Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) frequently exhibit impulsive behaviors independent of their mood state, and trait impulsivity is increasingly recognized as a crucial BD biomarker. This study aimed to investigate structural correlates of trait impulsivity measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) in healthy controls (HCs) and patients with BD.

We recruited 59 patients diagnosed with BD I or BD II (35.3 ± 8.5 years) and 56 age- and sex-matched HCs (33.9 ± 7.4 years). Participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging and clinical evaluations, and their BIS scores were evaluated. An automated surface-based method (FreeSurfer) was used to measure cortical thickness and generate thickness maps for each participant. Brain-wise regression analysis of the association between cortical thickness and BIS scores was performed separately for BD and HC groups by using a general linear model.

Patients with BD obtained significantly higher BIS scores than HCs. In HCs, higher BIS scores were associated with a thinner cortex in the left inferior, middle and medial frontal cortices. By contrast, in BD patients, higher BIS scores were associated with a thicker cortex in the right insula. Patients with BD showed a thinner cortex than HCs in all these four structures.

The findings indicate that the left prefrontal cortex plays a cardinal role in trait impulsivity of healthy individuals. Patients with BD have a different structural correlate of trait impulsivity in the right insula. However, the use of various psychotropics in patients with BD may limit our interpretation of BD findings.

Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent in people with bipolar disorder, but it is not clear how many have anxiety disorders even at times when they are free of major mood episodes. We aimed to establish what proportion of euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder meet diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders.

We performed a random-effects meta-analysis of prevalence rates of current DSM-III- and DSM-IV-defined anxiety disorders (panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, obsessive–compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorder not otherwise specified) in euthymic adults with bipolar disorder in studies published by 31 December 2015.

Across 10 samples with 2120 individuals with bipolar disorder, 34.7% met diagnostic criteria for one or more anxiety disorders during euthymia [95% confidence interval (CI) 23.9–45.5%]. Direct comparison of 189 euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder and 17 109 population controls across three studies showed a 4.6-fold increase (risk ratio 4.60, 95% CI 2.37–8.92, p < 0.001) in prevalence of anxiety disorders in those with bipolar disorder.

These findings suggest that anxiety disorders are common in people with bipolar disorder even when their mood is adequately controlled. Euthymic people with bipolar disorder should be routinely assessed for anxiety disorders and anxiety-focused treatment should be initiated if indicated.

The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of meaning-centered group psychotherapy for cancer survivors (MCGP-CS) to improve personal meaning, compared with supportive group psychotherapy (SGP) and care as usual (CAU).

A total of 170 cancer survivors were randomly assigned to one of the three study arms: MCGP-CS (n = 57); SGP (n = 56); CAU (n = 57). The primary outcome measure was the Personal Meaning Profile (PMP; total score). Secondary outcome measures were subscales of the PMP, psychological well-being (Scales of Psychological Well-being; SPWB), post-traumatic growth (Posttraumatic Growth Inventory), Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC), optimism (Life Orientation Test-Revised), hopelessness (Beck's Hopelessness Scale), psychological distress (anxiety and depression, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; HADS) and quality of life (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire; EORTC QLQ-C30). Outcome measures were assessed before randomization, post-intervention, and after 3 and 6 months of follow-up (FU).

Linear mixed model analyses (intention-to-treat) showed significant differences between MCGP-CS, SGP and CAU on the total PMP score, and on (sub)scales of the PMP, SPWB, MAC and HADS. Post-hoc analyses showed significantly stronger treatment effects of MCGP-CS compared with CAU on personal meaning (d = 0.81), goal-orientedness (d = 1.07), positive relations (d = 0.59), purpose in life (d = 0.69); fighting spirit (d = 0.61) (post-intervention) and helpless/hopeless (d = −0.87) (3 months FU); and distress (d = −0.6) and depression (d = −0.38) (6 months FU). Significantly stronger effects of MCGP-CS compared with SGP were found on personal growth (d = 0.57) (3 months FU) and environmental mastery (d = 0.66) (6 months FU).

MCGP-CS is an effective intervention for cancer survivors to improve personal meaning, psychological well-being and mental adjustment to cancer in the short term, and to reduce psychological distress in the long run.

