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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-new-experiment-reveals-an-unexpected-shift-in-how-pregnant-women-handle-intimidation/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">A new experiment reveals an unexpected shift in how pregnant women handle intimidation</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2026, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.70051" target="_blank">British Journal of Psychology</a></em> provides evidence that women in the late stages of pregnancy and early motherhood do not display increased submissiveness when facing potential social threats. Contrary to the expectation that physical vulnerability would lead to conflict avoidance, the findings suggest that women in the perinatal period tend to aggressively protect resources when interacting with threatening-looking men. </p>
<p>The rationale behind this investigation is rooted in the evolutionary history of human development. Human infants are born in a state of high dependency, requiring significant time and energy from caregivers to survive. Throughout history, high rates of infant mortality likely necessitated specific cognitive adaptations in parents to help them assess and manage dangers in the environment. </p>
<p>Psychological theories, such as protection motivation theory, propose that people constantly weigh potential threats against their ability to cope with them. When the perceived threat outweighs the ability to cope, individuals typically adopt protective or avoidant behaviors.</p>
<p>This calculation is particularly relevant during pregnancy. The perinatal period, defined as the months leading up to and immediately following childbirth, is physically demanding. Pregnant women experience reduced physical mobility and significant metabolic costs associated with fetal development. </p>
<p>Because of these physical limitations and the high value of the developing fetus, previous models of parental motivation suggested that pregnant women should be highly risk-averse. The logic follows that if a pregnant woman is physically vulnerable, she should avoid escalation and confrontation to prevent harm to herself and her unborn child.</p>
<p>Past research supports the idea that pregnancy heightens sensitivity to danger. For example, pregnant women often show stronger reactions to disgust and are better at recognizing angry or fearful faces than non-pregnant women. The authors of the current study wanted to determine if this heightened sensitivity translates into behavioral submissiveness. </p>
<p>“While previous work demonstrated that pregnancy may change how women perceive threats—such as how fast they spot an angry or fearful face—we didn’t know how this might lead to changes in their actual behavior. Particularly, we became interested in knowing if this enhanced sensitivity to threat may impact their willingness to compete over resources they may need,” said co-author Shawn Geniole, an associate professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.</p>
<p>“On one hand, pregnancy brings new financial and other demands, making it important to compete for and secure resources (e.g., preferred/overtime shifts at work or better products/services). On the other hand, if pregnancy boosts sensitivity to social threats, it may bring greater cautiousness, increasing the likelihood of ‘backing down’ to avoid any risks of conflict or retaliation.” </p>
<p>“We therefore wanted to conduct this study to determine precisely how pregnancy, and more specifically the perinatal period—the months leading up to and immediately after delivery—would impact these types of competitive decisions. To do so, we used an experimental economics task in which women had to decide how to share resources with others.” </p>
<p>The researchers recruited a total of 139 participants. The sample included 86 perinatal women and a control group of 53 non-perinatal women. The perinatal group was tested at two specific time points: approximately 29 weeks into their gestation and again one month after giving birth. The control group also completed testing at two time points separated by a two-month interval to match the timeline of the pregnant participants.</p>
<p>The primary measure used in the study was the “Threat Premium Task.” This is a competitively framed variation of the Ultimatum Game, a standard tool in economic psychology. In this task, participants were given a set amount of virtual money, specifically ten coins, and asked to propose a split with a series of partners. The participants were told that the goal was to keep as much money as possible. However, there was a catch. If the partner accepted the offer, the money was split as proposed. If the partner rejected the offer, neither party received anything.</p>
<p>This design forced participants to make a strategic calculation. Offering a low amount was profitable but risky, as a threatening partner might be perceived as more likely to reject the offer out of spite or aggression. Offering a high amount was safer but resulted in less resource acquisition for the participant. This “threat premium”—the extra money paid to scary-looking partners—is a measure of submissive behavior.</p>
<p>“The women in the study had to carefully balance both the desire to maximize earnings and to avoid retaliation. We were particularly interested in how sensitive they would be—or how much their decisions would change—when interacting with others who appeared more or less threatening.”</p>
<p>The “partners” in this game were not real people but photographs of male faces. Unbeknownst to the participants, these faces had been digitally manipulated to appear either more or less threatening. </p>
<p>The results contradicted the preregistered predictions of the research team. The non-pregnant control group behaved as expected. They were sensitive to the social cues of threat and tended to offer more money to the threatening-looking men than to the non-threatening men. This indicates a typical strategy of appeasement to avoid conflict.</p>
<p>But the perinatal women showed a completely different behavioral pattern. Instead of paying a higher premium to threatening men, they became less generous. The study found that pregnant women were less sensitive to the social threat cues and less willing to cede resources. They dominantly protected their coins rather than submissively handing them over. </p>
<p>This effect was particularly pronounced during the pre-birth session when the women were in the third trimester of pregnancy. The data indicated that the anticipated “threat premium” was effectively eliminated in the perinatal group.</p>
<p>“The biggest takeaway is that pregnancy doesn’t necessarily make women more submissive,” explained co-author Valentina Proietti, an assistant professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. “Based on previous research, we originally expected that pregnant and postpartum women might be more prone to submissive behavior and more likely to relinquish their resources when faced with threatening individuals.” </p>
<p>“However, we found the exact opposite to be true: women in the perinatal period actually defended their resources more dominantly than those who weren’t pregnant, especially when they were dealing with people who looked more threatening. In short: while the common assumption is that heightened threat-sensitivity leads to caution in the face of such threat, our findings suggest it may actually trigger a more dominant drive to secure and protect the resources necessary for themselves and their growing families.”</p>
<p>These findings align with a phenomenon observed in non-human mammals known as maternal aggression. In many species, including rodents and bears, females become significantly more aggressive and protective during pregnancy and lactation. This biological shift prioritizes the security and provision of offspring over the mother’s own safety or tendency toward conflict avoidance. </p>
<p>The researchers suggest that in humans, this maternal defense mechanism may manifest as a refusal to be intimidated by social threats when resources are at stake. The drive to secure necessary assets for the growing family appears to suppress the usual tendency to back down from threatening individuals.</p>
<p>“This pattern may fit with what researchers call ‘maternal aggression’ in other mammals — think of a protective and potentially aggressive mother bear with her cubs,” the researchers told PsyPost. “While we didn’t measure aggression directly, the fact that perinatal women were less submissive in the face of potential threats aligns with this idea.”</p>
<p>“While our study used a more controlled economic task, the results may point toward a more general change in behavior during a truly unique life stage. Readers should think of the perinatal phase as a special/sensitive period—a time when a woman’s social and economic priorities may shift to meet the new demands of motherhood.”</p>
