The effect of the "exposome" on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes.

Each child's unique environment and experiences play a crucial role in shaping neurodevelopment and cognitive outcomes. Though a long history of prior research has highlighted the importance of numerous aspects of early life environments, including physical/chemical, psychosocial, socioeconomic, and cultural factors, it remains challenging to fully capture an individual's complete set of varied exposures, experiences, and external environments ("exposome") in a single study. The growing field of "exposomics" aims to overcome these challenges by leveraging interdisciplinary ideas and diverse methodologies to assess the additive and interactive effects of multimodal environmental features in relation to health outcomes.

Longitudinal Analysis of Children Referred for ASD Evaluation: Exploring Outcomes for Individuals Without Confirmed ASD Diagnoses.

Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is complex due to overlapping conditions and frequent comorbidities. This study aimed to explore the clinical and developmental outcomes of children referred for ASD evaluation but not diagnosed with ASD, describing the long-term diagnostic and treatment patterns in this population. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 37 children (aged 1-13 years) evaluated for ASD at a regional clinic between 2011 and 2017 but not diagnosed with ASD (non-ASD group).

Environmental Adversity Is Associated With Attenuated Positive Symptoms and Complex Cognition in a Long-term Follow-up of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort.

Background: Environmental adversity has been robustly associated with poor mental health outcomes, including psychosis spectrum (PS) symptoms and cognitive deficits. Environment may differentially impact males and females who differ in stress reactivity. We hypothesized that environmental adversity would predict later PS symptoms and neurocognitive deficits, and this relationship would be more pronounced in females.

Mediating Role of Trauma Connecting Psychiatric Family History and Adolescent Mental Health.

Background: Adolescent mental health is influenced by family history. Experiences of trauma also convey substantial risk for mental health challenges. Mediation of the association of family history with adolescent mental health by trauma experiences could be actionable and warrants evaluation.

Polygenic Risk, Psychopathology, and Personalized Functional Brain Network Topography in Adolescence.

Importance: Functional brain networks are associated with both behavior and genetic factors. To uncover biological mechanisms of psychopathology, it is critical to define how the spatial organization of these networks relates to genetic risk during development.

Objective: To determine the associations among transdiagnostic polygenic risk scores (PRSs), personalized functional brain networks (PFNs), and overall psychopathology (p-factor) during early adolescence.

Copy Number Variant Architecture of Child Psychopathology and Cognitive Development in the ABCD Study.

Objective: Late childhood is a crucial period for individuals with psychiatric disorders. While common single-nucleotide polymorphisms explain a large proportion of inherited risk, structural variations including copy number variants (CNVs) play a significant role in the genetic architecture of neurodevelopmental disorders. The relevance of CNVs to child psychopathology and cognitive function in the general population remains underexplored.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Clinical Features in Community Youth With Recurrent Psychosis Spectrum Symptoms: Findings From the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort.

Background And Hypothesis: In the general population, more severe, recurrent subthreshold psychosis spectrum (PS) symptoms are associated with a heightened risk of poor outcomes. Here, we expanded and temporally extended our prior 2-year follow-up of community youth with recurrent PS symptoms in the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) by characterizing longer-term trajectories of symptom domains and global functioning compared to youth with other recurrent psychopathology.

Study Design: The PNC Time 1 included 9498 community youth (age 8-21) recruited from a pediatric healthcare network.

Delineating the Transmission of Subthreshold Psychosis Symptoms Across Generations: The Philadelphia Family Neurodevelopmental Cohort.

Background And Hypothesis: Intergenerational factors are implicated in development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Studying psychosis spectrum (PS) symptoms dimensionally in a longitudinal, prospective intergenerational cohort can provide crucial insight into risk pathways. Thus, we established the Philadelphia Family Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PFNC), an intergenerational study that follows Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) participants as they transition to parenthood, along with their offspring.

Mental Health, Minority Stressors, and Resilience Factors Among Early Adolescent Immigrant Youth.

Objective: Immigrant youth comprise a large population in the United States, yet there are limited studies characterizing mental health and unique individual-level risk and protective factors in early adolescent immigrants. Previous studies revealed variable associations between immigration and psychopathology. This study aimed to characterize minority stressors, protective factors, and mental health among adolescent immigrants.

Characterizing Social Communication Difficulties in Young Children within a Longitudinal Ecological Systems Framework.

Social communication difficulties are a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. However, few studies have examined prospective risk for social communication difficulties in young children within an ecological systems framework. Our sample was 251 parent-child dyads assessed during pregnancy, postpartum, and toddlerhood (child ages 1 and 2).

Independent and joint effects of genomic and exposomic loads for schizophrenia on psychotic experiences in adolescents of European ancestry.

This study aimed to assess the independent and joint associations of genomic and exposomic liabilities for schizophrenia with distressing psychotic experiences (PEs) and their persistence in early adolescence. The Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study data from children with European ancestry were used (N = 5122). The primary outcome was past-month distressing PEs at the 3-year follow-up.

A Calibrated Sensitivity Analysis for Weighted Causal Decompositions.

Disparities in health or well-being experienced by minority groups can be difficult to study using the traditional exposure-outcome paradigm in causal inference, since potential outcomes in variables such as race or sexual minority status are challenging to interpret. Causal decomposition analysis addresses this gap by positing causal effects on disparities under interventions to other intervenable exposures that may play a mediating role in the disparity. While invoking weaker assumptions than causal mediation approaches, decomposition analyses are often conducted in observational settings and require uncheckable assumptions that eliminate unmeasured confounders.

Efficient evacuation - enhanced survival: Insights from Gaza conflict trauma care.

Background: Combat-related injuries have evolved in urban warfare because of close-contact engagements and high-energy blast injuries, with rapid medical evacuation improving survival rates. This study analyzes injury patterns and outcomes in the Gaza conflict, emphasizing the need to optimize trauma care protocols in modern combat environments, particularly because of the unique proximity of conflict zones to tertiary trauma centers.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at a single center involving 189 patients evacuated by helicopter to a Level I tertiary trauma center.

Independent and joint effects of genomic and exposomic loads for schizophrenia on distressing and persisting psychotic experiences in adolescence.

To assess the longitudinal associations of genomic and exposomic liabilities for schizophrenia, both independently and jointly, with distressing psychotic experiences (PEs) and their persistence in early adolescence. The Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study data from children with European ancestry were used (n=5,122). The primary outcome was past-month distressing PEs at 3-year follow-up.

Probing the digital exposome: associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health.

Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory highlighting the lack of knowledge about the safety of ubiquitous social media use on adolescent mental health.

Editorial: Understanding Adolescent Mental Health Disparities Through the Lens of Environmental Stress Exposure.

Increasing evidence suggests that, as in other medical fields, there are pronounced pediatric mental health disparities with greater burden among marginalized racial and ethnic youth. The reasons for these disparities are not fully understood. One way to explain pediatric mental health disparities is through the lens of environmental stress as a driver of mental health burden, given that marginalized populations are exposed to more structural and individual stress.