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Suicide is commonly found in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), while the associations among depressive symptoms and their relationships with suicidal risk remain unclear. This study identified the symptoms associated with suicidal risk and the most central symptoms in the MDD networks based on both self-reported and clinical-interview scales. A total of 446 outpatients with MDD were recruited. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) was used to assess the suicidal risk. The 13-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13) and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) were used to measure the depressive symptoms. Network analysis was used to estimate the network models. Ten symptoms in the BDI-13 network were related to suicidal risk, among which sadness had the strongest association. Among the six symptoms in the HAMD-17 network that were associated with suicidal risk, guilty feeling was the strongest. Sense of failure was the most central symptom in the BDI-13 network, while depressed mood had the highest centrality in the HAMD-17 network. The depressive symptoms related to suicide risk and the clinical features of MDD showed different characteristics based on different assessment types. Combining self-reported and clinician-rated assessments in future studies and clinical practice might lead to some new findings.

Background The synergic interaction of risk genes and environmental factors has been thought to play a critical role in mediating emotion-related brain circuitry function and dysfunction in depression and anxiety disorders. Little, however, is known regarding neurodevelopmental bases underlying how maternal negative parenting affects emotion-related brain circuitry linking to adolescent internalizing symptoms and whether this neurobehavioral association is heritable during adolescence. Methods The effects of maternal parenting on amygdala-based emotional circuitry and internalizing symptoms were examined by using longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging among 100 monozygotic twins and 78 dizygotic twins from early adolescence (age 13 years) to mid-adolescence (age 16 years). The mediation effects among variables of interest and their heritability were assessed by structural equation modeling and quantitative genetic analysis, respectively. Results Exposure to maternal negative parenting was positively predictive of stronger functional connectivity of the amygdala with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. This neural pathway mediated the association between negative parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms and exhibited moderate heritability (21%). Conclusions These findings highlight that maternal negative parenting in early adolescence is associated with the development of atypical amygdala-prefrontal connectivity in relation to internalizing depressive symptoms in mid-adolescence. Such abnormality of emotion-related brain circuitry is heritable to a moderate degree.

This study aimed to assess social preferences in dynamic interpersonal interactions among preschool children and to examine the effects of peer relationship (friend vs. stranger) and peer presence (peer presence vs. peer absence) on giving and repaying. Ninety-nine children participated in a triad game, which consisted of two mixed-dictator games. The allocations from a proposer in the first dictator game were evaluated as giving, and the allocations from two respondents in the second dictator game were evaluated as repaying friends and strangers. The results indicated that children did not have any specific social preferences for friends in giving and repaying but had altruistic and fair preferences for giving to strangers, and strangers had egoistic preferences in repaying. Furthermore, children allocated more to strangers than to friends and allocated more in peer presence. Besides, friends positively reciprocated to proposers in peer absence and repaid less in peer presence. However, strangers consistently repaid less regardless of whether peers were present or not. These results provide more evidence for the assumption of weak ties in giving and demonstrate the strength of strong ties in repaying. These findings enhance our understanding of the interplay of childhood interactions in the development of early relationships.

The present study was conducted to explore the associations between explicit self-esteem (ESE), implicit self-esteem (ISE), ESE/ISE discrepancies, depression severity, suicidal ideation (SI), and suicide risk among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). To this end, 36 MDD patients with SI, 35 MDD patients without SI, and 32 healthy controls were recruited. All participants were interviewed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), and they also completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation-Chinese Version (BSI-CV) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) were used for the analysis. Further, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) was conducted to assess participants' ISE. The study revealed significant differences in ESE among the three groups, F(2, 90) = 44.88, p .001. In particular, the group of MDD patients with SI had the lowest score. The interaction between the size and direction of ESE/ISE discrepancy was associated with depression severity, β = -.50, p = .004, and SI, β = -.39, p = .045. Among the four types of self-esteem, individuals with diminished self-esteem had the highest SI score whereas individuals with low congruent self-esteem had the highest suicide risk score. Based on these findings, the study suggested that diminished self-esteem could help in the early detection of depression and SI. Low-congruent self-esteem may also be considered a screening factor for suicide risk.

