Title Participants Abstract "Meta-analysis of MTHFR gene variants in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and unipolar depressive disorder: evidence for a common genetic vulnerability?" "Marc De Hert, Ruud van Winkel" "Past analyses examining the relationship between genetic variation in the 5, 10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene and psychiatric disorders have provided mixed and largely inconclusive findings. MTHFR is involved in the one-carbon metabolic pathway which is essential for DNA biosynthesis and the epigenetic process of DNA methylation. We conducted a meta-analysis of all published case-control studies investigating associations between two common MTHFR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), MTHFR C677T (sample size 29,502) and A1298C (sample size 7934), and the major psychiatric disorders (i) schizophrenia (SZ), (ii) bipolar disorder (BPD), and (iii) unipolar depressive disorder (UDD). In order to examine possible shared genetic vulnerability, we also tested for associations between MTHFR and all of these major psychiatric disorders (SZ, BPD and UDD) combined. MTHFR C677T was significantly associated with all of the combined psychiatric disorders (SZ, BPD and UDD); random effects odds ratio (OR)=1.26 for TT versus CC genotype carriers; confidence interval (CI) 1.09-1.46); meta-regression did not suggest moderating effects of psychiatric diagnosis, sex, ethnic group or year of publication. Although MTHFR A1298C was not significantly associated with the combination of major psychiatric disorders, nor with SZ, there was evidence for diagnostic moderation indicating a significant association with BPD (random effects OR=2.03 for AA versus CC genotype carriers, CI: 1.07-3.86). Meta-analysis on UDD was not possible due to the small number of studies available. This study provides evidence for shared genetic vulnerability for SZ, BPD and UDD mediated by MTHFR 677TT genotype, which is in line with epigenetic involvement in the pathophysiology of these psychiatric disorders." "Meta-analysis of mthfr gene variants in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and unipolar depressive disorder: evidence for a common genetic vulnerability?" "Bart Rutten, Odette L Peerbooms, Marjan Drukker, Gunter Kenis, Loes Hoogveld, Marc De Hert, Philip Delespaul, Ruud van Winkel, Jim van Os" "Risk of metabolic syndrome and its components in people with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis" "Davy Vancampfort, Marc De Hert, Martien Wampers" "Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components are highly predictive of cardiovascular diseases. The primary aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the prevalence of MetS and its components in people with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, comparing subjects with different disorders and taking into account demographic variables and psychotropic medication use. The secondary aim was to compare the MetS prevalence in persons with any of the selected disorders versus matched general population controls. The pooled MetS prevalence in people with severe mental illness was 32.6% (95% CI: 30.8%-34.4%; N = 198; n = 52,678). Relative risk meta-analyses established that there was no significant difference in MetS prevalence in studies directly comparing schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder, and in those directly comparing bipolar disorder versus major depressive disorder. Only two studies directly compared people with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, precluding meta-analytic calculations. Older age and a higher body mass index were significant moderators in the final demographic regression model (z = -3.6, p = 0.0003, r(2)  = 0.19). People treated with all individual antipsychotic medications had a significantly (p" "Cognitive processes and attitudes in bipolar disorder: A study into personality, dysfunctional attitudes and attention bias in patients with bipolar disorder and their relatives" "Nienke Jabben, Baer Arts, Ellen JONGEN, Fren T. Y. Smulders, Jim van Os, Lydia Krabbendam" "Background: Research in cognitive processes and attitudes in bipolar disorder is scarce and has provided mixed findings, possibly due to differences in current mood state. It is unclear whether alterations in cognitive processes and attitudes are only related to the depressive mood states of bipolar patients or also represent a vulnerability marker for the development of future (depressive) episodes. This was investigated in the current study. Methods: Both implicit (attentional bias for emotional words) and explicit (dysfunctional attitudes and personality characteristics) measures of cognitive processes and attitudes were assessed in 77 bipolar patients with varying levels of depressive symptoms (depressed = 17, euthymic n=60), their healthy first-degree relatives (n=39) and a healthy control group (n=61). Analyses of variance were used to investigate differences between groups. Results: Mildly depressed patients with bipolar disorder demonstrated an attentional bias away from positive emotional words and showed increased dysfunctional attitudes and higher levels of neuroticism. Euthymic patients were largely comparable to healthy controls and only differed from controls in higher levels of neuroticism. Relatives were similar to controls on all measures, although they significantly differed from bipolar patients in displaying less neuroticism and more extraversion. Limitations: No firm conclusions regarding causality can be drawn from the associations that were found between cognitive processes and attitudes and the evolution of mood symptoms in bipolar disorder. Conclusion: Alterations in cognitive processes and attitudes in bipolar patients appear to be mostly related to the expression of mood symptomatology rather than to the vulnerability for bipolar disorder. