Is joint hypermobility linked to self-reported non-recovery from COVID-19? Case-control evidence from the British COVID Symptom Study Biobank.

Objectives: This study sought to explore whether generalised joint hypermobility (GJH, a common marker of variant connective tissue) was a risk factor for self-reported non-recovery from COVID-19 infection.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: COVID Symptom Study Biobank (https://cssbiobank.

Differences in ongoing thought between autistic and non-autistic adults.

Autistic people may be distinguishable from non-autistic individuals in the content and modality of their thoughts. Such differences potentially underlie both psychological vulnerability and strengths, motivating the need to better understand autistic thought patterns. In non-clinical undergraduates, a recent study found that autistic traits were associated with thinking more in words than images.

Can atypical antipsychotics alleviate Deficits in psychosocial impairments in patients with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Patients with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) often experience difficulties in psychosocial functioning, which reduces the ability of individuals to engage socially. This review seeks to determine whether atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) are more effective than placebo at alleviating these difficulties in adults with a diagnosis of BPD. We identified six Randomized Control Trials, conducted between 1994 and 2024, with 1012 patients that were treated with either: Olanzapine, Quetiapine, Ziprasidone or Aripiprazole.

Childhood neurodivergent traits, inflammation and chronic disabling fatigue in adolescence: a longitudinal case-control study.

Objectives: To test whether inflammatory processes link the expression of childhood neurodivergent traits to chronic disabling fatigue in adolescence.

Design: Longitudinal case-control study.

Setting: We analysed data from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

A model linking emotional dysregulation in neurodivergent people to the proprioceptive impact of joint hypermobility.

Emotional feelings are putatively ascribed to central representation of bodily states in the context of expectation and uncertainty in both internal state and external world. Neurodivergent people are more likely to experience co-occurring mental health challenges, although mechanistic insights underpinning this association are scarce. We therefore undertook a study to test whether imprecise processing of proprioceptive error signals may underlie the connection between neurodivergence and emotional dysregulation.

A systematic literature review on the clinical efficacy of low dose naltrexone and its effect on putative pathophysiological mechanisms among patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

Background: Low dose naltrexone (LDN) is used off-label by many individuals with fibromyalgia to help manage their pain. There is no current systematic literature review summarising the evidence to support this use of LDN. The objectives of this study were to evaluate if patients with fibromyalgia prescribed LDN have reduced pain scores and greater quality of life compared with those allocated to placebo in randomized controlled trials.

Cardiac interoception in patients accessing secondary mental health services: A transdiagnostic study.

Background: Abnormalities in the regulation of physiological arousal and interoceptive processing are implicated in the expression and maintenance of specific psychiatric conditions and symptoms. We undertook a cross-sectional characterisation of patients accessing secondary mental health services, recording measures relating to cardiac physiology and interoception, to understand how physiological state and interoceptive ability relate transdiagnostically to affective symptoms.

Methods: Participants were patients (n = 258) and a non-clinical comparison group (n = 67).

Variant connective tissue (joint hypermobility) and its relevance to depression and anxiety in adolescents: a cohort-based case-control study.

Objective: To test whether variant connective tissue structure, as indicated by the presence of joint hypermobility, poses a developmental risk for mood disorders in adolescence.

Design: Cohort-based case-control study.

Setting: Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were interrogated.

Joint Hypermobility Links Neurodivergence to Dysautonomia and Pain.

Objectives: Autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and tic disorder (Tourette syndrome; TS) are neurodevelopmental conditions that frequently co-occur and impact psychological, social, and emotional processes. Increased likelihood of chronic physical symptoms, including fatigue and pain, are also recognized. The expression of joint hypermobility, reflecting a constitutional variant in connective tissue, predicts susceptibility to psychological symptoms alongside recognized physical symptoms.

Cognition, emotion, and the central autonomic network.

The demands of both mental and physical activity are integrated with the dynamic control of internal bodily states. The set of neural interactions that supports autonomic regulation extends beyond afferent-efferent homeostatic reflexes (interoceptive feedback, autonomic action) to encompass allostatic policies reflecting more abstract and predictive mental representations, often accessed as conscious thoughts and feelings. Historically and heuristically, reason is contrasted with passion, cognition with emotion, and 'cold' with 'hot' cognition.

Voice Hearing in Borderline Personality Disorder Across Perceptual, Subjective, and Neural Dimensions.

Background: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) commonly occur in the context of borderline personality disorder (BPD) yet remain poorly understood. AVH are often perceived by patients with BPD as originating from inside the head and hence viewed clinically as "pseudohallucinations," but they nevertheless have a detrimental impact on well-being.

Methods: The current study characterized perceptual, subjective, and neural expressions of AVH by using an auditory detection task, experience sampling and questionnaires, and functional neuroimaging, respectively.

Interoceptive training to target anxiety in autistic adults (ADIE): A single-center, superiority randomized controlled trial.

Background: This trial tested if a novel therapy, Aligning Dimensions of Interoceptive Experience (ADIE), reduces anxiety in autistic adults. ADIE targets the association of anxiety with mismatch between subjective and behavioral measures of an individual's ve to bodily signals, including heartbeats.

Methods: In this superiority randomized controlled trial, autistic adults (18-65 years) from clinical and community settings in Southern England were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive six sessions of ADIE or an active 'exteroceptive' control therapy (emotional prosody identification).

Female sweet-likers have enhanced cross-modal interoceptive abilities.

There are well known phenotypic differences in sweet-liking across individuals, but it remains unknown whether these are related to broader underlying differences in interoceptive abilities (abilities to sense the internal state of the body). Here, healthy women (N = 64) classified as sweet likers (SLs) or sweet dislikers (SDs) completed a bimodal interoception protocol. A heartbeat tracking and a heartbeat discrimination task determined cardiac interoception; both were accompanied by confidence ratings.

Brain-body interactions underlying the association of loneliness with mental and physical health.

Loneliness can be operationalized as the actual or perceived absence of those social relationships that serve to meet basic emotional needs. In contrast to solitude, a chosen state of being without company, loneliness is associated with negative affect and emotional distress. Loneliness can have detrimental effects on mental and physical wellbeing, expressed as an increased risk of morbidity and mortality.

Interoceptive awareness mitigates deficits in emotional prosody recognition in Autism.

The sensing of internal bodily signals, a process known as interoception, contributes to subjective emotional feeling states that can guide empathic understanding of the emotions of others. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) typically show an attenuated intuitive capacity to recognise and interpret other peoples' emotional signals. Here we test directly if differences in interoceptive processing relate to the ability to perceive emotional signals from the intonation of speech (affective prosody) in ASC adults.

The neurobiology of interoception in health and disease.

Interoception is the sensing of internal bodily sensations. Interoception is an umbrella term that encompasses (1) the afferent (body-to-brain) signaling through distinct neural and humoral (including immune and endocrine) channels; (2) the neural encoding, representation, and integration of this information concerning internal bodily state; (3) the influence of such information on other perceptions, cognitions, and behaviors; (4) and the psychological expression of these representations as consciously accessible physical sensations and feelings. Interoceptive mechanisms ensure physiological health through the cerebral coordination of homeostatic reflexes and allostatic responses that include motivational behaviors and associated affective and emotional feelings.