Michelle Craske

BackgroundDepression-onset during adolescence is associated with a more recurrent and severe disease trajectory. Inflammation has been linked to the pathogenesis of depression, particularly in high-risk populations. The present study investigated whether inflammation leads to depression via executive dysfunction in a high-risk adolescent sample.MethodsA community sample of adolescents (n=82; 45.1% female), over-sampled for exposure to early life adversity (ELA), provided blood samples for the measurement of plasma C-reactive protein, IL-6, IL-10, IL-8, TNF-α, and IFN-γ. Their parents completed a questionnaire about their child’s executive functioning (BRIEF-2). Both adolescent and caregiver participated in semi-structured diagnostic interviews at baseline and 12-months later.ResultsHigher concentrations of IL-10 were non-significantly associated with the onset of depression during the 12-month study …

Recent work has demonstrated that reminders of those we are closest to have a unique combination of effects on fear learning and represent a new category of fear inhibitors, termed prepared fear suppressors. Notably, social-support-figure images have been shown to resist becoming associated with fear, suppress conditional-fear-responding, and lead to long-term fear reduction. Due to the novelty of this category, understanding the underlying neural mechanisms that support these unique abilities of social-support-reminders has yet to be investigated. Here, we examined the neural correlates that enable social-support-reminders to resist becoming associated with fear during a retardation-of-acquisition test. We found that social-support-figure-images (vs. stranger-images) were less readily associated with fear, replicating prior work, and that this effect was associated with decreased amygdala activity and …

BackgroundSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) places a profound burden on public health and individual wellbeing. Systemic inflammation may be important to the onset and maintenance of SAD, and anti-inflammatory treatments have shown promise in relieving symptoms of SAD. In the present study, we conducted secondary analyses on data from a randomized clinical trial to determine whether C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations and social anxiety symptoms decreased over the course of virtual reality exposure therapy, and whether changes in social anxiety symptoms as a function of treatment varied as a function of CRP.MethodAdult participants (N = 78) with a diagnosis of SAD (59 % female) were randomized to receive exposure therapy alone, or exposure therapy supplemented with scopolamine. Social anxiety symptoms, salivary CRP, and subjective units of distress were measured across three exposure …

Sensory over‐responsivity (SOR) is a prevalent cross‐diagnostic condition that is often associated with anxiety. The biological mechanisms underlying the co‐occurrence of SOR and anxiety symptoms are not well understood, despite having important implications for targeted intervention. We therefore investigated the unique associations of SOR and anxiety symptoms with physiological and neural responses to sensory stimulation for youth with anxiety disorders (ANX), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or typical development (TD). Age/IQ‐matched youth aged 8–18 years (22 ANX; 30 ASD; 22 TD) experienced mildly aversive tactile and auditory stimuli during functional magnetic resonance imaging and then during skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate (HR) measurements. Caregivers reported on participants' SOR and anxiety symptoms. ASD/ANX youth had elevated SOR and anxiety symptoms …

Affective states and interpretations of ambiguous stimuli are inherently related constructs, although effects of induced affective states on interpretive and response biases have not been comprehensively explored. The present study examined the relationship between induced affective states and interpretive and response bias in a sample of 189 undergraduates. Participants completed an online study in which they were randomized into one of two mood induction conditions and subsequently completed an interpretive bias task. Results demonstrated significant condition differences in affect after the mood induction; the positive induction condition demonstrated significantly more positive mood and the negative condition demonstrated more negative mood. A significant difference between conditions emerged with respect to positive interpretive bias for non-social scenarios, with the positive mood induction condition …

Previous laboratory work has shown that induction of positive mood prior to fear extinction decreases the negative valence of the conditional stimulus (CS) and reduces reinstatement of fear. Before translating these insights to clinical practice, it is important to test this strategy in anxious individuals. Students with a high fear of public speaking (N = 62) were randomized to either a positive mood induction, a negative mood induction, or no induction control group. All participants performed two weekly sessions of virtual reality exposure and a 1-week follow-up test including a spontaneous recovery test and reinstatement test after a social rejection (unconditional stimulus). We used self-reported fear measures and skin conductance responses. We expected that the positive group, compared to the other groups, would evaluate the CS (i.e., speaking in front of an audience) as less negative following exposure and would …

Social support may facilitate adaptive reappraisal of stressors, including somatic symptoms. Anxiety sensitivity refers to negative beliefs about somatic symptoms of anxiety, which may influence one’s perception of social support. Evidence-based treatment may impact these associations. The current longitudinal study evaluated reciprocal relationships between perceived social support and anxiety sensitivity, and explored indirect intervention effects, in a randomized controlled trial for anxiety disorders that compared cognitive behavioral therapy with or without medications (CALM) to usual care. Data collected over 18 months from 940 primary care patients were examined in random intercept cross-lagged panel models. There were significant reciprocal associations between perceived social support increases and anxiety sensitivity decreases over time. There were significant indirect effects from intervention to …

PurposePoor sleep is associated with short-term dysregulation of mood and is a risk factor for major depressive disorder (MDD). This study examines whether objectively measured sleep in late adolescence prospectively predicts major depressive episode (MDE) onset in early adulthood as well as whether daily affect mediates this association.MethodsThe present study draws on subjective and objective sleep data, ecological momentary assessment, and diagnostic data from the longitudinal Youth Emotion Project to examine whether: a) short sleep predicts dysregulated ecological momentary assessment-measured mood the next day; b) sleep predicts depressive episodes over the subsequent 5 years; and c) dysregulated daily moods mediate the associations between short sleep and later MDD. Fixed effects, logistic regression, and formal mediation analyses were employed.ResultsOur results showed that …