Activated immune-inflammatory pathways are associated with long-standing depressive symptoms: Evidence from gene-set enrichment analyses in the Young Finns Study.
We used genome wide expression (GWE) data of circulating blood cells and pathway analysis to investigate the inflammatory and other molecular pathways that may be associated with long-standing depressive symptoms. Participants were 607 women and 316 men (mean age 42 years) from the Young Finns Study who participated in three consecutive study phases in 2001, 2007 and 2012. Using Gene-set enrichment analyses (GSEA) we focused our analyses to pathways (available in MSigDB database) that are likely to affect immunological and inflammatory processes. GSEA were performed for blood cell GWE data in 2012. Depressive symptoms were assessed using a modified 21-item Beck Depression Inventory in each of the three study phases. Participants who scored in the top quartile of depressive symptoms in each of the three measurement points (n = 191) differed from other participants (n = 732) in several gene-set pathways related to inflammatory processes or immune-inflammatory signaling including interleukin (IL-1) pathway, and pathways related to various immuno-inflammatory processes, such as toll-like, the NEF protein, the nuclear factor kB, the kinase AKT and the mature B cell antigen receptor pathway (false discovery rates, FDRs
We investigated whether psychosis risk symptoms predicted psychiatric service use using seven-year register follow-up data.
Our sample included 715 adolescents aged 15-18, referred to psychiatric care for the first time. Psychosis risk symptoms were assessed with the Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ) at the beginning of the treatment. We assessed the power of the overall PQ as well as its positive, negative, general, and disorganized psychosis risk symptom factors in predicting prolonged service use. Baseline psychiatric diagnoses (grouped into 7 categories) were controlled for. Based on both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment after baseline, adolescents were divided into three groups of brief, intermittent, and persistent service use.
Stronger symptoms on any PQ factor as well as the presence of a mood disorder predicted prolonged service use. All of the PQ factors remained significant predictors when adjusted for baseline mood disorder and multimorbidity.
In a prospective follow-up of a large sample using comprehensive mental health records, our findings indicate that assessing psychosis risk symptoms in clinical adolescent settings at the beginning of treatment could predict long-term need for care beyond diagnostic information. Our findings replicate the previous findings that positive psychosis risk symptoms are unspecific markers of severity of psychopathology. Also psychosis risk symptoms of the negative, disorganization, and general clusters are approximately as strongly associated with prolonged psychiatric service use in the upcoming years.
Over the recent decades, the incidence of cardiovascular and heart diseases has decreased while levels of type-A behavior, i.e., a potential risk factor, appear to have increased. However, the long-term developmental patterns of type-A behavior is poorly understood. Both age- and cohort-related changes may be involved in these developments.
The purpose of this study was to examine an age- and cohort-related changes of Hunter-Wolf type-A behavior from adolescence to adulthood.
Type-A behavior and its components (aggressiveness, leadership, hard driving, and eagerness energy) were assessed using the Hunter-Wolf A-B rating scale at five time points (1983, 1986, 1989, 2001, and 2007) in a population-based sample consisting of six birth cohorts born between 1962 and 1977 (n?=?3,341, a total of 10,506 person observations). Development of type-A behavior and its components was examined with cohort-sequential multilevel modeling.
Aggressiveness decreased with age, eagerness energy, hard driving, and global type-A behavior increased, and leadership exhibited no mean level changes. Younger cohorts had higher aggressiveness, lower hard driving, and global type-A behavior.
The findings suggest that in order to understand the health consequences of type-A behavior, both life span and societal changes should be considered.
To examine antidepressant use before and after the diagnosis of diabetes.
This study was a longitudinal analysis of diabetic and nondiabetic groups selected from a prospective cohort study of 151,618 men and women in Finland (the Finnish Public Sector Study, 1995-2005). We analyzed the use of antidepressants in those 493 individuals who developed type 2 diabetes and their 2,450 matched nondiabetic control subjects for each year during a period covering 4 years before and 4 years after the diagnosis. For comparison, we undertook a corresponding analysis on 748 individuals who developed cancer and their 3,730 matched control subjects.
