Category: Health Psychology / Behavioral Medicine - Adult
Nur Hani Zainal, M.S.
Graduate Student
Massachusetts General Hospital
Somerville, Massachusetts
Michelle Newman, Ph.D.
Professor
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
Lauren Alloy, Ph.D.
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nur Hani Zainal, M.S.
Graduate Student
Massachusetts General Hospital
Somerville, Massachusetts
Daniel Moriarity, Ph.D.
UCLA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Naoise Mac Giollabhui, M.A.
Massachusetts General Hospital
SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts
Amy Peters, Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the important role of immune and endocrine markers in common mental disorders (CMD) (Mazza et al., 2020). Scar theories posit and show that elevated transdiagnostic CMD symptoms (e.g., worry) could lead to increased endocrine dysfunction and inflammation via chronic, stress-induced, wear-and-tear of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and related physiological systems (McEwen & Gianaros, 2011; Zainal & Newman, 2021, 2022). Simultaneously, vulnerability theories propose and show that increased inflammation and endocrine dysfunction predict worse CMD symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress) in children, adolescents, and adults (Mac Giollabhui, Ng, Ellman, & Alloy, 2021). Despite progress on this topic to date, the moderators and potential mediators of the bidirectional links between immune or endocrine dysfunction and CMD remain open to inquiry. Our symposium thus aims to enhance understanding on the potential biopsychosocial and neural mediators of CMD-immune and endocrine dysfunction relations, and for whom these relations tend to occur more strongly. We provide in-depth analyses of theories (e.g., Slavich & Irwin, 2014) which propose that endocrine (e.g., cortisol), proinflammatory proteins (e.g., interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP)), and related substrates are notably linked to CMD symptoms, especially for populations vulnerable to heightened, chronic, and long-term exposure to stressors. Further, we determine if scarring, vulnerability, and correlational processes occur via perseverative cognitions (cf. immunocognitive model of psychopathology) (Moriarity et al., 2018), emotion regulation, and related factors (Peters et al., 2019; Peters et al., 2021). To this end, these efforts may optimize therapies for CMD based on immune and endocrine profiles (cf. precision psychiatry; Malys & Mondelli, 2022).
Our symposium comprises four presentations by culturally diverse researchers with at least ten years of clinical research experience. The first presenter demonstrates that higher levels of IL-6, CRP, and fibrinogen predicted 9-year major depressive disorder diagnostic status change more strongly in younger than older adults, women but not men, those with low (vs. high) income, and persons with high (vs. low) childhood trauma frequency and number of chronic illnesses. Following this, another expert on this topic presents longitudinal data indicating that it is depressed individuals who exhibit a pro-inflammatory phenotype that experience persistent cognitive deficits, particularly in executive functioning. The next speaker will communicate a systematic review investigating how emotion regulation characteristics common in CMDs might confer risk for abnormally-elevated inflammatory profiles. Discussion will focus on inflammation as a potential biological mechanism of cognitive-behavioral therapies. Last, another expert will be relaying inflammatory and endocrine markers of cognitive-emotional processing and their underlying neural systems in unipolar depression and bipolar disorder. A seasoned discussant will synthesize these findings and offer ideas to advance the field on this topic.
Presenter: Nur Hani Zainal, M.S. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Michelle G. Newman, Ph.D. – Penn State University
Presenter: Daniel Moriarity, Ph.D. – UCLA
Co-author: Mora Grehl, MA – Temple University
Co-author: Rachel Walsh, MA – Temple University
Co-author: Lauren B. Alloy, Ph.D. – Temple University
Presenter: Naoise Mac Giollabhui, M.A. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Lauren Ellman, Ph.D. – Temple University
Co-author: Marin Kautz, M.A. – Temple University
Co-author: Tania Giovannetti, Ph.D. – Temple University
Co-author: Lauren B. Alloy, Ph.D. – Temple University
Presenter: Amy Peters, Ph.D. – Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School