Selected Colloquium
Session Room 216
Session Room 216
Tuesday, June 17, 05:40 PM – 06:40 PM
Selected Colloquium 1: Effects of Early Life Adversity on the Structure of Common Mental Disorders: Reimagining the Diathesis-Stress Model
Comorbidity is the norm. Our panel will summarize evidence that this reflects transdiagnostic effects of early life trauma, individual differences in susceptibility to these effects, and the diverse mechanisms through which they arise. Our first speaker, Robert Krueger (University of Minnesota), will introduce the empirically derived HiTOP (Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology) model (Krueger et al 2018; Conway et al 2023). Within this framework, an over-arching p-factor influences susceptibility to all psychiatric disorders with successively narrower problems and symptoms emerging from more specific factors. Recently identified stress-induced changes to epigenetic processes could account for many inter-related spectrums of psychopathology. Frank Mann (Stony Brook University) will then discuss new models of how outcomes are affected by both repeated exposure to the same stressor and accumulating numbers of different stressors. Cumulative stress has been traditionally operationalized using relatively non-refined methods (e.g., unit-weighted sum scores of standardized variables or sum scores of dichotomized variables). By combining new factor extraction procedures with approaches commonly used in neuroendocrinology research, investigators can better operationalize both simultaneous exposure to multiple stressors and repeated exposure to the same stressor. The result is improved prediction of mental and physical health (Mann et al 2021, 2024). Finally, Marco Leyton (McGill University) will describe a novel diathesis-stress model whereby early life adversity leads to behavioral dysregulation with larger effects on mental health outcomes in people with mesocorticolimbic disturbances. This functional neuroimaging-based model (PET & fMRI) was first tested in a small sample of youth followed since birth (n=52) (Iqbal et al 2022). It has now been reproduced in a much larger cohort (n = 1338). The session will be chaired by Kim Felmingham (University of Melbourne) who will comment on implications for early interventions (e.g., teaching youth mood and impulse-control) and public policy (e.g., balancing the protection of youth from multiple traumas without separating children from families unnecessarily).
Diverse perspectives are represented. The symposium features one early career (FM) and three senior scholars (RK, ML, KF), one woman as Chair (KF) and three men as speakers (RK, FM, ML), and both clinicians (KF, RK) and researchers (FM, ML) who come from four universities and three countries (Canada, United States, Australia).
Diverse perspectives are represented. The symposium features one early career (FM) and three senior scholars (RK, ML, KF), one woman as Chair (KF) and three men as speakers (RK, FM, ML), and both clinicians (KF, RK) and researchers (FM, ML) who come from four universities and three countries (Canada, United States, Australia).