The Beijing Twin Study (BeTwiSt), which was established in 2006, is an ongoing study aiming to investigate the genetic and environmental etiology of adolescent psychopathology. Resting-state brain imaging datasets have been examined for same-sex twins, and other psychological traits and emotional and behavioral variables have been examined for all twins. Based on the registry, the main findings regarding the etiological mechanism underlying adolescent development, magnetic resonance imaging results, and genetic and environmental influences on other psychological traits have been published. This article summarizes the key findings in these three areas and discusses future plans for the BeTwiSt.

Failure in translating emotional salience into effortful behavior is thought to be a core feature of anhedonia and avolition in individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ), but little is known about emotion-behavior coupling in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study, we compared emotion-behavior correspondence in participants with SCZ, BD, and MDD. Forty-two participants with SCZ, 44 participants with MDD, 43 participants with BD, and 43 healthy controls were recruited. A computerized anticipatory and consummatory pleasure task was used to evaluate emotion-behavior correspondence. Clinical ratings of negative symptoms and self-report anhedonia questionnaires were also administered. We found that participants with SCZ, MDD, and BD exhibited different levels of negative symptoms and self-reported anhedonia, as well as emotion-behavior decoupling. In SCZ participants, both desirable and undesirable images elicited lower correspondence between self-reported liking and behavior. In MDD and BD participants, undesirable images elicited lower emotion-behavior correspondence under both direct stimulus presentation and representation conditions, whereas deficits in emotion-behavior coupling under desirable conditions were only observed when stimuli were present. Taken together, emotion-behavior decoupling showed both common and unique patterns in participants with SCZ, MDD, and BD, and showed some associations with negative symptoms and anhedonia across the combined clinical sample. This finding may be helpful for early identification and the development of novel interventions for different psychiatric diagnoses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive restructuring is an important strategy in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The present study aimed to observe cognitive restructuring in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients using textual micro-counseling dialogue situations. A set of textual micro-counseling dialogues was used to trigger cognitive restructuring in 25 MDD patients and 27 healthy adults. The participants read descriptions ("problems") and explanations ("solutions") for psychologically distressing situations. High-, low-, and zero-restructuring solutions were randomly matched to the problems. The participants evaluated the adaptability and emotional valence of the problems and the insightfulness, adaptability, novelty, and emotional valence of the solutions. Insightfulness ratings for high-restructuring solutions were significantly higher relative to those of low-restructuring solutions in healthy adults, while adaptability ratings for low-restructuring solutions were significantly higher relative to those of high-restructuring solutions in MDD patients. Insightfulness ratings for the solutions were significantly predicted by novelty and adaptability in healthy adults and emotional valence in MDD patients. Lower insightfulness in high-restructuring solutions and higher adaptability in low-restructuring solutions in MDD patients may reflect deficits in cognitive control.

Background Stimulus-driven negative attention bias is a central deficit in depression and might play an important role in vulnerability to depression Adolescents are susceptible to depression. Thus, investigating the neural correlates of attention bias in adolescents is a critical step for identifying neural markers of early onset of depression. Previous studies have shown that the ventral attention network (VAN), which includes bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and bilateral temporal-parietal junction (TPJ), is the key brain network for stimulus-driven attention. However, the relationship between depression and effective connectivity within the VAN in adolescents is poorly understood. Method We employed resting-state fMRI to assess the relationship between directional effective connectivity within the VAN and depression scores in 216 healthy adolescents. Results Using stochastic dynamic modeling, we found that individuals who exhibited higher self-reported depression showed stronger effective connectivity between right VLPFC and left TPJ within the VAN. Limitation The level of depression in this study was assessed with self-reported questionnaire. This measure might be more influenced by current mood in adolescents than that in adults. Future studies should emplo more objective measures to index levels of depression. Conclusions Our findings indicate that effective connectivity between right VLPFC and left TPJ could at least partially serve as a biomarker for bottom-up processing of depression in adolescents.