Phenylketonuria (PKU), a genetic metabolic disorder that is characterized by the inability to convert phenylalanine to tyrosine, leads to severe intellectual disability and other cerebral complications if left untreated. Dietary treatment, initiated soon after birth, prevents most brain-related complications. A leading hypothesis postulates that a shortage of brain monoamines may be associated with neurocognitive deficits that are observable even in early-treated PKU. However, there is a paucity of evidence as yet for this hypothesis.

We therefore assessed in vivo striatal dopamine D2/3 receptor (D2/3R) availability and plasma monoamine metabolite levels together with measures of impulsivity and executive functioning in 18 adults with PKU and average intellect (31.2 ± 7.4 years, nine females), most of whom were early and continuously treated. Comparison data from 12 healthy controls that did not differ in gender and age were available.

Mean D2/3R availability was significantly higher (13%; p = 0.032) in the PKU group (n = 15) than in the controls, which may reflect reduced synaptic brain dopamine levels in PKU. The PKU group had lower plasma levels of homovanillic acid (p < 0.001) and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenylglycol (p < 0.0001), the predominant metabolites of dopamine and norepinephrine, respectively. Self-reported impulsivity levels were significantly higher in the PKU group compared with healthy controls (p = 0.033). Within the PKU group, D2/3R availability showed a positive correlation with both impulsivity (r = 0.72, p = 0.003) and the error rate during a cognitive flexibility task (r = 0.59, p = 0.020).

These findings provide further support for the hypothesis that executive functioning deficits in treated adult PKU may be associated with cerebral dopamine deficiency.

Prior studies have suggested a relationship between atopy and mental health, although methodological barriers have limited the generalizability of these findings. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between early-life atopy and vulnerability to mental health problems among youth in the community.

Data were drawn from the Raine Study (N = 2868), a population-based birth cohort study in Western Australia. Logistic regression and generalized estimating equations were used to examine the relationship between atopy at ages 1–5 years [using parent report and objective biological confirmation (sera IgE)], and the range of internalizing and externalizing mental health problems at ages 5–17 years.

Atopy appears to be associated with increased vulnerability to affective and anxiety problems, compared to youth without atopy. These associations remained significant after adjusting for a range of potential confounders. No relationship was evident between atopy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or externalizing problems.

Findings are the first linking atopy (measured by both parent report and objective verification) with increased vulnerability to affective and anxiety problems. Therefore, replication is required. If replicated, future research aimed at understanding the possible biological and/or social and environmental pathways underlying these links is needed. Such information could shed light on shared pathways that could lead to more effective treatments for both atopy and internalizing mental health problems.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is likely to be a heterogeneous condition. Previous studies have empirically defined subgroups using combinations of clinical and biological variables. We aimed to explore the heterogeneity of chronic fatigue syndrome.

We used baseline data from the PACE trial, which included 640 participants with chronic fatigue syndrome. Variable reduction, using a combination of clinical knowledge and principal component analyses, produced a final dataset of 26 variables for 541 patients. Latent class analysis was then used to empirically define subgroups.

The most statistically significant and clinically recognizable model comprised five subgroups. The largest, ‘core’ subgroup (33% of participants), had relatively low scores across all domains and good self-efficacy. A further three subgroups were defined by: the presence of mood disorders (21%); the presence of features of other functional somatic syndromes (such as fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome) (21%); or by many symptoms – a group which combined features of both of the above (14%). The smallest ‘avoidant–inactive’ subgroup was characterized by physical inactivity, belief that symptoms were entirely physical in nature, and fear that they indicated harm (11%). Differences in the severity of fatigue and disability provided some discriminative validation of the subgroups.

In addition to providing further evidence for the heterogeneity of chronic fatigue syndrome, the subgroups identified may aid future research into the important aetiological factors of specific subtypes of chronic fatigue syndrome and the development of more personalized treatment approaches.

Early weak treatment response is one of the few trans-diagnostic, treatment-agnostic predictors of poor outcome following a full treatment course. We sought to improve the outcome of clients with weak initial response to guided self-help cognitive behavior therapy (GSH).

One hundred and nine women with binge-eating disorder (BED) or bulimia nervosa (BN) (DSM-IV-TR) received 4 weeks of GSH. Based on their response, they were grouped into: (1) early strong responders who continued GSH (cGSH), and early weak responders randomized to (2) dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), or (3) individual and additional group cognitive behavior therapy (CBT+).