<p>“Although we used a rather simple economic task in our study, the same mechanisms at play here may extend to other types of competitive interactions in the real world, such as bargaining for better work or overtime shifts, navigating online marketplaces, or negotiating for services. We view this study as a first step in understanding how this special biological period reshapes economic decision-making, and we hope to explore these more ‘real-world’ economic interactions in future research.”</p>
<p>The study offers new insights into the psychology of pregnancy, but — as with all research — there are limitations to consider. The study utilized only male faces as the source of social threat. </p>
<p>“Although we’d ideally like to study real‑world economic interactions and other forms of competition that involve a variety of interaction partners, our study focused only on how women responded to threatening situations involving unfamiliar men. As a result, we still don’t know how perinatal women might behave in similar competitive situations with other women. That remains an important direction for future research.”</p>
<p>Additionally, while the sample size was relatively large for this type of research, distinguishing the specific effects of pregnancy from the general effects of parenthood requires even larger groups that compare pregnant women exclusively to women who have never had children.</p>
<p>The study also raises questions about the biological mechanisms driving this behavior. The researchers speculate that hormonal changes may play a key role. Testosterone levels, for instance, are known to rise during pregnancy. In men, higher testosterone is associated with the same type of dominant behavior observed in the perinatal women in this study. </p>
<p>However, the researchers did not measure hormone levels, so this link remains a hypothesis for future investigation. Future work might also explore how this resource-protection drive interacts with the known decreases in mating motivation that occur during pregnancy.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, “we would like to investigate how these effects may extend to real-world economic interactions and how changes in hormones during pregnancy may play a role and/or explain some of the findings here,” Geniole said.</p>
<p>“One ongoing challenge with this kind of research is finding a large enough sample of participants at the right moment in pregnancy or postpartum,” Proietti added. “If you are a professional who supports women during this period—whether you are a midwife, doula, lactation consultant, or work in a maternity ward—and you’d like to see this population be better represented in research, we’d be happy to connect by email at lifespan.lab@ufv.ca or through Instagram (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bicocca_child_and_baby_lab?igsh=dGUxNmdpeDR4djEx" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/bicocca_child_and_baby_lab?igsh=dGUxNmdpeDR4djEx</a>) and share information about any future studies! If interested, reader can also check out some additional work at <a href="https://bicoccababylab.wixsite.com/website/en" target="_blank">https://bicoccababylab.wixsite.com/website/en</a>.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.70051" target="_blank">Perinatal women dominantly protect—rather than submissively cede—resources when interacting with threatening-looking others</a>,” was authored by Valentina Proietti, Ilenia Mastroianni, Valentina Silvestri, Martina Arioli, Viola Macchi Cassia, and Shawn N. Geniole.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/trump-related-search-activity-signals-a-surprising-trend-in-the-stock-market/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Trump-related search activity signals a surprising trend in the stock market</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2026, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study suggests that the amount of attention paid to Donald Trump online helps predict optimism on Wall Street. Published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642251405623" target="_blank">American Behavioral Scientist</a></em>, the research indicates that spikes in Google searches for the former president tend to precede increases in bullish sentiment among individual investors. This relationship appears to have grown stronger in the period following the 2024 U.S. election.</p>
<p>The financial world has traditionally operated under the assumption that markets are rational. This view holds that asset prices reflect all available information regarding economic fundamentals, such as corporate earnings, interest rates, and employment data. However, the field of behavioral finance challenges this perspective. It argues that human psychology, cognitive biases, and collective emotion play a significant role in how investors make decisions.</p>
<p>Political figures have always influenced markets, but typically this occurs through specific policy decisions or legislative actions. Donald Trump represents a shift in this dynamic. His influence is often exerted through a pervasive media presence and direct communication styles rather than traditional policymaking channels alone. The researchers wanted to understand if the sheer volume of attention a political figure generates can act as a signal for market mood, independent of specific policy details.</p>
<p>“We were motivated by a clear gap between two well-established literatures that rarely talk to each other: behavioral finance has shown that investor sentiment moves markets, and political communication research has shown that media attention shapes public perceptions, but few studies connect political attention directly to financial sentiment,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/raul-gomez-martinez-3b2a6927/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Raúl Gómez Martínez</a>, an associate professor at <a href="https://www.culturillafinanciera.com/sobre-el-prof-dr-ra%C3%BAl-g%C3%B3mez-mart%C3%ADnez" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rey Juan Carlos University</a> in Madrid.</p>
<p>“Donald Trump offered a unique real-world case because his media presence is unusually intense and persistent, even outside formal policymaking, raising the question of whether attention alone can influence market psychology. We therefore wanted to test whether high-frequency digital signals, such as Google search activity, could capture this transmission mechanism and help explain weekly changes in retail investor optimism. In short, the study addresses the broader problem of how political narratives spill over into financial markets beyond traditional fundamentals.”</p>
<p>The study builds on the concept that attention is a finite resource. In the digital age, what captures the public’s focus often drives their economic expectations. The researcher sought to test whether the visibility of Donald Trump, a figure closely associated with pro-business narratives, directly impacts investor sentiment. This phenomenon is often referred to by market analysts as the “Trump trade,” where his political prominence signals potential deregulation and tax cuts.</p>
<p>To investigate this connection, the research team analyzed weekly data spanning from April 5, 2020, to October 12, 2025. This timeframe provided a total of 289 weekly observations. The researchers utilized Google Trends to measure public attention. This tool indexes search interest on a scale from zero to 100 rather than providing raw search numbers. It allows for a standardized comparison of interest over time.</p>
<p>The researchers tracked the search term “Donald Trump” within the United States to gauge the intensity of public focus. For investor sentiment, they relied on data from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). This non-profit organization conducts a weekly survey asking its members if they feel bullish, bearish, or neutral about the stock market over the next six months. The study focused specifically on the percentage of respondents who reported a bullish or optimistic outlook.</p>
<p>The research team employed statistical models known as ordinary least squares regressions. This method helps identify relationships between the search data and the sentiment survey results. They aimed to see if variations in one variable could explain variations in the other. Additionally, the researchers employed Granger causality tests. This statistical technique helps determine if one time series is useful in forecasting another, effectively checking if changes in attention happen before changes in sentiment.</p>
<p>The analysis revealed a positive association between search volume and investor optimism across the entire five-year period. When online searches for Trump increased, self-reported bullish sentiment among individual investors tended to rise in the same week. The Granger causality analysis provided evidence that the search activity occurred before the shift in sentiment. This suggests that public attention flows into market optimism rather than market optimism driving the search traffic.</p>