Hopelessness, depression and impulsivity all contribute to the development of suicidal ideation in patients with major depressive disorder, but the pathway of these factors to suicidal ideation is not clear. This study examined the meditating effect of depression severity on the relationship between hopelessness and suicidal ideation and explored how this mediating effect was moderated by impulsivity.A total of 162 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) completed a structured clinical diagnostic interview and a battery of scales assessing depression severity, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and impulsivity. Regression analyses with bootstrapping methods were used to examine the mediating and moderating effects of various risk factors.Mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect effect of hopelessness on suicidal ideation, and the effect was fully mediated through depression severity. On moderation analysis, the moderating effects of the relationship between depression severity and suicidal ideation were significant in both the medium and high impulsivity groups.The present study was limited by the assessment of trait impulsivity and observer-rated depression severity, which might not fully reflect momentary impulsivity and feeling of depression when suicidal ideation occurs.Depression severity plays a mediator role in the relationship between hopelessness and suicidal ideation and this mechanism is contingent on the levels of impulsivity. MDD patients with higher impulsivity appear to be more likely to have suicidal ideations even when they are less depressed. These findings highlight the importance of impulsivity assessment and alleviation of depressive symptoms to prevent suicidality in patients with MDD.

Back Ground: Mental diseases have become common in modern society, which seriously harm the human health. The etiology of mental diseases is complex, general theories and methods of mechanism and prevention guidance of mental diseases cannot fully explain the clinical hysteresis effects of antipsychotic and antineuropathy drugs. Methods: In this review, we summarize recent advances in melatonin research, focusing on the mental diseases with special emphasis on the alterations of melatonin secretion and the associated changes in biological rhythms of disorders. Results: With the results from biochemical measurements in melatonin treatment of mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, showed that melatonin treatment of mental disorders did not have serious negative consequences melatonin will likely be widely used in the treatment of mental disorders in clinical practice. At the same time, the measurements of the effects of melatonin treatments would become more standardized and effective. Conclusion: In the future, there would be a breakthrough progress in the treatment of mental disorders field by using melatonin. The potential role of melatonin on mental disorders would be attached great importance by related disciplines.

Major depressive disorder is associated with an increased risk of suicide. The aim of the present study was to compare changes in event-related potentials (ERP) of suicide attempters and non-attempters with major depressive disorder during an implicit emotion processing task. The results showed that the stimuli had a clear effect on the N2 and P3 amplitudes for both suicide attempters and non-attempters. More importantly, suicide attempters exhibited significantly higher P3 amplitudes between negative and neutral conditions than non-attempters. This could indicate that suicide attempters have a lower information burden and a weaker inhibitory process when processing emotional stimuli than non-attempters.

The value of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was investigated in the cerebral white matter microstructural abnormalities in patients with first-episode depression. Thirteen patients with first-episode depression and fourteen age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers were performed DTI. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of prefrontal lobe deep white matter, the parahippocampal gyrus, the genu, body and splenium of the corpus callosum were recorded. FA and ADC in the deep white matter of frontal lobe, the right parahippocampal gyrus and the genu of the corpus callosum in the depression group were different from those of control group (P 0.05). DTI was valuable in detection of microstructural abnormalities of the white matter in patients with first-episode depression. The microstructural abnormalities in the deep white matter of frontal lobe, the right side of the parahippocampal gyrus and genu of the corpus callosum may be the neurobiological basis of first-episode depression.

The objective of this study was to investigate the changes of NAA, Cho, Cr and the metabolism ratios of deep white matter of frontal lobe and parietal lobe of those who had suicidality in medication-native with single-episode depression. Eighteen healthy control subjects (10 males and 8 females) and eighteen patients with suicidal depression were recruited from the local area. Conventional MRI and 3D-PRESS MRSI was performed in all subjects. All patients were in a depressive state on the day of MR examination with a HAM-D total score higher than 18. NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios on both sides of the striatum were calculated automatically. Relative concentrations of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho) and creatine (Cr) were estimated from their peak area. The regions of interest (ROI) calculated in each subject included right frontal lobe, left frontal lobe, right parietal lobe and left parietal lobe. The MRSI features of depression and healthy volunteers were high and steep peak of NAA, relatively low peak of Cho and Cr. According to the peaks of NAA, Cho and Cr, no obvious differences were found in the images. The differences between depression group and control group in relative concentrations of NAA, Cho and Cr were not significant (P > 0.05). The same situations were found in the analyzing of NAA/Cho and NAA/Cr ratio. In frontal and partial white matter, there were no significant hemispheric differences in metabolite concentrations and ratios. The result in our study hindered that the metabolisms changes in early stage was not obvious in MRSI. The changes of metabolisms will be potential to evaluate of suicidal depression.