely adopted in biomedicine, ontologies remain largely absent in mental health research and clinical care, where the field continues to rely heavily on existing classification systems (e.g., the DSM). Although useful for clinical communication and administrative purposes, they lack the semantic structure, computational properties, and reasoning properties needed to integrate diverse data sources or support artificial intelligence–enabled analysis. This reliance on classification systems limits efforts to analyze and interpret complex, heterogeneous psychiatric data. In mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder, the lack of formalized semantic models contributes to diagnostic inconsistencies, fragmented data structures, and barriers to precision medicine. By contrast, ontologies provide a standardized, machine-readable foundation for linking multimodal data sources, such as electronic health records, genetic and neuroimaging data, and social determinants of health, while enabling secure, deidentified computation. In this review, we survey the current landscape of mental health ontologies and highlight the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) as a promising framework for bridging psychiatric and medical phenotypes. We describe ongoing efforts to enhance the HPO through curated psychiatric terms, refined definitions, and structured mappings of observed phenomena. The Global Bipolar Cohort (GBC), an international collaboration, exemplifies this approach through the development of a consensus-driven ontology tailored to bipolar disorder. By supporting semantic interoperability, reproducible research, and individualized care, ontology-based approaches provide essential infrastructure for overcoming the limitations of classification systems and advancing data-driven precision psychiatry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":"98 4","pages":"Pages 293-301"},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yasmin Zakiniaeiz, Ansel T Hillmer, Hannah Shi, Brian Pittman, Nabeel Nabulsi, Yiyun Huang, Robin Bonomi, David Matuskey, Gustavo A Angarita, Sherry A McKee, Kelly P Cosgrove
{"title":"Greater Neuroimmune System Deficit in Women Than Men With Alcohol Use Disorder.","authors":"Yasmin Zakiniaeiz, Ansel T Hillmer, Hannah Shi, Brian Pittman, Nabeel Nabulsi, Yiyun Huang, Robin Bonomi, David Matuskey, Gustavo A Angarita, Sherry A McKee, Kelly P Cosgrove","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Women who drink are more vulnerable than men to many of the consequences of alcohol use, including alcohol-related cancers, cardiovascular disease, liver cirrhosis, and immune system dysfunction. Acute alcohol triggers neuroimmune cells including microglia-the brain's resident immune cells. Excessive activation can contribute to neuronal dysfunction and alcohol-induced neurodegeneration. Women have a greater vulnerability to alcohol-induced neurodegeneration; thus, there is a critical need to examine sex differences in neuroimmune mechanisms that underlie alcohol use disorder (AUD) to inform novel treatment strategies for women.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 41 individuals with mild-to-moderate AUD (20 women) and 37 sex-matched control individuals completed a positron emission tomography brain imaging scan with the radiotracer [<sup>11</sup>C]PBR28, which binds to the 18-kDa TSPO, a microglial marker. Volume of distribution was estimated regionally in the cerebellum, hippocampus, striatum, and frontal cortex as a measure of TSPO availability. Neurocognitive function was also assessed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>People with versus without AUD had significantly lower TSPO availability in all brain regions. Women (but not men) with AUD had significantly lower TSPO availability (average of 21%) in all 4 regions (p = .022) compared with sex-matched control participants. Women with versus without AUD performed worse on executive function (p = .020). Lower hippocampal (p = .059) and cerebellar (p = .097) TSPO availability were trendingly related to more errors on the executive function task in women with AUD.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study showed lower TSPO levels in people with mild-to-moderate AUD versus control participants and demonstrated that the deficit was significantly greater in women than men with AUD. This suggests that women with AUD may particularly benefit from novel neuroimmune-modulating treatments for AUD.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144141099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding the Neurobiology and Computational Mechanisms of Social Conformity: Implications for Psychiatric Disorders.","authors":"Yutong Li, Yafeng Pan, Di Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.05.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social conformity and psychiatric disorders share overlapping brain regions and neural pathways, arousing our interest in uncovering their potentially shared underlying neural and computational mechanisms. Critically, the dynamics of group behavior may either mitigate or exacerbate mental health conditions, highlighting the need to bridge social neuroscience and psychiatry. Our work examines how aberrant neurobiological circuits and computations influence social conformity. We propose a hierarchical computational framework, based on dynamic systems and active inference, to facilitate the interpretation of the multilayered interplay among processes that drive social conformity. We underscore the significant implications of this hierarchical computational framework for guiding future research on psychiatry, particularly with respect to the clinical translation of interventions such as targeted pharmacotherapy and neurostimulation techniques. Interdisciplinary efforts hold the potential to propel the fields of social and clinical neuroscience forward, fostering the emergence of more efficacious and individualized therapeutic approaches tailored to psychiatric disorders characterized by aberrant social behaviors.</p>","PeriodicalId":8918,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychiatry","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144131898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}