<p>The researchers then isolated the data from the period following the 2024 election. This subsample covered the weeks from November 3, 2024, to October 12, 2025. In this smaller set of 50 weeks, the connection between attention and sentiment became much more pronounced. The statistical model explained approximately 15 percent of the variation in investor sentiment during this post-election phase. This is a notable increase compared to about 2 percent for the full five-year period.</p>
<p>The strength of the relationship more than doubled in the post-election data. This indicates that in times of heightened political activity or uncertainty, the market becomes more sensitive to political visibility. The authors suggest that the political context acts as an amplifier. When Trump is at the center of the news cycle during a critical political transition, his visibility becomes a stronger driver of economic expectations for retail investors.</p>
<p>“What we show is that media attention becomes a directly observable, quantifiable variable with real explanatory power for market dynamics,” Gómez Martínez told PsyPost. “Even though the full-sample fit is modest (R²≈0,02), this is common in finance, where sentiment is influenced by many overlapping factors; what matters is that attention consistently adds incremental information.”</p>
<p>“In more sensitive political contexts, the explanatory power rises markedly (R²≈0,15 and a coefficient more than double), indicating that this signal becomes substantially more relevant when uncertainty or polarization is high. In that sense, political attention measured through Google Trends can function as a new complementary market indicator—an additional behavioral barometer that investors and analysts can use alongside traditional economic and financial variables to inform investment decisions.”</p>
<p>These findings imply that financial markets are not driven solely by economic spreadsheets. Collective attention and mass psychology serve as measurable drivers of financial expectations. For the average person, this suggests that everyday news consumption and online behavior can indirectly influence prices by shifting the general mood of investors.</p>
<p>“Our findings show that spikes in public interest in a highly visible political figure like Donald Trump, measured through Google searches, tend to precede increases in investor optimism, meaning that media attention itself can shape market mood,” Gómez Martínez explained. “This suggests that everyday news consumption and online behavior can indirectly influence prices by affecting sentiment, especially among retail investors. In short, politics and digital attention are not just background noise—they can become measurable drivers of financial expectations and market dynamics.”</p>
<p>The study provides a practical application for the theories of behavioral finance. It moves beyond the anecdotal observation that politics moves markets to providing statistical evidence. It supports the idea that high-profile figures can serve as exogenous drivers of sentiment. Their media dominance can shape market psychology even before any concrete policies are enacted.</p>
<p>“Nothing in the results truly surprised us, because they were broadly consistent with what behavioral finance and attention-based theories would predict: highly visible political figures should influence expectations and, therefore, investor sentiment,” Gómez Martínez said. “What was important for us was not discovering an unexpected effect, but demonstrating it rigorously with data, using an econometric framework and supervised regression techniques that allow us to quantify and test the relationship formally.” </p>
<p>“In other words, we moved from an intuitive or anecdotal idea—’politics moves markets’—to statistically validated evidence. That empirical validation is what gives the findings credibility and practical value for both researchers and practitioners.”</p>
<p>While the findings provide evidence of a link between political attention and market mood, the study has certain limitations. The sentiment data comes from the American Association of Individual Investors, which reflects the views of retail investors rather than large institutional firms. Retail investors are often considered more susceptible to behavioral biases and media influence than professional fund managers. It is possible that institutional investors interpret these attention spikes differently.</p>
<p>Google Trends measures the volume of searches but not the intent behind them. A spike in searches could result from negative controversies just as easily as positive news. The tool does not distinguish between a supporter searching for rally dates and a critic searching for details on a scandal. The current study assumes the attention is generally interpreted through the lens of the “Trump trade,” but it does not qualitatively analyze the content of the news driving the searches.</p>
<p>The researchers also note that financial markets are complex ecosystems influenced by countless variables simultaneously. Political attention is one factor among many.</p>
<p>“A potential misinterpretation we would like to preempt is the idea that media attention to a single political figure ‘drives the market’ by itself,” Gómez Martínez told PsyPost. “Our results do not imply that political searches replace fundamentals such as earnings, interest rates, or macroeconomic news; rather, they show that attention adds an additional behavioral layer that helps explain changes in sentiment at the margin. Financial markets are influenced by many overlapping forces, so this variable should be understood as complementary, not deterministic.”</p>
<p>Future research could incorporate sentiment analysis of news headlines. This would allow researchers to determine the tone of the media coverage alongside the volume. Expanding the scope to include institutional investor data would help determine if professional traders react similarly to retail investors. The researchers also suggest applying this methodology to other political figures to see if the phenomenon is unique to Trump.</p>
<p>“This paper is part of an ongoing collaboration between researchers at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) and Dublin City University (DCU), and it represents just one step in a broader research agenda focused on understanding investor sentiment as a measurable and actionable variable,” Gómez Martínez explained. “Our long-term goal is to continue developing models that integrate behavioral indicators—such as digital attention, surveys, and online activity—alongside traditional financial data to improve how markets are analyzed and forecasted.”</p>
<p>“We currently have several related articles in progress that expand this line of work using alternative sentiment proxies and more advanced econometric and supervised machine-learning regression techniques to strengthen predictive performance. Importantly, this research also has practical transfer through my fintech, <a href="https://www.investmood.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InvestMood</a>, where these insights are applied to build algorithmic trading systems that help investors incorporate sentiment-based signals into real-world investments.”</p>
<p>“Perhaps the most important point to add is that this study illustrates how the growing availability of digital behavioral data is changing the way we can analyze financial markets,” Gómez Martínez said. “Tools such as Google Trends allow us to observe collective attention almost in real time, something that was simply not possible a decade ago, and this opens new opportunities to measure psychological and social drivers of market movements more precisely.”</p>
<p>“More broadly, we hope the paper encourages researchers and practitioners to think beyond purely fundamental variables and to treat attention and sentiment as legitimate, quantifiable components of market dynamics. In that sense, the study is not only about one political figure, but about demonstrating a methodology that can be applied to many other contexts where public narratives influence financial expectations.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642251405623" target="_blank">The Strengthening Link Between Donald Trump’s Online Attention and Wall Street Sentiment</a>,” was authored by Raúl Gómez Martínez, Camilo Prado Román, María Luisa Medrano García, Aref Mahdavi Ardekani, and Damien Dupré.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-new-mouse-model-links-cleared-viral-infections-to-als-like-symptoms/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">A new mouse model links cleared viral infections to ALS-like symptoms</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 4th 2026, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>Recent research suggests that a person’s unique genetic makeup may determine whether a temporary viral infection triggers a permanent, debilitating brain disease later in life. A team of scientists found that specific genetic strains of mice developed lasting spinal cord damage resembling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) long after their immune systems had successfully cleared the virus. These findings were published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jnen/nlaf127" target="_blank">Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology</a></em>.</p>
