Don't Miss the Moment:A Systematic Review of Ecological Momentary Assessment in Suicide Research

Suicide and suicide-related behaviors are prevalent yet notoriously difficult to predict. Specifically, short-term predictors and correlates of suicide risk remain largely unknown. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may be used to assess how suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) unfold in real-world contexts. We conducted a systematic literature review of EMA studies in suicide research to assess (1) how EMA has been utilized in the study of STBs (i.e., methodology, findings), and (2) the feasibility, validity and safety of EMA in the study of STBs. We identified 45 articles, detailing 23 studies. Studies mainly focused on examining how known longitudinal predictors of suicidal ideation perform within shorter (hourly, daily) time frames. Recent studies have explored the prospects of digital phenotyping of individuals with suicidal ideation. The results indicate that suicidal ideation fluctuates substantially over time (hours, days), and that individuals with higher mean ideation also have more fluctuations. Higher suicidal ideation instability may represent a phenotypic indicator for increased suicide risk. Few studies succeeded in establishing prospective predictors of suicidal ideation beyond prior ideation itself. Some studies show negative affect, hopelessness and burdensomeness to predict increased ideation within-day, and sleep characteristics to impact next-day ideation. The feasibility of EMA is encouraging: agreement to participate in EMA research was moderate to high (median = 77%), and compliance rates similar to those in other clinical samples (median response rate = 70%). More individuals reported suicidal ideation through EMA than traditional (retrospective) self-report measures. Regarding safety, no evidence was found of systematic reactivity of mood or suicidal ideation to repeated assessments of STBs. In conclusion, suicidal ideation can fluctuate substantially over short periods of time, and EMA is a suitable method for capturing these fluctuations. Some specific predictors of subsequent ideation have been identified, but these findings warrant further replication. While repeated EMA assessments do not appear to result in systematic reactivity in STBs, participant burden and safety remains a consideration when studying high-risk populations. Considerations for designing and reporting on EMA studies in suicide research are discussed

Exogenous cortisol acutely influences motivated decision making in healthy young men

The glucocorticoid (GC) hormone cortisol is the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis). Acute psychological stress increases HPA activity and GC release. In humans, chronic disturbances in HPA activity have been observed in affective disorders and in addictive behaviour. Recent research indicates that acute effects of GCs may be anxiolytic and increase reward sensitivity. Furthermore, cortisol acutely influences early cognitive processing of emotional stimuli. In order to extend such findings to more complex emotional-cognitive behaviour, the present study tested acute effects of 40 mg cortisol on motivated decision making in 30 healthy young men. Results showed that cortisol indeed increased risky decision making, as predicted. This effect occurred for decisions where making a risky choice could potentially yield a big reward. These results are discussed with respect to currently proposed mechanisms for cortisol's potential anxiolytic effect and GCs' involvement in reward systems.Stress-related psychiatric disorders across the life spa

The association of childhood maltreatment with depression and anxiety is not moderated by the oxytocin receptor gene

Background: The oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene may be involved in resilience or vulnerability towards stress, and hence in the development of stress-related disorders. There are indications that OXTR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) interact with early life stressors in predicting levels of depression and anxiety. To replicate and extend these findings, we examined whether three literature-based OXTR SNPs (rs2254298, rs53576, rs2268498) interact with childhood maltreatment in the development of clinically diagnosed depression and anxiety disorders. Methods: We included 2567 individuals from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. This sample consisted of 387 healthy controls, 428 people with a current or past depressive disorder, 243 people with a current or past anxiety disorder, and 1509 people with both lifetime depression and anxiety diagnoses. Childhood maltreatment was measured with both an interview and via self-report. Additional questionnaires measured depression and anxiety sensitivity. Results: Childhood maltreatment was strongly associated with both lifetime depression and anxiety diagnoses, as well as with depression and anxiety sensitivity. However, the OXTR SNPs did not moderate these associations nor had main effects on outcomes. Conclusions: The three OXTR gene SNPs did not interact with childhood maltreatment in predicting lifetime depression and anxiety diagnoses or sensitivity. This stresses the importance of replication studies with regard to OXTR gene variants in general populations as well as in clearly established clinical samples

Level and timing of physical activity during normal daily life in depressed and non-depressed individuals