In multilevel longitudinal models, the odds ratio for antidepressant use in those who developed diabetes was 2.00 (95% CI 1.57-2.55) times greater than that in nondiabetic subjects. The relative difference in antidepressant use between these groups was similar before and after the diabetes diagnosis except for a temporary peak in antidepressant use at the year of the diagnosis (OR 2.66 [95% CI 1.94-3.65]). In incident cancer case subjects, antidepressant use substantially increased after the cancer diagnosis, demonstrating that our analysis was sensitive for detecting long-term changes in antidepressant trajectories when they existed.
Awareness of the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes may temporarily increase the risk of depressive symptoms. Further research is needed to determine whether more prevalent use of antidepressants noted before the diagnosis of diabetes relates to effects of depression, side effects of antidepressant use, or a common causal pathway for depression and diabetes.
Reduced availability of tobacco outlets is hypothesized to reduce smoking, but longitudinal evidence on this issue is scarce.
To examine whether changes in distance from home to tobacco outlet are associated with changes in smoking behaviors.
The data from 2 prospective cohort studies included geocoded residential addresses, addresses of tobacco outlets, and responses to smoking surveys in 2008 and 2012 (the Finnish Public Sector [FPS] study, n?=?53?755) or 2003 and 2012 (the Health and Social Support [HeSSup] study, n?=?11?924). All participants were smokers or ex-smokers at baseline. We used logistic regression in between-individual analyses and conditional logistic regression in case-crossover design analyses to examine change in walking distance from home to the nearest tobacco outlet as a predictor of quitting smoking in smokers and smoking relapse in ex-smokers. Study-specific estimates were pooled using fixed-effect meta-analysis.
Walking distance from home to the nearest tobacco outlet.
Quitting smoking and smoking relapse as indicated by self-reported current and previous smoking at baseline and follow-up.
Overall, 20?729 men and women (age range 18-75 years) were recruited. Of the 6259 and 2090 baseline current smokers, 1744 (28%) and 818 (39%) quit, and of the 8959 and 3421 baseline ex-smokers, 617 (7%) and 205 (6%) relapsed in the FPS and HeSSup studies, respectively. Among the baseline smokers, a 500-m increase in distance from home to the nearest tobacco outlet was associated with a 16% increase in odds of quitting smoking in the between-individual analysis (pooled odds ratio, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.05-1.28) and 57% increase in within-individual analysis (pooled odds ratio, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.32-1.86), after adjusting for changes in self-reported marital and working status, substantial worsening of financial situation, illness in the family, and own health status. Increase in distance to the nearest tobacco outlet was not associated with smoking relapse among the ex-smokers.
These data suggest that increase in distance from home to the nearest tobacco outlet may increase quitting among smokers. No effect of change in distance on relapse in ex-smokers was observed.
Association of age at menarche with cardiovascular risk factors, vascular structure, and function in adulthood: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study.
It is unclear whether age at menarche is an independent determinant of future cardiovascular risk.
We aimed to determine whether menarcheal age is an independent predictor of body mass index (BMI) and a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence and adulthood.
We examined the associations of menarcheal age with BMI (in kg/m(2)) and other cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence and adulthood in a population-based sample of 794 female adolescents aged 9-18 y at baseline. Their age at first menstruation was requested at baseline and again 3 and 6 y later. Cardiovascular risk factors were assessed at baseline and at age 30-39 y.
A 1-y decrease in menarcheal age was associated with 0.81 (95% CI: 0.53, 1.08) higher adult BMI as well as greater waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio, elevated systolic blood pressure, higher insulin resistance, and greater risk of metabolic syndrome (P
To assess how multidimensional personality-trait theories, such as the Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character, and the Five-factor Model of Personality, are associated with subclinical atherosclerosis as indicated by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). The analysis was designed to tolerate non-linear development in which the same personality profiles can have multiple final outcomes and different antecedent profiles can have the same final outcome.
605 men and 844 women (average age 31.6year, s.d.=5.0, range=24-39) provided data on IMT and traits of the psychobiological model, 725 men and 1011 women were assessed for IMT and the five-factor model (age 37.7year, s.d.=5.0, range=30-45). Robust multidimensional Hotelling's T(2) statistic was used to detect personality differences between participants with high IMT and others. Model-based clustering method further explored the effect.
Those with a high level of subclinical atherosclerosis within the sample (highest IMT-decile) had a combined higher persistence (i.e., were perseverative or perfectionistic), more disorganized (schizotypal) character, and more antisocial temperamental configuration than others (P=0.019). No effect was found for the five-factor model (P=0.978). Traditional methods that did not account for multidimensionality and nonlinearity did not detect an association.