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved." "Applying polygenic risk scoring for psychiatric disorders to a large family with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder" "Jurgen Del-Favero" "Identification of a CACNA2D4 deletion in late onset bipolar disorder patients and implications for the involvement of voltage-dependent calcium channels in psychiatric disorders" "Maarten J A Van Den Bossche, Mojca Strazisar, Stephan De Bruyne, Chris Bervoets, An-Sofie Lenaerts, Sonia De Zutter, Annelie Nordin, Karl-Fredrik Norrback, Dirk Goossens, Peter De Rijk, Elaine K Green, Detelina Grozeva, Julien Mendlewicz, Nick Craddock, Bernard Sabbe, Rolf Adolfsson, Daniel Souery, Jurgen Del Favero" "The GWAS-based association of CACNA1C with bipolar disorder (BPD) is one of the strongest genetic findings to date. CACNA1C belongs to the family of CACN genes encoding voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs). VDCCs are involved in brain circuits and cognitive processes implicated in BPD and schizophrenia (SZ). Recently, it was shown that rare copy number variations (CNVs) are found at an increased frequency in SZ and to a lesser extent also in BPD, suggesting the involvement of CNVs in the causation of these diseases. We hypothesize that CNVs in CACN genes can influence the susceptibility to BPD, SZ, and/or schizoaffective disorder (SZA). A search for CNVs in eight CACN genes in a patient-control sample of European decent was performed. A total of 709 BP patients, 645 SZ patients, 189 SZA patients, and 1,470 control individuals were screened using the Multiplex Amplicon Quantification (MAQ) method. We found a rare, partial deletion of 35.7 kb in CACNA2D4 in two unrelated late onset bipolar I patients and in one control individual. All three deletions shared the same breakpoints removing exons 17-26 of CACNA2D4, comprising part of the CACHE domain. Based on the data we cannot claim causality to BPD of the identified CACNA2D4 deletion but nevertheless this deletion can be important in unraveling the underlying processes leading to psychiatric diseases in general and BPD in particular." "Sedentary behavior and physical activity levels in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder: a global systematic review and meta-analysis" "Davy Vancampfort, Michel Probst, Marc De Hert" "People with severe mental illness (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder) die up to 15 years prematurely due to chronic somatic comorbidities. Sedentary behavior and low physical activity are independent yet modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease and premature mortality in these people. A comprehensive meta-analysis exploring these risk factors is lacking in this vulnerable population. We conducted a meta-analysis investigating sedentary behavior and physical activity levels and their correlates in people with severe mental illness. Major electronic databases were searched from inception up to April 2017 for articles measuring sedentary behavior and/or physical activity with a self-report questionnaire or an objective measure (e.g., accelerometer). Random effects meta-analyses and meta-regression analyses were conducted. Sixty-nine studies were included (N=35,682; 39.5% male; mean age 43.0 years). People with severe mental illness spent on average 476.0 min per day (95% CI: 407.3-545.4) being sedentary during waking hours, and were significantly more sedentary than age- and gender-matched healthy controls (p=0.003). Their mean amount of moderate or vigorous physical activity was 38.4 min per day (95% CI: 32.0-44.8), being significantly lower than that of healthy controls (p=0.002 for moderate activity, p" "Heart rate variability in bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder: a clinical review" "Maarten De Vos" "Heart rate variability (HRV) in psychiatric disorders has become an increasing area of interest in recent years following technological advances that enable non-invasive monitoring of autonomic nervous system regulation. However, the clinical interpretation of HRV features remain widely debated or unknown. Standardisation within studies of HRV in psychiatric disorders is poor, making it difficult to reproduce or build on previous work. Recently, a Guidelines for Reporting Articles on Psychiatry and Heart rate variability checklist has been proposed to address this issue. Here we assess studies of HRV in bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder against this checklist and discuss the implication for ongoing research in this area." "Diabetes mellitus in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder: a systematic review and large scale meta-analysis" "Davy Vancampfort, Michel Probst, Marc De Hert" "Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is highly predictive of cardiovascular diseases and can have particularly deleterious health impacts in people with severe mental illness (SMI), i.e. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder. This meta-analysis aimed: a) to describe pooled frequencies of T2DM in people with SMI; b) to analyze the influence of demographic, illness and treatment variables as well as T2DM assessment methods; and c) to describe T2DM prevalence in studies directly comparing persons with each specific SMI diagnosis to general population samples. The trim and fill adjusted pooled T2DM prevalence among 438,245 people with SMI was 11.3% (95% CI: 10.0%-12.6%). In antipsychotic-naïve participants, the prevalence of T2DM was 2.9% (95% CI: 1.7%-4.8%). There were no significant diagnostic subgroup differences. A comparative meta-analysis established that multi-episode persons with SMI (N=133,470) were significantly more likely to have T2DM than matched controls (N=5,622,664): relative risk, RR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.45-2.37, p" "Diabetes mellitus in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder: a systematic review and large scale meta-analysis" "Davy Vancampfort, CU Correll, B Galling, Michel Probst, Marc De Hert, PB Ward, S Rosenbaum, F Gaughran, J Lally, B Stubbs"