Engaging in physical activity is known to reduce depressive symptoms. However, little is known which behavioral factors are relevant, and how patterns of activity change during depressive episodes. We expected that compared to controls, in depressed individuals the level of activity would be lower, the amplitude of 24-h-actigraphy profiles more dampened and daytime activities would start later. We used 14-day continuous-actigraphy data from participants in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) who participated in an ambulatory assessment study. Participants with a depression diagnosis in the past 6 months (n = 58) or its subsample with acute depression (DSM diagnosis in the past 1 month, n = 43) were compared to controls without diagnoses (n = 63). Depression was diagnosed with a diagnostic interview. Actigraphy-derived variables were activity mean levels (MESOR), the difference between peak and mean level (amplitude) and the timing of the activity peak (acrophase), which were estimated with cosinor analysis. Compared to the control group, both depression groups (total: B = -0.003, p = 0.033; acute: B = -0.004, p = 0.005) had lower levels of physical activity. Amplitude was also dampened, but in the acute depression group only (total: B = -0.002, p = 0.065; acute: B = -0.003, p = 0.011). Similarly, the timing of activity was marginally significant towards a later timing of activity in the acute, but not total depression group (total: B = 0.206, p = 0.398; acute: B = 0.405, p = 0.084). In conclusion, our findings may be relevant for understanding how different aspects of activity (level and timing) contribute to depression. Further prospective research is needed to disentangle the direction of the association between depression and daily rest-activity rhythms

The day-to-day bidirectional longitudinal association between objective and self-reported sleep and affect:An ambulatory assessment study

Background: Ambulatory assessments offer opportunities to evaluate daily dynamics of sleep and momentary affect using mobile technologies. This study examines day-to-day bidirectional associations between sleep and affect using mobile monitoring, and evaluates whether these associations differ between people without and with current or remitted depression/anxiety. Methods: Two-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and actigraphy data of 359 participants with current (n = 93), remitted (n = 176) or no (n = 90) CIDI depression/anxiety diagnoses were obtained from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Objective sleep duration (SD) and efficiency were obtained from actigraphy data. Self-reported SD, sleep quality (SQ), positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) were assessed by electronic diaries through EMA. Results: A bidirectional longitudinal association was found between self-reported SQ and affect, while no association was found for self-reported SD and objective SD and efficiency. Better SQ predicted affect the same day (higher PA: b = 0.035, p < 0.001; lower NA: b = -0.022, p < 0.001), while lower NA on the preceding day predicted better SQ (b = -0.102, p = 0.001). The presence of current depression/anxiety disorders moderated the association between better SQ and subsequent lower NA; it was stronger for patients compared to controls (p = 0.003). Limitations: Observational study design can only point to areas of interest for interventions. Conclusions: This 2-week ambulatory monitoring study shows that, especially among depression/anxiety patients, better self-reported SQ predicts higher PA and lower NA the same day, while lower NA predicts better self-reported SQ. The value of mobile technologies to monitor and potentially intervene in patients to improve their affect should be explored

Sociodemographic, Health and Lifestyle, Sampling, and Mental Health Determinants of 24-Hour Motor Activity Patterns:Observational Study