Psychological well-being may have positive effects on health that reduce atherosclerosis in the population as a whole. Increased subclinical atherosclerosis was associated with a profile that combines known risk factors, such as cynical distrust and hostile tendencies. More frequent use of statistical procedures that can cope with non-linear interactions in complex psychobiological systems may facilitate scientific advances in health promotion.
Well-being consists of affective and non-affective components. Personality traits measure individual differences in adaptive functioning and mental health. In a previous Israeli study personality was strongly associated with well-being. However, it is not well known which aspects of this association are culture-specific, and which are common to most cultures.
1940 volunteer participants of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns (CRYF) study completed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (PSS). Questions about positive and negative affect, satisfaction with life, and subjective health were also included. Multidimensional personality profiles were used to evaluate the linear and non-linear effects of interactions among dimensions on different aspects of well-being.
Self-directedness was strongly associated with all aspects of well-being regardless of interactions with other dimensions. Cooperativeness was also associated with several aspects of well-being but especially strongly with perceived social support. Self-transcendence was associated with both positive and negative affect when the influence of the other character dimensions was taken into account. Personality explained half the variance in non-affective well-being and two thirds of the variance in affective well-being.
The same assessment instruments were not used in the two countries we compared. Our data were cross-sectional.
Self-directedness and Cooperativeness are positively associated with well-being regardless of culture. The effect of Self-transcendence, however, seems to be culture-specific. Self-transcendence increases positive affect but, based on culture, it can also increase negative affect.
Small birth size may be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), whereas large birth size may predict increased risk of obesity and some cancers. The net effect of birth size on long-term mortality has only been assessed in individual studies, with conflicting results.
The Meta-analyses of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines for conducting and reporting meta-analysis of observational studies were followed. We retrieved 22 studies that assessed the association between birthweight and adult mortality from all causes, CVD or cancer. The studies were systematically reviewed and those reporting hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) per kilogram (kg) increase in birthweight were included in generic inverse variance meta-analyses.
For all-cause mortality, 36,834 deaths were included and the results showed a 6% lower risk (adjusted HR?=?0.94, 95% CI: 0.92-0.97) per kg higher birthweight for men and women combined. For cardiovascular mortality, the corresponding inverse association was stronger (HR?=?0.88, 95% CI: 0.85-0.91). For cancer mortality, HR per kg higher birthweight was 1.13 (95% CI: 1.07-1.19) for men and 1.04 (95% CI: 0.98-1.10) for women (P(interaction)?=?0.03). Residual confounding could not be eliminated, but is unlikely to account for the main findings.
These results show an inverse but moderate association of birthweight with adult mortality from all-causes and a stronger inverse association with cardiovascular mortality. For men, higher birthweight was strongly associated with increased risk of cancer deaths. The findings suggest that birthweight can be a useful indicator of processes that influence long-term health.
Studies have suggested both adverse and protective associations of obesity with depressive symptoms. We examined the contribution of environmental and heritable factors in this association. Participants were same-sex twin pairs from two population-based twin cohort studies, the Older Finnish Twin Cohort (n = 8,215; mean age = 44.1) and the US Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS; n = 1,105; mean age = 45.1). Body mass index (BMI) was calculated from self-reported height and weight. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI; Finnish Twin Cohort), and by negative and positive affect scales (MIDUS). In the Finnish Twin Cohort, higher BMI was associated with higher depressive symptoms in monozygotic (MZ) twins (B = 2.01, 95% CI = 1.0, 3.0) and dizygotic (DZ) twins (B = 1.17, 0.5, 1.9) with BMI >22. This association was observed in within-pair analysis in DZ twins (B = 1.47, CI = 0.4, 2.6) but not in within-pair analysis of MZ twins (B = 0.03, CI = -1.9, 2.0). Consistent with the latter result, a bivariate genetic model indicated that the association between higher BMI and higher depressive symptoms was largely mediated by genetic factors. The results of twin-pair analysis and bivariate genetic model were replicated in the MIDUS sample. These findings suggest an association between obesity and higher depressive symptoms, which is largely explained by shared heritable biological mechanisms.