Baseline objective binge-eating-day (OBD) frequency was similar between DBT, CBT+ and cGSH. During treatment, OBD frequency reduction was significantly slower in DBT and CBT+ relative to cGSH. Relative to cGSH, OBD frequency was significantly greater at the end of DBT (d = 0.27) and CBT+ (d = 0.31) although these effects were small and within-treatment effects from baseline were large (d = 1.41, 0.95, 1.11, respectively). OBD improvements significantly diminished in all groups during 12 months follow-up but were significantly better sustained in DBT relative to cGSH (d = −0.43). At 6- and 12-month follow-up assessments, DBT, CBT and cGSH did not differ in OBD.

Early weak response to GSH may be overcome by additional intensive treatment. Evidence was insufficient to support superiority of either DBT or CBT+ for early weak responders relative to early strong responders in cGSH; both were helpful. Future studies using adaptive designs are needed to assess the use of early response to efficiently deliver care to large heterogeneous client groups.

Attention deficits have been frequently reported in schizophrenia. It has been suggested that treatment with second-generation antipsychotics can ameliorate these deficits. In this study, the influence of 6 months treatment with quetiapine, a compound with less affinity for dopamine D2 receptors than for serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors, on electrophysiological parameters of attention was investigated in a group of antipsychotic-naïve, first-episode schizophrenia patients compared with a group of age- and gender-matched healthy controls.

A total of 34 first-episode, antipsychotic-naïve patients with schizophrenia and an equal number of healthy controls were tested in a selective attention and a typical mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm at baseline and after 6 months. The patients were treated with quetiapine according to their clinical needs during the period between baseline and follow-up, whereas controls received no treatment.

Patients showed lower MMN and P200 amplitude than healthy controls in the selective attention paradigm at baseline, while this was not the case for MMN of the typical MMN paradigm. Interestingly, after 6 months treatment, this MMN deficit was only ameliorated in patients treated with above median dosages of quetiapine. Patients had lower P3B amplitude, yet showed similar levels of processing negativity and N100 amplitude compared with healthy controls, both at baseline and follow-up.

The results indicate that deficits in MMN, P200 and P3B amplitude are present at early stages of schizophrenia, although depending on the paradigm used. Furthermore, the results indicate that 6 months quetiapine treatment ameliorates MMN but not P3B deficits, and only in those subjects on higher dosages.

Prior research consistently demonstrates that neuroticism increases risk for suicidal ideation, but the association between neuroticism and suicidal behavior has been inconsistent. Whereas neuroticism is recommended as an endophenotype for suicidality, the association of neuroticism with attempted suicide warrants clarification. In particular, prior research has not distinguished between correlates of attempted suicide, correlates of suicidal ideation, and correlates of comorbid psychopathology.

The present study used the CONVERGE study, a sample of 5864 women with major depressive disorder (MD) and 5783 women without MD throughout China. Diagnoses, suicidal ideation, and attempted suicide were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Neuroticism was assessed with the neuroticism portion of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.

Results replicate prior findings on the correlates of suicidal ideation, particularly elevated neuroticism among individuals who report prior suicidal ideation. Moreover, as compared with individuals who reported having experienced only suicidal ideation, neuroticism was associated with decreased likelihood of having attempted suicide.

The association of neuroticism with suicidality is more complicated than has been previously described. Whereas neuroticism increases risk for suicidal ideation, neuroticism may decrease risk for a suicide attempt among individuals with suicidal ideation. These results have implications for the assessment of risk for a suicide attempt among individuals who report suicidal ideation and addresses prior discordant findings by clarifying the association between neuroticism and attempted suicide.

Previous studies suggest that adults with Tourette syndrome (TS) can respond unconventionally on tasks involving social cognition. We therefore hypothesized that these patients would exhibit different neural responses to healthy controls in response to emotionally salient expressions of human eyes.

Twenty-five adults with TS and 25 matched healthy controls were scanned using fMRI during the standard version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task which requires mental state judgements, and a novel comparison version requiring judgements about age.

During prompted mental state recognition, greater activity was apparent in TS within left orbitofrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, right amygdala and right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), while reduced activity was apparent in regions including left inferior parietal cortex. Age judgement elicited greater activity in TS within precuneus, medial prefrontal and temporal regions involved in mentalizing. The interaction between group and task revealed differential activity in areas including right inferior frontal gyrus. Task-related activity in the TPJ covaried with global ratings of the urge to tic.