<p>The origins of neurodegenerative diseases have puzzled medical experts for decades. Conditions such as ALS, often called Lou Gehrig’s disease, involve the progressive death of motor neurons. This leads to muscle weakness, paralysis, and eventually respiratory failure. While a small percentage of cases run in families, the vast majority are sporadic. This means they appear without a clear family history.</p>
<p>Researchers have hypothesized that environmental factors likely initiate these sporadic cases. Viral infections are a primary suspect. The theory suggests a “hit and run” mechanism. A virus enters the body and causes damage or alters the immune system. The body eventually eliminates the virus. However, the pathological process continues long after the pathogen is gone. Proving this connection has been difficult because by the time a patient develops ALS, the triggering virus is no longer detectable.</p>
<p>To investigate this potential link, the research team needed a better animal model. Standard laboratory mice are often genetically identical. This lack of diversity fails to mimic the human population. In humans, one person might catch a cold and recover quickly, while another might develop severe complications. Standard lab mice usually respond to infections in a uniform way.</p>
<p>To overcome this limitation, the researchers utilized the Collaborative Cross. This is a large panel of mouse strains bred to capture immense genetic diversity. The team, led by first author Koedi S. Lawley and senior author Candice Brinkmeyer-Langford from Texas A&M University, selected five distinct strains from this collection. They aimed to see if different genetic backgrounds would result in different disease outcomes following the exact same viral exposure.</p>
<p>The researchers infected these genetically diverse mice with Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV). This virus is a well-established tool in neurology research. It is typically used to study conditions like multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. In this context, the scientists used it to examine spinal cord damage. They compared the infected mice to a control group that received a placebo.</p>
<p>The team monitored the animals over a period of three months. They assessed the mice at four days, fourteen days, and ninety days post-infection. These time points represented the acute phase, the transition phase, and the chronic phase of the disease. The researchers utilized a variety of methods to track the health of the animals. They observed clinical signs of motor dysfunction. They also performed detailed microscopic examinations of spinal cord tissues.</p>
<p>In the acute phase, which occurred during the first two weeks, most of the infected mouse strains showed signs of illness. The virus actively replicated within the spinal cord. This triggered a strong immune response. The researchers tracked this response by staining for Iba-1, a marker for microglia and macrophages. These are the immune cells that defend the central nervous system. As expected, inflammation levels spiked as the bodies of the mice fought the invader.</p>
<p>The virus targeted the lumbar region of the spinal cord. This is the lower section of the back that controls the hind legs. Consequently, the mice displayed varying degrees of difficulty walking. Some developed paresis, which is partial weakness. Others developed paralysis. The severity of these early symptoms varied widely depending on the mouse strain. This confirmed that genetics played a major role in the initial susceptibility to the infection.</p>
<p>The most revealing data emerged at the ninety-day mark. By this time, the acute infection had long passed. The researchers used sensitive RNA testing to look for traces of the virus. They found that every single mouse had successfully cleared the infection. There was no detectable viral genetic material left in their spinal cords. In most strains, the inflammation had also subsided.</p>
<p>Despite the absence of the virus, the clinical outcomes diverged sharply. One specific strain, known as CC023, remained severely affected. These mice did not recover. Instead, they exhibited lasting symptoms that mirrored human ALS. They suffered from profound muscle atrophy, or wasting, particularly in the muscles controlled by the lumbar spinal cord. They also displayed kyphosis, a hunching of the back often seen in models of neuromuscular disease.</p>
<p>The microscopic analysis of the CC023 mice revealed the underlying cause of these symptoms. Even though the virus was gone, the damage to the motor neurons persisted. The researchers observed lesions in the ventral horn of the spinal cord. This is the specific area where motor neurons reside. The loss of these neurons disconnected the spinal cord from the muscles, leading to the observed atrophy.</p>
<p>This outcome stood in stark contrast to other strains. For instance, the CC027 strain proved to be highly resistant. These mice showed almost no clinical signs of disease despite being infected with the same amount of virus. Their genetic background seemingly provided a protective shield against the neurological damage that devastated the CC023 strain.</p>
<p>The researchers noted that the inflammation in the spinal cord did not persist at high levels into the chronic phase. At ninety days, the number of active immune cells had returned to near-normal levels. This is a critical observation. It suggests that the ongoing disease in the CC023 mice was not driven by chronic, active inflammation. Instead, the initial viral insult triggered a cascade of damage that continued independently.</p>
<p>These findings support the idea that a person’s genetic background dictates how their body handles the aftermath of an infection. In susceptible individuals, a virus might initiate a neurodegenerative process that outlasts the infection itself. The study provides a concrete example of a virus causing a “hit and run” injury that leads to an ALS-like condition.</p>
<p>Candice Brinkmeyer-Langford, the senior author, highlighted the importance of this discovery in a press release. She noted, “This is exciting because this is the first animal model that affirms the long-standing theory that a virus can trigger permanent neurological damage or disease — like ALS — long after the infection itself occurred.”</p>
<p>The identification of the CC023 mouse strain is a practical advancement for the field. Current mouse models for ALS often rely on artificial genetic mutations found in only a tiny fraction of human patients. The CC023 model represents a different pathway. It models sporadic disease triggered by an environmental event. This could allow scientists to test therapies designed to stop neurodegeneration in a context that more closely resembles the human experience.</p>
<p>There are caveats to the study. While the symptoms in the mice resemble ALS, mice are not humans. The biological pathways may differ. Additionally, the researchers have not yet identified the specific genes responsible for the susceptibility in the CC023 strain. Understanding exactly which genes failed to protect these mice is a necessary next step.</p>
<p>Future research will likely focus on pinpointing these genetic factors. The team plans to investigate why the immune response in the CC023 strain failed to prevent the lasting damage. They also aim to identify biomarkers that appear early in the infection. Such markers could potentially predict which individuals are at risk for developing long-term neurological complications following a viral illness.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jnen/nlaf127" target="_blank">The association between virus-induced spinal cord pathology and the genetic background of the host</a>,” was authored by Koedi S. Lawley, Tae Wook Kang, Raquel R. Rech, Moumita Karmakar, Raymond Carroll, Aracely A. Perez Gomez, Katia Amstalden, Yava Jones-Hall, David W Threadgill, C. Jane Welsh, Colin R. Young, and Candice Brinkmeyer-Langford.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-study-highlights-distinct-divorce-patterns-between-same-sex-and-opposite-sex-couples/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">New study highlights distinct divorce patterns between same-sex and opposite-sex couples</a>
