News

Lay summary of selected publications – Mental health, common mental health problems, and mental health services

• 2022-“Trends and patterns of life satisfaction, Canada, 2009 to 2018”– Scientific Reports. Published version (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-13794-x)

The national and provincial levels of life satisfaction gradually increased from 2009 to 2018. Individuals who were women, aged between 12 and 19 years, living in rural areas, were most satisfied with their lives. There was a positive correlation between social support and life satisfaction for the provinces and the study years for which information on social support was available. Strengthening social support could be a public health target for promoting greater life satisfaction.  

• 2022-“Novel risk categorization of major depressive disorder”– Translational Psychiatry. Published version (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-02015-8)

Major depressive disorder is the most prevalent mental disorder that constitutes a major public health problem. We derived a risk prediction tool that can categorize the risk of major depressive disorder as well as discover biologically meaningful genetic variants.

• 2021-“Is parental socioeconomic status linked to offspring’s mental health?” – BMJ Open. Published version (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/2/e038409)

 Socioeconomic status affects our physical and mental health. There is a lack of research conducted to explore how parental SES changes reflect on the offspring’s mental health. To fulfill this gap we will identify roles of parental socioeconomic status in offspring’s mental health.

• 2021-“Increased income over time predicts better self-perceived mental health” – Journal of Affective Disorders. Published version (https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/articles/z603r3227?locale=en)

Mental health is linked with income, but we don’t know whether mental health influences income or vice versa. And, the relationship between mental health and income may vary between people. By using data from a large population cohort, we found low income was associated with poor health at a population level. The effects of income on health were even stronger for men and older adults.

• 2021-“Social support mediates the relationship between decision authority and positive mental health in the workforce” – Journal of Happiness Studies. Published version (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-021-00384-3)

Positive mental health is characterized by positive cognition about self, the world, and future. Decision authority not only had a direct effect on positive mental health but also can be mediated by social support. The role of social support in the relationship between decision authority and PMH varied by gender, personal income, and occupation groups. Workplace mental health promotion strategies should target social support at the same time taking socio-demographic characteristics into account.

• 2020-“Changes in income predicting different mental health outcomes” – BMC Psychiatry. Published version (https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-020-02578-0)

Do changes in income reflect on mental health? Both income at beginning and later-on are important predictors for any kind of mental disorder and major depression. Males and females with low-income at baseline are more likely to have mental disorder at follow-up.

• 2018-“ Increased perceived met needs for care over time” – Psychiatry Research. Published version (https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/articles/kh04dv29c?locale=en)

Perceived needs for care can be used to understand barriers to mental health services use among people suffering from mental disorders. We found the overall perceived met needs slightly increased over time. There were several predictors that could be the potential target for improving the perceived need for mental health care.  

• 2017-“ Modifiable risk factors associated with incident depression” – BMJ Open. Published version (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/6/e015156.long)

Depression is preventable. Modifiable risk factors can be used as targets for prevention. Risk reduction campaigns of modifiable risk factors can significantly prevent the occurrence of mental disorders. Modifiable risk factors, both individual and societal, could be the targets for public depression prevention programmes.

Lay summary of selected publications – Early life stress in neuropsychiatric disorders across the life span

• 2022-“ Specific and cumulative lifetime stressors in the etiology of major depression”- Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. Published version (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-psychiatric-sciences/article/specific-and-cumulative-lifetime-stressors-in-the-aetiology-of-major-depression-a-longitudinal-communitybased-population-study/AAFF9D33621086438EF33BF1514AFFCB)

We comprehensively examined how the specific and cumulative effects of lifetime stressors were associated with the development of depression and discovered significant individual effects of specific stressors as well as the cumulative effects of psychosocial stressors across the lifespan on the subsequent depression.
This study adds to the stress theories about different operationalisations of lifetime stressors predicting different risks of subsequent depression. This is true for both specific and cumulative lifetime stressors.

• 2022-“ Intergenerational Effect of Maternal Childhood Maltreatment on Next Generation’s Vulnerability to Psychopathology”– Trauma, Violences, & Abuse. Published version (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524838020933870)

This review and meta-analysis provide the first evidence on a quantitative estimate of the intergenerational effect of maternal childhood maltreatment on their offspring’s psychopathology. The findings of this review reinforce the need for policies to reduce the occurrence of childhood maltreatment, as it can influence not just one but two or possibly more generations.

• 2020-“The hypothesis of developmental origins of depression” – Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Published version (https://doi-org.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/10.1111/jcpp.13358)

 Adverse in utero and perinatal exposures are associated with major depression in adolescence and adulthood. Low birth weight, premature birth, small gestational age, maternal education, socioeconomic status, having young parents (<20 years), having older parents (≥35 years), maternal smoking, paternal smoking, maternal stress, maternal anxiety, and maternal prenatal depression significantly increase the risk of depression among offspring. Clinical and public health interventions should focus on these identified risk factors.

• 2019-“Childhood maltreatment can influence cognition” – Journal of Affective disorders. Published version (https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/articles/8623j380m?locale=en)

 Childhood maltreatment is closely related to normal cognitive development and ensuing adverse mental health outcomes and cognitive dysfunction. Public health strategies should be developed to prevent child maltreatment and mitigate its negative effects on cognition.

• 2019-“Together, childhood maltreatment and genetic predispositions predict a higher risk of depression” – Journal of Affective disorders. Published version (https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/articles/0z7092581?locale=en)

 The relationship between child maltreatment and depression varies as a function of genetic factors. Few DNA methylation sites are involved in the childhood maltreatment-depression relationship. These DNA methylation sites shed light for future research.

• 2018-“Resilience protects against negative consequences of maltreatment” – Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology. Published version (https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/articles/z890s031d?locale=en)

 Why some people are less likely to have the negative consequences of maltreatment? What factors protect them against these negative consequences? Individual, familial and societal factors are linked with resilience. Health prevention and promotion could significantly benefit from advances in neuroscience and biology of the stress system, as they can help to disentangle the complexity of biological mechanisms underlying the resilience-abuse relationship. 

• 2016-“Ways of coping and distress can influence the level of psychological well-being ” – Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. Published version (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7137609/)

  A good understanding of the relationships among psychological well-being, coping, and distress is pivotal to achieve good mental health. Mental health prevention and promotion in a general population should target reducing negative coping strategies to improve psychological well-being, as negative coping was the strongest predictor of increased distress in the general population. Distress was the most important predictor of psychological well-being. For people with psychiatric diseases, attention should be focused on the elimination of distress to maintain a higher level of psychological well-being.