Background: Analyzing actigraphy data using standard circadian parametric models and aggregated nonparametric indices may obscure temporal information that may be a hallmark of the circadian impairment in psychiatric disorders. Functional data analysis (FDA) may overcome such limitations by fully exploiting the richness of actigraphy data and revealing important relationships with mental health outcomes. To our knowledge, no studies have extensively used FDA to study the relationship between sociodemographic, health and lifestyle, sampling, and psychiatric clinical characteristics and daily motor activity patterns assessed with actigraphy in a sample of individuals with and without depression/anxiety. Objective: We aimed to study the association between daily motor activity patterns assessed via actigraphy and (1) sociodemographic, health and lifestyle, and sampling factors, and (2) psychiatric clinical characteristics (ie, presence and severity of depression/anxiety disorders). Methods: We obtained 14-day continuous actigraphy data from 359 participants from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety with current (n=93), remitted (n=176), or no (n=90) depression/anxiety diagnosis, based on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. Associations between patterns of daily motor activity, quantified via functional principal component analysis (fPCA), and sociodemographic, health and lifestyle, sampling, and psychiatric clinical characteristics were assessed using generalized estimating equation regressions. For exploratory purposes, function-on-scalar regression (FoSR) was applied to quantify the time-varying association of sociodemographic, health and lifestyle, sampling, and psychiatric clinical characteristics on daily motor activity. Results: Four components of daily activity patterns captured 77.4% of the variability in the data: overall daily activity level (fPCA1, 34.3% variability), early versus late morning activity (fPCA2, 16.5% variability), biphasic versus monophasic activity (fPCA3, 14.8% variability), and early versus late biphasic activity (fPCA4, 11.8% variability). A low overall daily activity level was associated with a number of sociodemographic, health and lifestyle, and psychopathology variables: older age (P<.001), higher education level (P=.005), higher BMI (P=.009), greater number of chronic diseases (P=.02), greater number of cigarettes smoked per day (P=.02), current depressive and/or anxiety disorders (P=.05), and greater severity of depressive symptoms (P<.001). A high overall daily activity level was associated with work/school days (P=.02) and summer (reference: winter; P=.03). Earlier morning activity was associated with older age (P=.02), having a partner (P=.009), work/school days (P<.001), and autumn and spring (reference: winter; P=.02 and P<.001, respectively). Monophasic activity was associated with older age (P=.005). Biphasic activity was associated with work/school days (P<.001) and summer (reference: winter; P<.001). Earlier biphasic activity was associated with older age (P=.005), work/school days (P<.001), and spring and summer (reference: winter; P<.001 and P=.005, respectively). In FoSR analyses, age, work/school days, and season were the main determinants having a time-varying association with daily motor activity (all P<.05). Conclusions: Features of daily motor activity extracted with fPCA reflect commonly studied factors such as the intensity of daily activity and preference for morningness/eveningness. The presence and severity of depression/anxiety disorders were found to be associated mainly with a lower overall activity pattern but not with the time of the activity. Age, work/school days, and season were the variables most strongly associated with patterns and time of activity, and thus future epidemiological studies on motor activity in depression/anxiety should take these variables into account

Associations between chronotypes and psychological vulnerability factors of depression

Chronotypes have been associated with psychopathology. The eveningness chronotype has been consistently linked with depressed states or depressive disorder, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Prior studies have shown associations between chronotype and personality traits that are linked to depression (e.g. neuroticism), but other psychological vulnerability factors have not been previously investigated in relation to chronotypes. The aim of this study was to examine the association between chronotypes, depression and psychological risk factors of depression (namely, cognitive reactivity and worry), in a large cohort of depressed patients and healthy individuals. We used data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (n = 1654), which includes 1227 clinically diagnosed individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of depression and 427 healthy controls. We assessed cognitive reactivity (Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity-Revised) and trait worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire). We controlled for sociodemographic factors as well as for insomnia and neuroticism. We found that the evening type is associated with higher cognitive reactivity scores, especially with increased rumination. Cognitive reactivity also mediated the relationship between chronotype and depression status, even when controlling for neuroticism and insomnia. Trait worry was not associated with chronotype. Our findings show that depressogenic cognitions are more prevalent in evening types and perhaps mediate the association between chronotype and depression. Further prospective research is needed to determine the timeline of the association. Nevertheless, results imply that targeting depressogenic cognitive processes, perhaps in combination with chronotherapeutic treatments, may be particularly useful in evening types

Stability of chronotype over a 7-year follow-up period and its association with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms

Background: Chronotype is an individual's preferred timing of sleep and activity, and is often referred to as a later chronotype (or evening-type) or an earlier chronotype (or morning-type). Having an evening chronotype is associated with more severe depressive and anxiety symptoms. Based on these findings it is has been suggested that chronotype is a stable construct associated with vulnerability to develop depressive or anxiety disorders. To examine this, we test the stability of chronotype over 7 years, and its longitudinal association with the change in severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Methods: Data of 1,417 participants with a depressive and/or anxiety disorder diagnosis and healthy controls assessed at the 2 and 9-year follow-up waves of the Netherlands Study of depression and anxiety were used. Chronotype was assessed with the Munich chronotype questionnaire. Severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the inventory of depressive symptomatology and Beck anxiety inventory. Results: Chronotype was found to be moderately stable (r = 0.53) and on average advanced (i.e., became earlier) with 10.8 min over 7 years (p <.001). Controlling for possible confounders, a decrease in severity of depressive symptoms was associated with an advance in chronotype (B = 0.008, p =.003). A change in severity of anxiety symptoms was not associated with a change in chronotype. Conclusion: Chronotype was found to be a stable, trait-like construct with only a minor level advance over a period of 7 years. The change in chronotype was associated with a change in severity of depressive, but not anxiety, symptoms