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<p><p>New research conducted in Finland highlights distinct patterns in relationship stability when comparing same-sex and opposite-sex unions. The findings indicate that while female couples experience the highest rates of divorce, the factors contributing to these breakups vary by gender composition. The study suggests that traditional gender norms regarding income and the specific challenges faced by immigrant men in host societies play substantial roles in these outcomes. This research was published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2025.100669" target="_blank">Advances in Life Course Research</a></em>.</p>
<p>Sociologists and demographers have previously observed that same-sex couples tend to dissolve their unions at higher rates than opposite-sex couples. This trend is particularly pronounced among female couples. Despite this established pattern, the specific reasons behind these disparities have remained largely unexplained. Theoretical models suggest that minority stress, which includes experiences of discrimination and stigma, likely destabilizes these relationships.</p>
<p>Other theories focus on the search for a partner. Finding the right spouse involves predicting future compatibility, a process that is inherently uncertain. This uncertainty is often higher regarding economic characteristics. Researchers wanted to understand if specific observable factors could account for the stability gap. The authors of the current study aimed to determine if nationality intermarriage, religious affiliation, education, or income dynamics could explain the differences in divorce risks.</p>
<p>“There was increasing interest in understanding how the intersections of several minority statuses (e.g., sexual minority and immigration background) shape divorce risks. Not much was known about this because there has been a lack of sufficiently large data to statistically address these types of questions,” said study author <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/elinaeinio/about-me" target="_blank">Elina Einiö</a>, a lecturer at the Helsinki Institute for Demography and Population Health at the University of Helsinki.</p>
<p>The researchers utilized comprehensive register-based data from Statistics Finland. The dataset covered the entire population of individuals who entered a same-sex registered partnership or an opposite-sex marriage between March 2002 and February 2017. The observation window ended just before Finland implemented gender-neutral marriage laws, replacing the registered partnership system.</p>
<p>The final sample consisted of 3,780 same-sex couples and 339,401 opposite-sex couples. Among the same-sex unions, 37.2 percent were male couples and 62.8 percent were female couples. The researchers restricted the data to couples where at least one spouse lived in Finland at the time of registration and was born in the country. They tracked these couples until the end of 2021 to identify legal divorces.</p>
<p>The analysis employed Cox proportional hazards models to estimate divorce risks. The models controlled for variables such as the year of marriage, the age of both spouses, and the area of residence. The researchers also incorporated annual data on taxable income and religious affiliation based on church tax records.</p>
<p>The general findings revealed a clear hierarchy in divorce risk. Approximately 40 percent of female couples divorced within the first ten years of their legal union. This rate was significantly higher than the 24 percent observed for male couples. Opposite-sex couples had the lowest rate, with 21 percent divorcing within the same timeframe.</p>
<p>For female couples, the elevated risk persisted even after accounting for various socioeconomic factors. The researchers found that income and religious affiliation played only a modest role in explaining their higher divorce rates. The risk for female couples remained roughly double that of opposite-sex couples in the fully adjusted models. This suggests that unobserved factors, potentially including minority stress, continue to impact these relationships heavily.</p>
<p>The results for male couples told a different story. Their slightly higher risk of divorce was partly explained by higher rates of intermarriage and lower rates of religious affiliation. When researchers adjusted for these factors, the difference in divorce risk between male couples and opposite-sex couples became barely significant.</p>
<p>A major focus of the study was the impact of nationality intermarriage. The data showed that marriages involving a foreign-born husband and a native-born spouse were less stable. This pattern was consistent for both male couples and opposite-sex couples. It indicates that the specific experience of being an immigrant man in a host society may strain a marriage.</p>
<p>“It was surprising to see that intermarriage between a foreign-born husband and a native-born spouse destabilizes marriages, regardless of the latter spouse’s gender,” Einiö told PsyPost. “This suggests that there could be psychological distress stemming from being an immigrant man in a host society rather than distress resulting from gendered conflicts between a man and a wife due to different cultural understandings of gender roles.”</p>
<p>This destabilizing effect was not observed in female couples. Marriages between a foreign-born woman and a native-born woman did not show elevated divorce risks compared to couples where both women were native-born.</p>
<p>“Female same-sex couples had an elevated divorce risk, but this risk did not further increase if a native-born woman married a foreign-born wife,” Einiö said. “One of the reasons could be that when a native-born woman legalizes her relationship with another woman, it is often with someone of a relatively similar cultural background (e.g., a wife from another European country).”</p>
<p>Income dynamics provided further insight into how gender norms shape relationship stability. The study distinguished between the primary breadwinner and the secondary breadwinner. In opposite-sex couples, this usually aligned with the husband and wife, respectively. For same-sex couples, the researchers categorized earners based on age to allow for comparison.</p>
<p>High income for the primary breadwinner appeared to stabilize all marriages. This was true regardless of the gender composition of the couple. When the primary earner brought in more money, the risk of divorce decreased across the board.</p>
<p>However, the income of the secondary breadwinner had divergent effects. In opposite-sex marriages, a higher income for the secondary earner was associated with an increased risk of divorce. This aligns with theories regarding the “independence effect,” where financial independence may allow a wife to leave an unhappy marriage.</p>
<p>In contrast, a higher income for the secondary earner in same-sex marriages tended to stabilize the union. This was particularly evident for male couples. The data suggests that male couples benefit from greater income equality within the relationship. While income inequality often protected opposite-sex marriages, it appeared to be a risk factor for same-sex unions.</p>
<p>Religious affiliation also emerged as a significant factor. The study measured this by tracking membership in Finland’s national churches. Joint membership in a church was associated with lower divorce risks for all couple types. This may reflect shared values or the presence of social support from a religious community.</p>
<p>Dissimilarity in religious status was detrimental for some. When one partner was a church member and the other was not, divorce risk increased for same-sex couples. This effect was strongest for male couples. Such dissimilarity did not appear to impact the stability of opposite-sex couples.</p>
<p>The researchers discussed several theoretical implications of these findings. The persistence of high divorce rates among female couples supports the minority stress hypothesis. Women in same-sex relationships may face compounded stress from sexual minority status and gender-related societal expectations. They may also lack the institutional support often available to mixed-gender couples.</p>
<p>The findings regarding men suggest that deviations from cultural norms impact them differently. For immigrant men, the pressure of adapting to a host society appears to bleed into marital stability. For gay men, the lack of shared religious community or significant income disparities can weaken the relationship bond.</p>
<p>The study has some limitations inherent to the use of administrative data. The registers do not contain information on the psychological well-being of the participants. This prevents a direct measurement of relationship quality or specific stressors. The data relies on legal gender markers, which excludes non-binary identities. Additionally, religious affiliation was measured by church tax payment, which may not accurately reflect personal faith or spirituality.</p>
