Weill Cornell Psychiatry
Publications
Advances in neuroscience can inform simplified interventions that target key brain networks impacted by depression. Engage & Connect is an example for a scalable and simple neuroscience-informed psychotherapy, aimed to improve Positive Valence System functions and social reward responsivity by increasing engagement in rewarding social activities.
Course of Subtypes of Late-Life Depression Identified by Bipartite Network Analysis During Psychosocial Interventions
In this prognostic study, bipartite network clustering identified 3 subtypes of late-life depression. Knowledge of patients’ clinical characteristics may inform treatment selection. Identification of discrete subtypes of late-life depression may stimulate the development of novel, streamlined interventions targeting the clinical vulnerabilities of each subtype.
This systematic review of 409 studies on social reward processing in depressed and healthy individuals found that social rewards elicit increased activation in subcortical reward regions in healthy and depressed individuals; and decreased activation in prefrontal reward regions among depressed individuals. Processing of social stimuli elicits activation of key brain regions involved in affective and social information processing. Interventions for depression can increase social reward responsivity to improve outcomes.
Perception of Social Support and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults With Depression
In this cross-sectional study among older adults with depression, higher perceived social support was associated with phonemic verbal fluency but not other executive processes or cognitive domains. Results indicate that perceived social isolation may be selectively associated with executive processes that support the initiation and persistence of behavior, underscoring the important role of social support in this population. Older adults with poorer cognitive performance may be less likely to feel supported by others and thus may benefit from interventions that increase social engagement.
Resting State Functional Connectivity and Outcomes of Psychotherapies for Late-Life Depression
Results suggest that patients who present with higher resting state functional connectivity between the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and a structure within the DMN may benefit from behavioral psychotherapies for late-life depression. "Engage" therapy may lead to increased resting state functional connectivity within the reward system reflecting a reconditioning of the reward systems by reward exposure.
Modifiable Predictors of Non-response to Psychotherapies for Late-life Depression with Executive Dysfunction: A Machine Learning Approach
The strongest modifiable predictors of the persisting depression trajectory were low perceived social support, followed by high neuroticism, low treatment expectancy, and low perception of the therapist as accepting. Our results suggest that modifiable risk factors of early non-response to psychotherapy can be identified at the outset of treatment and addressed with targeted personalized interventions.