After an enjoyable and interesting first day at the MQ Mental Health Science Meeting, the pPOD team were excited to see what the impressive line-up of day two would bring!
Symposium 1
The first symposium of the day, chaired by Francesca Happé (King's College London) focused on developmental neurocognitive models. To begin, Edmund Sonuga-Barke (King's College London), gave a fascinating insight into extreme neuroplastic responses to extraordinary environments, and their links to disorders of impulse and attention.
Symposium 1
The first symposium of the day, chaired by Francesca Happé (King's College London) focused on developmental neurocognitive models. To begin, Edmund Sonuga-Barke (King's College London), gave a fascinating insight into extreme neuroplastic responses to extraordinary environments, and their links to disorders of impulse and attention.
Most striking to us was Edmund’s recent findings from the English and Romanian Adoptee project which looks at the outcomes of children adopted into the UK from Romania in the early 1990s. Now young adults, the most recent follow-up indicated that whilst the Romanian children adopted after the age of 6-months have made great developmental improvements, they were still up to seven times more likely to meet the criteria for an ADHD diagnosis, compared to UK-born adoptees. Thus, these disorders can go beyond heritability when young children are exposed to these extraordinary environments. The talk was concluded with an insight into prevention neuroscience and how early intervention can exploit neuroplasticity to create training effects. Alongside this, Prof. Sonuga-Barke emphasised the need for further study to fully understand the mechanisms by which neuroplasticity works when exposed to extraordinary environments.
Next, Frances Rice (Cardiff University) outlined her findings from the Early Prediction of Adolescent Depression (EPAD) study, which gave us insight into the cognitive mechanisms of change in adolescents before and after receiving preventive classroom-based interventions (e.g. CBT, CBT + behavioural activation, mindfulness based cognitive therapy). They found that those participants who received CBT + behavioural activation showed increases in reward seeking and a reduction in depressive symptoms, a finding not present in participants receiving the other therapies. This indicates that reward seeking behaviours may be a useful target for preventive psychological interventions.
To end the day’s first symposium, Graham Murray (University of Cambridge) discussed some developmental neurocognitive perspectives on ADHD and schizophrenia. Of particular interest was Graham’s outline of findings from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort study. In this research they followed up participants diagnosed with ADHD during adolescence, and examined their brain structure and memory function at age 20-24 years. Whilst only 10% of participants still met the diagnostic checklist criteria for an ADHD diagnosis, the researchers found that all participants with an ADHD diagnosis in adolescence had reduced grey matter in the caudate nucleus, with over 33% failing a memory test (compared to just 5% failure in the control group). These findings raise important questions surrounding tools used in the diagnosis of disorders such as ADHD.
Symposium 2
Next up was the second symposium of the day, chaired by Peter Jones (University of Cambridge) which looked to bring together talks focusing on risk factors for mental illness. First up was Jean-Baptiste Pingault (University College London) whose current work explores whether bullying victimisation is causal in poor mental health outcomes, or whether other genetic and environmental factors are at play. By using data from thousands of twin pairs in longitudinal twin studies, Jean-Baptiste’s work has been able to pinpoint victimisation as a causative factor in poor mental health outcomes, highlighting an important target for interventions.
To end the day’s first symposium, Graham Murray (University of Cambridge) discussed some developmental neurocognitive perspectives on ADHD and schizophrenia. Of particular interest was Graham’s outline of findings from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort study. In this research they followed up participants diagnosed with ADHD during adolescence, and examined their brain structure and memory function at age 20-24 years. Whilst only 10% of participants still met the diagnostic checklist criteria for an ADHD diagnosis, the researchers found that all participants with an ADHD diagnosis in adolescence had reduced grey matter in the caudate nucleus, with over 33% failing a memory test (compared to just 5% failure in the control group). These findings raise important questions surrounding tools used in the diagnosis of disorders such as ADHD.