<p>The researchers note that the context of Finland is specific. The country is known for high gender equality but was relatively late among Nordic nations to adopt same-sex marriage laws. The transition from registered partnerships to marriage in 2017 may have altered the social landscape, though the study period largely covers the partnership era.</p>
<p>Future research is needed to see if these patterns hold in other countries. The authors specifically express interest in whether the destabilizing effect of intermarriage for men is consistent across different European nations. Understanding these nuances helps clarify how the intersection of gender, culture, and economic resources influences the longevity of modern relationships.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2025.100669" target="_blank">Divorce in same-sex and opposite-sex couples: The roles of intermarriage, religious affiliation, and income</a>,” was authored by Elina Einiö and Maria Ponkilainen.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/psilocybin-impacts-immunity-and-behavior-differently-depending-on-diet-and-exercise-context/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Psilocybin impacts immunity and behavior differently depending on diet and exercise context</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 4th 2026, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.61373/pp026a.0003" target="_blank">Psychedelics</a></em> reveals that the environment and physiological state of an animal profoundly influence the effects of psilocybin. Researchers found that while the drug altered immune markers in mice that exercised, it did not modify social behaviors in mice modeling anorexia nervosa. These findings suggest that the therapeutic potential of psychedelics may depend heavily on the biological context in which they are administered.</p>
<p>Anorexia nervosa is a severe psychiatric condition characterized by restricted eating and excessive exercise. Many patients also struggle with social interactions and understanding the emotions of others. These social challenges often persist even after weight recovery, and they contribute to the isolation associated with the disorder. Current treatments frequently fail to address these specific interpersonal symptoms.</p>
<p>Claire J. Foldi and her colleagues at Monash University in Australia sought to investigate potential biological causes for these issues. They focused on the connection between brain function and the immune system. Previous research suggests that inflammation may play a role in psychiatric disorders. Specifically, molecules like interleukin-6 often appear at abnormal levels in people with depression and anxiety.</p>
<p>Psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, is known to affect serotonin receptors and possesses potential anti-inflammatory properties. Foldi’s team wanted to see if psilocybin could improve social behavior and regulate immune responses in a living organism. They hypothesized that the drug might rescue social deficits by lowering inflammation.</p>
<p>To test this, the researchers used a method called the activity-based anorexia model. They housed female mice in cages with running wheels and limited their access to food. This combination typically causes mice to run excessively and lose weight rapidly, mimicking human anorexia. The researchers chose female mice because the condition predominantly affects women.</p>
<p>The team compared these mice to three other groups to isolate specific variables. One group had restricted food but no wheel, which tested the effect of hunger alone. Another group had a wheel but unlimited food, testing the effect of exercise alone. A control group lived in standard housing with no restrictions.</p>
<p>Once the mice in the anorexia model lost a specific amount of weight, the researchers administered a single dose of psilocybin or a saline placebo. Later that day, they placed the mice in a special testing apparatus. This box contained three connected chambers designed to measure social interest.</p>
<p>The researchers measured how much time the mice spent interacting with a new mouse versus an inanimate object. In a second phase, they tracked whether the mice preferred spending time with a familiar mouse or a stranger. Finally, the team analyzed blood samples to measure levels of interleukin-6.</p>
<p>The results showed distinct behavioral patterns based on the living conditions of the mice. Mice in the anorexia model did not withdraw socially as the researchers had anticipated. Instead, these mice showed a strong interest in investigating new mice. They preferred novel social interactions over familiar ones.</p>
<p>This intense curiosity was also present in the mice that only had access to running wheels. In contrast, mice that were only food-restricted spent more time investigating the object. This likely indicates a motivation to search for food rather than socialize.</p>
<p>Psilocybin did not alter these social behaviors in the anorexia group, the exercise group, or the food-restricted group. The drug only changed behavior in the healthy control mice. Control mice given psilocybin became less interested in novelty and spent more time with familiar companions. This was an unexpected outcome that contrasted with the other groups.</p>
<p>The physiological results were equally specific to the environment. The researchers found that psilocybin markedly elevated levels of interleukin-6 in the mice that had access to running wheels. This effect was not observed in the anorexia group or the other groups.</p>
<p>In the running wheel group, higher levels of this inflammatory marker correlated with a stronger preference for social novelty. The drug did not reduce inflammation in the anorexia model as originally hypothesized. This suggests that prior exercise primes the immune system to respond differently to the drug.</p>
<p>The study highlights a limitation in how animal models mimic complex human disorders. While human patients often retreat socially, the mice in this model became hyperactive and explorative. This behavior may represent a foraging instinct triggered by hunger. It complicates the ability to translate these specific social findings directly to human psychology.</p>
<p>The increase in inflammation seen in the exercise group suggests a relationship between physical activity and how psychedelics affect the body. Psilocybin is often cited as an anti-inflammatory agent. However, this study indicates that in certain contexts, it may promote immune signaling.</p>
<p>The researchers note that they only measured inflammation at a single time point. Psilocybin may have transient effects that vary over hours or days. Future studies will need to track these markers over a longer period to capture the full picture.</p>
<p>It remains necessary to test different biological markers and brain regions to fully understand these mechanisms. The relationship between serotonin signaling and immune function is not uniform. The data indicate that a “one size fits all” approach to psychedelic therapy may be insufficient.</p>
<p>This research implies that clinical trials should account for the patient’s physical state, including their exercise habits and nutritional status. Factors such as metabolic stress could alter how the drug impacts both behavior and the immune system.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.61373/pp026a.0003" target="_blank">Psilocybin exerts differential effects on social behavior and inflammation in mice in contexts of activity-based anorexia</a>,” was authored by Sheida Shadani, Erika Greaves, Zane B. Andrews, and Claire J. Foldi.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/violence-linked-to-depression-in-adolescent-girls-but-not-boys/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Violence linked to depression in adolescent girls but not boys</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 4th 2026, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A longitudinal study of adolescents from the Chicago metropolitan area found that in female, but not in male adolescents, higher exposure to violence was associated with more severe depression symptoms. In males, depression was associated with the expansion of the salience network of the brain and with increased connectivity of this network. The paper was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-025-03614-x"><em>Translational Psychiatry</em></a>.</p>
<p>Violence exposure in this study was defined as experiencing, witnessing, or being repeatedly confronted with acts of interpersonal physical violence, such as being shoved, kicked, punched, or attacked with a weapon. It is a major risk factor for mental health problems, increasing the likelihood of all types of psychopathology.</p>
<p>Childhood adversities such as physical abuse and family violence account for a substantial proportion of psychiatric disorders that emerge during adolescence. This period is especially sensitive because key social and emotional brain systems are still developing. Exposure to violence during adolescence is associated with maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as rumination and emotional suppression, which contribute to rising rates of depression.</p>