While recognizing mental states, adults with TS exhibit greater activity than controls in brain areas involved in the processing of negative emotion, in addition to reduced activity in regions associated with the attribution of agency. In addition, increased recruitment of areas involved in mental state reasoning is apparent in these patients when mentalizing is not a task requirement. Our findings highlight differential neural reactivity in response to emotive social cues in TS, which may interact with tic expression.

Panic disorder (PD) patients are constantly concerned about future panic attacks and exhibit general hypersensitivity to unpredictable threat. We aimed to reveal phasic and sustained brain responses and functional connectivity of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) during threat anticipation in PD.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated 17 PD patients and 19 healthy controls (HC) during anticipation of temporally unpredictable aversive and neutral sounds. We used a phasic and sustained analysis model to disentangle temporally dissociable brain activations.

PD patients compared with HC showed phasic amygdala and sustained BNST responses during anticipation of aversive v. neutral stimuli. Furthermore, increased phasic activation was observed in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Insula and PFC also showed sustained activation. Functional connectivity analyses revealed partly distinct phasic and sustained networks.

We demonstrate a role for the BNST during unpredictable threat anticipation in PD and provide first evidence for dissociation between phasic amygdala and sustained BNST activation and their functional connectivity. In line with a hypersensitivity to uncertainty in PD, our results suggest time-dependent involvement of brain regions related to fear and anxiety.

Although perceived social support is thought to be a strong predictor of psychological outcomes following trauma exposure, the temporal relationship between perceived positive and negative social support and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms has not been empirically established. This study investigated the temporal sequencing of perceived positive social support, perceived negative social support, and PTSD symptoms in the 6 years following trauma exposure among survivors of traumatic injury.

Participants were 1132 trauma survivors initially assessed upon admission to one of four Level 1 trauma hospitals in Australia after experiencing a traumatic injury. Participants were followed up at 3 months, 12 months, 24 months, and 6 years after the traumatic event.

Latent difference score analyses revealed that greater severity of PTSD symptoms predicted subsequent increases in perceived negative social support at each time-point. Greater severity of PTSD symptoms predicted subsequent decreases in perceived positive social support between 3 and 12 months. High levels of perceived positive or negative social support did not predict subsequent changes in PTSD symptoms at any time-point.

Results highlight the impact of PTSD symptoms on subsequent perceived social support, regardless of the type of support provided. The finding that perceived social support does not influence subsequent PTSD symptoms is novel, and indicates that the relationship between PTSD and perceived social support may be unidirectional.

Preliminary studies report no negative and a possible positive impact of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on cognition of patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, these studies neither controlled for practice effects nor compared active with sham stimulation.

To address these limitations, we compared 25 TRD patients, who underwent DBS of the ventral anterior limb of the internal capsule (vALIC), with 21 healthy controls (HCs) matched on gender, age and education level. Both groups did subtests of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery assessing verbal and visuospatial memory, attention, cognitive flexibility, psychomotor functioning, planning and object naming. TRD patients were tested 3 weeks prior to DBS surgery (baseline), 3 weeks following surgery (T1) and following 52 weeks of DBS optimization (T2). HCs were tested at baseline, 6 weeks following baseline (T1) and 20–24 weeks following baseline (T2). Subsequently, TRD patients entered a randomized, double-blind crossover phase, in which they were tested in an active and a sham stimulation phase.

TRD patients did not improve on a test of immediate verbal recognition from baseline to T1, whereas HCs did (group x time: p = 0.001). Both TRD patients and HCs improved over sessions on tests measuring delayed verbal recall, visuospatial memory, planning and object naming (all p < 0.01). Active and sham stimulation did not have an impact on any of the tests differentially.

vALIC DBS neither has a lasting positive nor negative impact on cognition in TRD patients. DBS surgery might have a temporary negative effect on verbal memory.

This study seeks to clarify the contribution of temporally stable and occasion-specific genetic and environmental influences on risk for major depression (MD).

