COVID-19 has infected millions of people and upended the lives of most humans on the planet. Researchers from across the psychological sciences have sought to document and investigate the impact of COVID-19 in myriad ways, causing an explosion of research that is broad in scope, varied in methods, and challenging to consolidate. Because policy and practice aimed at helping people live healthier and happier lives requires insight from robust patterns of evidence, this article provides a rapid and thorough summary of high-quality studies available through early 2021 examining the mental-health consequences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our review of the evidence indicates that anxiety, depression, and distress increased in the early months of the pandemic. Meanwhile, suicide rates, life satisfaction, and loneliness remained largely stable throughout the first year of the pandemic. In response to these insights, we present seven recommendations (one urgent, two short-term, and four ongoing) to support mental health during the pandemic and beyond.

No abstract

Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:

No meta-analytic evidence for interaction between MDD-PRS and CT was found. This suggests that the previously reported interaction effects, although both statistically significant, can best be interpreted as chance findings. Further research is required, but this study suggests that the genetic heterogeneity of MDD is not attributable to genome-wide moderation of genetic effects by CT.

Although exposure to adversity increases risk for poor mental health outcomes, many people exposed to adversity do not develop such outcomes. Psychological resilience, defined broadly as positive emotional and/or behavioral adaptation to adversity, may be influenced by genetic factors that have remained largely unexplored in the era of large-scale genome-wide studies. In this Perspective, we provide an integrative framework for studying human genome-wide variation underlying resilience. We first outline three complementary working definitions of psychological resilience-as a capacity, process, and outcome. For each definition, we review emerging empirical evidence, including findings from positive psychology, to illustrate how a resiliencebased framework can guide novel and fruitful directions for the field of psychiatric genomics, distinct from ongoing study of psychiatric risk and related traits. Finally, we provide practical recommendations for future genomic research on resilience, highlighting a need to augment crosssectional findings with prospective designs that include detailed measurement of adversities and outcomes. A research framework that explicitly addresses resilience could help us to probe biological mechanisms of stress adaptation, identify individuals who may benefit most from prevention and early intervention, and ascertain modifiable protective factors that mitigate negative outcomes even for those at high genetic risk.Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:

Early-life trauma endophenotypes and brain circuit-gene expression relationships in functional neurological (conversion) disorder. Molecular Psychiatry.

Objective To evaluate the association between exposure to childhood adversity and insomnia, with an emphasis on the role of adversity type, timing, and accumulation (i.e. the number of specific types of adversities the child reported being exposed to). Methods Our analytic sample comprised 9,582 adolescents from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally-representative population-based sample. We examined the association between 18 different types of retrospectively-reported adversities (capturing interpersonal violence, accidents and injuries, social network or witnessing events, other adverse events) and risk of self-reported past-year insomnia. We also examined whether the age at first exposure to adversity was associated with risk for insomnia, and whether exposure to a greater number of different types of adversities (i.e. accumulation) conferred an elevated risk for insomnia. Additionally, we performed a sensitivity analysis excluding adolescents with a past-year diagnosis of major depression, dysthymia, post-traumatic stress disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder. Results Almost one third of adolescents reported insomnia, with a higher prevalence among girls and those from racial/ethnic minority groups. Adolescents exposed to at least one childhood adversity of any type (59.41%) were more likely than their non-exposed peers to experience insomnia (across adversities, prevalence ratios ranged from 1.31 to 1.89). Risk of insomnia differed based on the age at first exposure to adversity as well as the type of adversity. Adolescents exposed to a greater number of different types of adversities had a higher risk of insomnia compared to those experiencing fewer adversities. These results were similar, by and large, to those obtained after excluding adolescents with at least one of the four past-year psychiatric disorders. Conclusions Exposure to adversity confers an elevated risk for insomnia. This association varied by type, timing, and accumulation of exposure and did not appear to be driven by psychiatric disorders. Given the well-documented physical and mental health consequences of insomnia, such findings add further support to the need for practitioners to screen children for exposure to childhood adversity and insomnia symptoms.

Background Although child maltreatment is a well documented risk factor for suicidal behavior, little is known about whether the timing of child maltreatment differentially associates with risk of suicidal ideation, suicide plans, or suicide attempts. The goal of this study was to examine whether a first exposure to physical or sexual abuse during specific developmental periods significantly elevated risk for suicidal behavior in adolescents. Methods Data came from the National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement, a population-based sample of US adolescents aged 13–18 years old (n = 9,272). Using discrete time survival analysis, we assessed the association between timing of first abuse (early childhood: ages 0–5; middle childhood: ages 6–10; adolescence: ages 11–18) and suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts. Results Exposure to either physical or sexual abuse increased the odds of reporting suicidal ideation (odds ratio [OR] = 5.06 and OR = 3.56, respectively), plans (OR = 3.63 and OR = 3.58, respectively), and attempts (OR = 5.80 and OR = 4.21, respectively), even after controlling for sociodemographic covariates and psychiatric disorders. However, the timing of physical and sexual abuse exposure was unassociated with suicidal behavior (all p values >.05). Conclusions Exposure to child maltreatment is strongly associated with risk for adolescent suicidal behaviors, though this association did not vary based on the developmental timing of first exposure. These findings suggest that prevention efforts should be implemented throughout early development and target all children, regardless of when they were first exposed.