Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Re-MEND (Building REsilience against MEntal illness during ENDocrine-sensitive life stages)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
Mental illnesses represent a huge burden for society, the economy, and the affected individuals. To significantly increase citizens’ mental health, today’s symptom-based diagnoses need to be complemented by biological criteria accounting for individual and sex differences. Furthermore, early detection and prevention strategies need to be improved. RE-MEND addresses the current gaps and challenges with an interdisciplinary approach by focussing on four critical life stages in which an individual’s susceptibility to mental illness is strongly influenced by changes in endocrine signalling, including sex hormones, namely early life, puberty, peripartum, and transition into old age. RE-MEND will integrate data from large population-based longitudinal cohort studies allowing for discovery of risk and protective factors as well as biological patterns that influence mental states in the general population across these life stages. By complementing epidemiological with experimental studies the project will establish correlative and causal links leading to mechanistic understanding. Advanced biostatistics combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence will facilitate novel biomarker and drug target discoveries. RE-MEND combines the biological approaches with communication science to efficiently translate its results to societal impact. Ultimately, RE-MEND will result in: i) significantly increased mental health literacy among stakeholders and citizens; ii) validated biomarkers for assessing mental health state and its predisposition as well as more accurate diagnoses and personalised preventive and therapeutic measures; iii) recommendations for early detection, better prevention, and drug design strategies to protect vulnerable individuals from mental illness in sensitive life stages; and iv) strategies on how these advances can be used to decrease stigma and increase prevention behaviour.
During the first reporting period a major focus has been to align available and to-be-collected data and to solve logistic challenges regarding sample and data collection and retrieval. This basic work is needed to ensure high quality of data on which we base our results and conclusions on. In the meantime, within cohort analyses on associations of mental health states and environmental factors as well as molecular biomarkers have been conducted (see results below).
Furthermore, for the experimental studies as well as for biomarker and drug discovery, methods have been adjusted and further developed for the samples and data available in RE-MEND, and a new partner joined the consortium, which will enable us to extend the search for biomarkers.
Another important milestone has been the launch of the “RE-MEND citizen science project for better mental health literacy”. The project is an investigation of everyday experiences of living in the vicinity of mental illness and engages in particular senior citizens. This, together with finalised and planned studies on perceived causes of depression, will give insights into how to decrease stigma and increase preventive measures against mental ill-health.
Furthermore, for the experimental studies as well as for biomarker and drug discovery, methods have been adjusted and further developed for the samples and data available in RE-MEND, and a new partner joined the consortium, which will enable us to extend the search for biomarkers.
Another important milestone has been the launch of the “RE-MEND citizen science project for better mental health literacy”. The project is an investigation of everyday experiences of living in the vicinity of mental illness and engages in particular senior citizens. This, together with finalised and planned studies on perceived causes of depression, will give insights into how to decrease stigma and increase preventive measures against mental ill-health.
Analyses in the SELMA (Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and child, Asthma and allergy) study have shown that prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, i.e. chemicals that disturb hormonal signalling, is associated with behavioural difficulties in 7 years old children, suggesting a role for these chemicals and the hormonal pathways they affect in shaping children’s behaviour.
Results from the BASIC (Biology, Affect, Stress, Imaging and Cognition) study in Sweden have shown that the levels of the hormone allopregnanolone during pregnancy is linked to depressive symptoms just before or after giving birth. Furthermore, in this cohort, first molecular signatures were identified that are changed in the context of depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy. These were mainly linked to immune system functions.
A secondary analysis of perceived causes of depression in Germany and the USA comparing genetic, social, and individual responsibility attributions regarding the onset of depression has led to the conclusion that in both countries, social responsibility attributions, i.e. that the social environment is mainly responsible for the onset of depression, is highest. Regarding stigmatization, this result is promising since a social responsibility does not put blame on people with depression, thus, self-stigmatization could be reduced. This is highly relevant since depression is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in Europe with serious consequences, e.g. suicide, job loss, sick leaves, poor living quality, and other health-related and societal aspects.
Results from the BASIC (Biology, Affect, Stress, Imaging and Cognition) study in Sweden have shown that the levels of the hormone allopregnanolone during pregnancy is linked to depressive symptoms just before or after giving birth. Furthermore, in this cohort, first molecular signatures were identified that are changed in the context of depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy. These were mainly linked to immune system functions.
A secondary analysis of perceived causes of depression in Germany and the USA comparing genetic, social, and individual responsibility attributions regarding the onset of depression has led to the conclusion that in both countries, social responsibility attributions, i.e. that the social environment is mainly responsible for the onset of depression, is highest. Regarding stigmatization, this result is promising since a social responsibility does not put blame on people with depression, thus, self-stigmatization could be reduced. This is highly relevant since depression is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in Europe with serious consequences, e.g. suicide, job loss, sick leaves, poor living quality, and other health-related and societal aspects.