Our sample was 2153 members of female–female twin pairs from the Virginia Twin Registry. We examined four personal interview waves conducted over an 8-year period with MD in the last year defined by DSM-IV criteria. We fitted a structural equation model to the data using classic Mx. The model included genetic and environmental risk factors for a latent, stable vulnerability to MD and for episodes in each of the four waves.

The best-fit model was simple and included genetic and unique environmental influences on the latent liability to MD and unique wave-specific environmental effects. The path from latent liability to MD in the last year was constant over time, moderate in magnitude (+0.65) and weaker than the impact of occasion-specific environmental effects (+0.76). Heritability of the latent stable liability to MD was much higher (78%) than that estimated for last-year MD (32%). Of the total unique environmental influences on MD, 13% reflected enduring consequences of earlier environmental insults, 17% diagnostic error and 70% wave-specific short-lived environmental stressors.

Both genetic influences on MD and MD heritability are stable over middle adulthood. However, the largest influence on last-year MD is short-lived environmental effects. As predicted by genetic theory, the heritability of MD is increased substantially by measurement at multiple time points largely through the reduction of the effects of measurement error and short-term environmental risk factors.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by fear of social and performance situations. The consequence of scrutiny by others for the neural processing of performance feedback in SAD is unknown.

We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activation to positive, negative, and uninformative performance feedback in patients diagnosed with SAD and age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy control subjects who performed a time estimation task during a social observation condition and a non-social control condition: while either being monitored or unmonitored by a body camera, subjects received performance feedback after performing a time estimation that they could not fully evaluate without external feedback.

We found that brain activation in ventral striatum (VS) and midcingulate cortex was modulated by an interaction of social context and feedback type. SAD patients showed a lack of social-context-dependent variation of feedback processing, while control participants showed an enhancement of brain responses specifically to positive feedback in VS during observation.

The present findings emphasize the importance of social-context processing in SAD by showing that scrutiny prevents appropriate reward-processing-related signatures in response to positive performances in SAD.

A growing body of evidence suggests that indicators of social disadvantage are associated with an increased risk of psychosis. However, only a few studies have specifically looked at cumulative effects and long-term associations. The aims of this study are: To compare the prevalence of specific indicators of social disadvantage at, and prior to, first contact with psychiatric services in patients suffering their first episode of psychosis and in a control sample. To explore long-term associations, cumulative effects, and direction of effects.

We collected information on social disadvantage from 332 patients and from 301 controls recruited from the local population in South London. Three indicators of social disadvantage in childhood and six indicators of social disadvantage in adulthood were analysed.

Across all the domains considered, cases were more likely to report social disadvantage than were controls. Compared with controls, cases were approximately two times more likely to have had a parent die and approximately three times more likely to have experienced a long-term separation from one parent before the age of 17 years. Cases were also more likely than controls to report two or more indicators of adult social disadvantage, not only at first contact with psychiatric services [odds ratio (OR) 9.5], but also at onset of psychosis (OR 8.5), 1 year pre-onset (OR 4.5), and 5 years pre-onset (OR 2.9).

Greater numbers of indicators of current and long-term exposure are associated with progressively greater odds of psychosis. There is some evidence that social disadvantage tends to cluster and accumulate.

Although alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with future risk for psychosocial dysfunction, the degree to which this arises from a direct causal effect of AUD on functioning v. from correlated risk factors (also known as confounders) is less clearly established.

AUD was assessed from Swedish medical, criminal and pharmacy registries. In a large general population cohort, using Cox proportional hazard and regression models, we predicted from the onset of AUD four outcomes: early retirement, unemployment, social assistance, and individual income. We then examined the degree to which these associations were attenuated by relevant confounders as well as by the use of discordant cousin, half-sibling, full-sibling, and monozygotic twin pairs.

In males, AUD most strongly predicted social assistance [hazard ratio (HR) 8.27, 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.96–8.59], followed by early retirement (HR 5.63, 95% CI 5.53–5.72) and unemployment (HR 2.75, 95% CI 2.65–2.85). For income at age 50, AUD was associated with a decrease in income of 0.24 s.d.s (95% CI −0.25 to −0.23). Results were similar in females. Modest to moderate attenuation of these associations was seen in both sexes after the addition of relevant covariates. These associations were reduced but remained robust in discordant co-relative pairs, including monozygotic twins.