<p>Although males are more likely to be exposed to or witness violence, females tend to show higher levels of depression during adolescence. Some evidence suggests that violence exposure places females at greater risk for internalizing problems (psychological difficulties directed inward), particularly depression and anxiety.</p>
<p>One explanation is that females may be more reactive to interpersonal stressors and show stronger physiological and neural responses to threat following violence exposure. Another proposed mechanism is perceived lack of control, as stressors experienced as uncontrollable are strongly linked to depressive outcomes.</p>
<p>Violence exposure may also alter brain systems involved in detecting and responding to threat, such as the salience network, making individuals more vigilant to potential danger. The salience network is a large functional neural network composed of multiple interconnected regions in the brain that detects and prioritizes behaviorally and emotionally important stimuli, helping the brain switch attention between internal thoughts and external demands.</p>
<p>Study author Ellyn R. Butler and her colleagues wanted to explore whether features of the salience network of the brain such as connectivity and expansion (the proportion of the cortex utilized by the network) may explain the association between exposure to violence and depression in adolescents. Study authors hypothesized that males experience more instances of violence than females and that depression symptoms will increase in individuals exposed to violence. They expected that this increase in depression symptoms after exposure to violence will be greater among females and that it will be accompanied by the expansion of the salience network.</p>
<p>Study participants were 220 adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age from the Chicago metropolitan area. Study authors intentionally prioritized adolescents from low-income neighborhoods for inclusion in the study. 141 of them were females. 38% were Black, and 30% were Hispanic. On average, they were exposed to 1.8 violent events in the past year.</p>
<p>Study participants provided study data twice – at the start of the study, and 2 years later. They completed an assessment of exposure to violence (a set of 7 questions about participants or their friends or family members being physically hurt, attacked, or killed) and assessments of depression and anxiety symptoms (the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale).</p>
<p>Participants also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of their brains. The study authors used these fMRI data to derive information about connectivity and size of participants’ salience networks at both time points to control for baseline levels.</p>
<p>Results showed that female participants reporting greater exposure to violence tended to report more severe depressive symptoms. This association was not present in male participants. Salience network expansion or connectivity were not associated with exposure to violence in the past year.</p>
<p>However, greater expansion of the salience network and its greater connectivity were associated with more severe depressive symptoms in male participants. Study authors note that both of these associations remained after controlling for depression at the start of the study, indicating that exposures that impact males’ depression through the salience network may occur during middle adolescence.</p>
<p>“We demonstrated that salience network expansion and connectivity are positively associated with depression among males even after controlling for depression two years prior, highlighting that it is likely that males are experiencing some type of adversity that increases connectivity within the salience network, expansion of the salience network, and depression during this time period in early- to mid-adolescence. Therefore, future efforts to determine which exposures lead to depression during adolescence in males should focus on this developmental time frame,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the neural underpinnings of depression. However, both depressive symptoms and exposure to violence in this study were self-reported, leaving room for reporting bias to have affected the results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-025-03614-x">Sex differences in response to violence: role of salience network expansion and connectivity on depression,</a>” was authored by Ellyn R. Butler, Noelle I. Samia, Amanda F. Mejia, Damon D. Pham, Adam Pines, and Robin Nusslock.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/targeting-the-immune-system-may-help-treat-a-specific-subtype-of-depression/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Targeting the immune system may help treat a specific subtype of depression</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 4th 2026, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>Research published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20241115" target="_blank">American Journal of Psychiatry</a></em> suggests that anti-inflammatory treatments may be an effective intervention for depression, but only for individuals with an overactive immune system. The study found that when patients are selected based on elevated inflammation markers, these drugs reduce both general depressive symptoms and the inability to feel pleasure. This distinction helps explain why previous clinical trials, which did not account for inflammatory status, often produced inconsistent results.</p>
<p>Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Current treatments, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, do not work for every patient. Approximately one-third of individuals do not achieve full recovery even after trying multiple standard antidepressants. This gap in treatment efficacy has led scientists to investigate other biological systems that might contribute to mood disorders. Over the last two decades, research has increasingly pointed to the immune system.</p>
<p>Evidence suggests that a significant minority of people with depression have chronic, low-grade inflammation. This condition is often referred to as inflammatory depression. In these cases, the immune system behaves as if the body is fighting an infection or healing an injury, even in the absence of physical trauma. This immune activation releases proteins called cytokines. These proteins can interact with the brain to produce symptoms such as fatigue, lack of motivation, and low mood.</p>
<p>Previous clinical trials attempted to treat depression with anti-inflammatory drugs. The results of these past studies were inconsistent. Some trials showed a benefit, while others showed no effect compared to placebos. The authors of the current study hypothesized that these mixed results stemmed from a lack of precision. </p>
<p>“One of the major challenges that we face when treating depression is that clinicians tend to use a one-size-fits-all approach, even though we suspect that there are different biological, psychological, and environmental causes of depression,” said study author Naoise Mac Giollabhui, a staff psychologist at <a href="https://depressionmgh.org/" target="_blank">the Depression Clinical Research Program</a> at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. </p>
<p>“There is strong evidence that some depressed people exhibit chronic inflammation and that these people are less likely to respond to conventional antidepressant therapies. We wanted to test whether anti-inflammatory treatments work for depressed individuals with chronic inflammation.” </p>
<p>“Of course, anti-inflammatories don’t make much sense as a treatment for most depressed people who don’t have any alterations in immune function. The hope is that we will soon be able to deliver on the promise of a precision medicine approach and identify the right treatment for the right person. For inflammatory depression, this could mean developing treatments that target dysregulated immune function, which is something we are actively working on.”</p>
<p>To test this hypothesis, the research team conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. This method allows scientists to combine data from multiple independent studies to increase statistical power. They searched major medical databases, including MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO, for randomized controlled trials conducted up to February 2025. The search focused on studies that compared pharmacological anti-inflammatory treatments against placebos in adults with depression.</p>
<p>The researchers applied strict inclusion criteria to ensure the validity of their findings. They only included trials that assessed depressive symptom severity or anhedonia. Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression defined as a reduced ability to experience pleasure. </p>