Symposium 2
Next up was the second symposium of the day, chaired by Peter Jones (University of Cambridge) which looked to bring together talks focusing on risk factors for mental illness. First up was Jean-Baptiste Pingault (University College London) whose current work explores whether bullying victimisation is causal in poor mental health outcomes, or whether other genetic and environmental factors are at play. By using data from thousands of twin pairs in longitudinal twin studies, Jean-Baptiste’s work has been able to pinpoint victimisation as a causative factor in poor mental health outcomes, highlighting an important target for interventions.
Myrna Weissman (Columbia University) then presented fascinating findings from a follow-up study which looks of the intergenerational transmission of depression. Looking across three generations, spanning thirty years and six waves of interviews, researchers found that young people who’d had a parent and grandparent diagnosed with a depression and/or anxiety disorder were three times more likely to receive a diagnosis themselves than participants without a family history of depression. Myrna stressed the necessity for researchers and clinicians to work together to break this cycle of transmission.
| To end the symposium, Mary Cannon (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) presented on symptoms of psychosis in young people and what they mean for their future. Mary’s research group reported that 21-23% of children aged 11 to 13 had experienced auditory hallucinations, suggesting that hearing voices may be more common in young people than previously thought. For some of those children, these early symptoms appear to have been an indicator for later complex mental health issues, with 70% of the strong symptom children having at least 1 criteria A symptom of schizophrenia at age 26 years. These novel findings highlight the incidence of continuity of psychotic symptoms from childhood to adulthood. |  |
Panel Discussion
Following lunch was a panel discussion focusing on ‘What use is a diagnosis?’ with Sally McManus opening to provide insight into who is receiving a diagnosis, using data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.
Following lunch was a panel discussion focusing on ‘What use is a diagnosis?’ with Sally McManus opening to provide insight into who is receiving a diagnosis, using data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.
The panel was chaired by Stuart Hughes (BBC news) and included Prof. Miranda Wolpert (UCL), Prof. Simon Wessely (King’s College London/Royal College of Psychiatrists), Megan Haste (The Mental Health Blogger) and Prof. Ezra Susser (Columbia University). The panel was incredibly interesting, with many insightful and complex discussions had, and showed the benefits of bringing together people from across disciplines, with varying views.
The panel was live-streamed on MQ’s Facebook and the entire panel can be watched here.
Keynote 3
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg (Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim) brought a fantastic final day to a close with a talk on the social environment, its effects on the brain, and the development of mental health disorders. Andreas stressed the need to look to the environment, and how we can modify it, when thinking about preventing and treating mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. Andreas’ research has found that living in urban environments (city living), social status and migration are all factors which can alter the functioning of the amygdala and cingulate cortex, impairing an individual’s ability to deal with social stress. The focus on environmental factors impacting upon mental health drew together the complex effects of genetic and environmental factors we had heard about throughout the meeting. Currently, out of the two, environmental factors are the only influences which can be modified highlighting yet another important area of intervention.
The pPOD team were delighted to have been involved in such an enjoyable event and to have heard about the ground breaking and inspirational mental health research is taking place around the world!
By Beth Barker and Emily Pearson
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg (Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim) brought a fantastic final day to a close with a talk on the social environment, its effects on the brain, and the development of mental health disorders. Andreas stressed the need to look to the environment, and how we can modify it, when thinking about preventing and treating mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. Andreas’ research has found that living in urban environments (city living), social status and migration are all factors which can alter the functioning of the amygdala and cingulate cortex, impairing an individual’s ability to deal with social stress. The focus on environmental factors impacting upon mental health drew together the complex effects of genetic and environmental factors we had heard about throughout the meeting. Currently, out of the two, environmental factors are the only influences which can be modified highlighting yet another important area of intervention.
The pPOD team were delighted to have been involved in such an enjoyable event and to have heard about the ground breaking and inspirational mental health research is taking place around the world!
By Beth Barker and Emily Pearson
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