Our results suggest that AUD has a causal impact on a range of measures reflective of psychosocial dysfunction. These findings provide strong support for the drift hypothesis. However, some of the associations between AUD and dysfunction appear to be non-causal and result from shared risk factors, many of which are likely familial.

Prior research demonstrated that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with binge-eating behavior, binge-eating disorder (BED), and bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of this study was to investigate these associations in an adult twin population, and to determine the extent to which ADHD symptoms and binge-eating behavior share genetic and environmental factors.

We used self-reports of current ADHD symptoms and lifetime binge-eating behavior and associated characteristics from a sample of over 18 000 adult twins aged 20–46 years, from the population-based Swedish Twin Registry. Mixed-effects logistic regression was used to examine the association between ADHD and lifetime binge-eating behavior, BED, and BN. Structural equation modeling was used in 13 773 female twins to determine the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the association between ADHD symptoms and binge-eating behavior in female adult twins.

ADHD symptoms were significantly associated with lifetime binge-eating behavior, BED, and BN. The heritability estimate for current ADHD symptoms was 0.42 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.41–0.44], and for lifetime binge-eating behavior 0.65 (95% CI 0.54–0.74). The genetic correlation was estimated as 0.35 (95% CI 0.25–0.46) and the covariance between ADHD and binge-eating behavior was primarily explained by genetic factors (91%). Non-shared environmental factors explained the remaining part of the covariance.

The association between adult ADHD symptoms and binge-eating behavior in females is largely explained by shared genetic risk factors.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) share abnormalities in hot executive functions such as reward-based decision-making, as measured in the temporal discounting task (TD). No studies, however, have directly compared these disorders to investigate common/distinct neural profiles underlying such abnormalities. We wanted to test whether reward-based decision-making is a shared transdiagnostic feature of both disorders with similar neurofunctional substrates or whether it is a shared phenotype with disorder-differential neurofunctional underpinnings.

Age and IQ-matched boys with ASD (N = 20), with OCD (N = 20) and 20 healthy controls, performed an individually-adjusted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) TD task. Brain activation and performance were compared between groups.

Boys with ASD showed greater choice-impulsivity than OCD and control boys. Whole-brain between-group comparison revealed shared reductions in ASD and OCD relative to control boys for delayed-immediate choices in right ventromedial/lateral orbitofrontal cortex extending into medial/inferior prefrontal cortex, and in cerebellum, posterior cingulate and precuneus. For immediate-delayed choices, patients relative to controls showed reduced activation in anterior cingulate/ventromedial prefrontal cortex reaching into left caudate, which, at a trend level, was more decreased in ASD than OCD patients, and in bilateral temporal and inferior parietal regions.

This first fMRI comparison between youth with ASD and with OCD, using a reward-based decision-making task, shows predominantly shared neurofunctional abnormalities during TD in key ventromedial, orbital- and inferior fronto-striatal, temporo-parietal and cerebellar regions of temporal foresight and reward processing, suggesting trans-diagnostic neurofunctional deficits.

Computerized cognitive–behavioural therapy (cCBT) forms a core component of stepped psychological care for depression. Existing evidence for cCBT has been informed by developer-led trials. This is the first study based on a large independent pragmatic trial to assess the cost-effectiveness of cCBT as an adjunct to usual general practitioner (GP) care compared with usual GP care alone and to establish the differential cost-effectiveness of a free-to-use cCBT programme (MoodGYM) in comparison with a commercial programme (Beating the Blues) in primary care.

Costs were estimated from a healthcare perspective and outcomes measured using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) over 2 years. The incremental cost-effectiveness of each cCBT programme was compared with usual GP care. Uncertainty was estimated using probabilistic sensitivity analysis and scenario analyses were performed to assess the robustness of results.

Neither cCBT programme was found to be cost-effective compared with usual GP care alone. At a £20 000 per QALY threshold, usual GP care alone had the highest probability of being cost-effective (0.55) followed by MoodGYM (0.42) and Beating the Blues (0.04). Usual GP care alone was also the cost-effective intervention in the majority of scenario analyses. However, the magnitude of the differences in costs and QALYs between all groups appeared minor (and non-significant).

Technically supported cCBT programmes do not appear any more cost-effective than usual GP care alone. No cost-effective advantage of the commercially developed cCBT programme was evident compared with the free-to-use cCBT programme. Current UK practice recommendations for cCBT may need to be reconsidered in the light of the results.