<p>Most importantly, the analysis was limited to trials that recruited individuals with an inflammatory phenotype or provided data allowing for a subgroup analysis of such patients. The researchers defined an inflammatory phenotype as having levels of C-reactive protein at or above 2 milligrams per liter. C-reactive protein is a substance produced by the liver in response to inflammation.</p>
<p>The review process identified 11 randomized controlled trials that met the specific criteria for elevated inflammation. These studies included a combined total of 321 participants. The treatments utilized in these trials varied. They included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as celecoxib, and cytokine inhibitors, such as infliximab and minocycline. Some studies used these drugs as a standalone treatment, while others used them alongside standard antidepressants.</p>
<p>Two reviewers independently extracted data from the selected studies to minimize errors. They looked at changes in symptom scores from the beginning of the trial to the end. They also examined secondary outcomes, such as remission rates and safety data. The researchers used statistical models to calculate the average effect of the treatments across the different trials.</p>
<p>The analysis revealed that anti-inflammatory treatments resulted in a reduction of depressive symptom severity compared to placebo. The magnitude of this effect was moderate. This finding supports the idea that suppressing immune activation can alleviate mood symptoms in the specific subgroup of patients with high inflammation. The data suggests that failing to account for inflammatory status in previous research likely obscured the potential benefits of these medications.</p>
<p>In addition to general depressive symptoms, the researchers found a reduction in anhedonia. The effect of the treatment on anhedonia was slightly stronger and more consistent than the effect on overall depression scores. This is a notable finding because anhedonia is often difficult to treat with conventional antidepressants. The link between inflammation and anhedonia is supported by previous research showing that immune signaling can disrupt the brain’s reward circuitry.</p>
<p>“There was a lot of variability in the link between anti-inflammatory treatments and change in depression symptom severity,” Mac Giollabhui told PsyPost. “This is probably not surprising giving how heterogenous the presentation of depression is and how much variability there was in the potency of treatments used. However, it also suggests that we treat these results cautiously and consider them as requiring replication and confirmation in large-scale, randomized controlled trials.”</p>
<p>“Interestingly, the signal was stronger and more uniform for anhedonia. There is a very compelling body of evidence suggesting that inflammation may be specifically linked with energy-related symptoms of depression, like anhedonia. However, the number of studies measuring anhedonia was quite modest, so again further confirmatory work is needed.”</p>
<p>The researchers also evaluated the safety of these interventions. The analysis showed no significant difference in the occurrence of serious adverse events between the participants receiving anti-inflammatory drugs and those receiving a placebo. This suggests that, within the context of these short-term trials, the treatments were generally safe. The duration of the treatments in the included studies ranged from 2 weeks to 12 weeks.</p>
<p>Despite the reduction in symptom severity, the researchers did not find a statistically significant increase in response or remission rates. Response is typically defined as a 50 percent reduction in symptoms, while remission refers to a near-complete absence of symptoms. The patients on anti-inflammatories showed improvement, but the data did not definitively show that they were more likely to reach these specific clinical thresholds than those on placebo.</p>
<p>These findings have implications for the development of precision medicine in psychiatry. The results suggest that C-reactive protein could serve as a useful biomarker. Clinicians could potentially measure this protein to identify patients who might benefit from anti-inflammatory therapies. This aligns with a growing movement to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to treating mental health conditions.</p>
<p>However, the total sample size of 321 participants is relatively small for a meta-analysis. This limits the certainty of the conclusions and results in wide confidence intervals. The small sample size meant that the researchers had limited power to detect differences based on demographic characteristics like age or sex.</p>
<p>Another limitation is the heterogeneity of the included studies. The trials used different types of medications with different mechanisms of action. Some drugs targeted specific cytokines, while others had broader anti-inflammatory effects. The dosages and treatment durations also varied significantly. It remains unclear which specific anti-inflammatory agent is the most effective for treating depression.</p>
<p>The researchers also pointed out that C-reactive protein is a non-specific marker. While it indicates the presence of inflammation, it does not reveal the cause. Elevated levels can result from many factors, including infection, tissue injury, or obesity. It is possible that more specific biomarkers could better identify the patients most likely to respond to immune-targeted treatments.</p>
<p>“We have made a lot of progress in better understanding the causes and presentation of inflammatory depression, but we are still relatively early in the process,” Mac Giollabhui explained. “The immune system is very closely related to metabolic- and stress-related pathways, which makes disentangling causal pathways tricky.” </p>
<p>“We are also early on in the process of understanding what is the best way to treat inflammatory depression and we are lacking definitive clinical trials that specific anti-inflammatory treatments at a specific dose for a specific duration work in a specific population. All to say, we are making progress but there is still a lot more work to be done!”</p>
<p>Future research is needed to replicate these findings in larger, well-powered trials. The researchers emphasize the need for studies that recruit patients specifically based on their inflammatory status. Future work should also investigate the long-term safety of using anti-inflammatory medications for depression. Depression is often a chronic condition, and the long-term use of some anti-inflammatory drugs carries health risks.</p>
<p>The researchers also suggest that future trials should include better measures of anhedonia. Most current studies use questionnaires that focus on the enjoyment of experiences. They often neglect the motivational aspects of anhedonia, such as the drive to pursue rewarding activities. Understanding how inflammation affects different aspects of reward processing could help refine treatment strategies.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, we want these findings to translate into better treatments in the clinic,” Mac Giollabhui said. “We have shown that anti-inflammatory treatments can reduce depressive symptom severity and anhedonia in depressed individuals with high levels of inflammation; however, the review demonstrated that much of the work, to date, has been conducted in small clinical trials and, therefore, these findings require replication and confirmation in large-scale, randomized controlled trials – those studies still need to happen.” </p>
<p>“Beyond that, we need to develop effective anti-inflammatory treatment strategies, and this will require a more precise understanding of the specific mechanisms causing inflammatory depression so that they can be targeted through treatments. Many of the medications we examined in our study have broad-acting effects on immune function and are associated with significant risks following long-term use, making them poorly suited to treat depression, which typically first occurs early in life.”</p>
<p>“Once we understand the immune-based mechanism, we can identify a medication that targets the underlying problem,” Mac Giollabhui added. “Ultimately, the hope is that we will be able to develop a suite of anti-inflammatory treatments – medications, naturally-occurring compounds, lifestyle interventions – that could be then used to treat inflammatory depression.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20241115" target="_blank">Effect of Anti-Inflammatory Treatment on Depressive Symptom Severity and Anhedonia in Depressed Individuals With Elevated Inflammation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials</a>,” was authored by Naoise Mac Giollabhui, Annelise A. Madison, Melis Lydston, Emma Lenoel Quang, Andrew H. Miller, and Richard T. Liu.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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