Screen time in infancy is linked to changes in social-emotional development but the pathway underlying this association remains unknown. We aim to provide mechanistic insights into this association using brain network topology and to examine the potential role of parent–child reading in mitigating the effects of screen time.

We examined the association of screen time on brain network topology using linear regression analysis and tested if the network topology mediated the association between screen time and later socio-emotional competence. Lastly, we tested if parent–child reading time was a moderator of the link between screen time and brain network topology.

Infant screen time was significantly associated with the emotion processing-cognitive control network integration (p = 0.005). This network integration also significantly mediated the association between screen time and both measures of socio-emotional competence (BRIEF-2 Emotion Regulation Index, p = 0.04; SEARS total score, p = 0.04). Parent–child reading time significantly moderated the association between screen time and emotion processing-cognitive control network integration (β = −0.640, p = 0.005).

Our study identified emotion processing-cognitive control network integration as a plausible biological pathway linking screen time in infancy and later socio-emotional competence. We also provided novel evidence for the role of parent–child reading in moderating the association between screen time and topological brain restructuring in early childhood.

The stressful minority position of transgender persons may result in a high risk of psychosis. Conflicting data suggest that the observed risk depends on setting of recruitment. We assessed the relative risk of non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD) in a large, representative cohort of transgender persons.

This cohort was composed using: data on legal sex change from the Dutch population registry and data on dispensing of cross-sex hormones (route 1), and a registry of insurance claims from mental health care including persons with a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (DSM-IV) or gender dysphoria (DSM-5) (route 2). They were matched by sex at birth, calendar year and country of birth to controls from the general population. Transgender persons (N = 5564) and controls (N = 27 820), aged 16–60 years at 1 January 2011, were followed until the first insurance claim for NAPD in 2011–2019.

The incidence rate ratio (IRR) of NAPD for transgender persons selected exclusively through route 1 (N = 3859, IRR = 2.00, 95%-CI 1.52–2.63) was increased, but significantly lower than the IRRs for those selected exclusively through route 2 (N = 694, IRR = 22.15, 95%-CI 13.91–35.28) and for those found by both routes (N = 1011, IRR = 5.17, 95%-CI 3.57–7.49; p value for differences in IRR < 0.001).

This study supports the social defeat-hypothesis of NAPD. The results also show the presence of a substantial number of transgender persons with severe psychiatric problems who have not (yet) taken steps to gender-affirmative care.

Sick leave due to mental disorders poses a relevant societal and economic burden. Research on sick leave over a patient journey of individuals who received one of two treatment approaches – either behavioral (BT) or psychodynamic (PDT) psychotherapy – is scarce.

We conducted a cohort study on anonymized German claims data for propensity-score matched patients who received short-term outpatient BT or PDT. We analyzed sick leave days and direct health care costs one year before, during, and one year after psychotherapy.

We analyzed data of patients who received BT and PDT, with N = 14 530 patients per group after matching. Patients showed sick leave days per person year of 33.66 and 35.05 days before, 35.99 and 39.74 days during, and 20.03 and 20.95 days after BT and PDT, respectively. Sick leave rates were overall higher in patients who received PDT. Both patient groups showed reductions of roughly 14 sick leave days per year, or 40%, from before to after therapy without a difference between BT and PDT (difference-in-difference [DiD] = −0.48, 95%-confidence interval [CI] −1.61 to 0.68). Same applies to direct health care costs which reduced in both groups by roughly 1800 EUR (DiD = 0, 95%-CI −158 to 157).

Results suggest similar reductions in sick leave days and direct health care costs from before to after BT and PDT. As sick leave is discussed to serve as an indicator of overall health and functioning in mental disorders, both treatments may have a similar positive impact on mental health.

Deficiency in contextual and enhanced responding in cued fear learning may contribute to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We examined the responses to aversive Pavlovian conditioning with an unpredictable spatial context as conditioned stimulus compared to a predictable context. We hypothesized that the PTSD group would demonstrate less hippocampal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation during acquisition and extinction of unpredictable contexts and an over-reactive amygdala response in the predictable contexts compared to controls.

A novel combined differential cue-context conditioning paradigm was applied using virtual reality with spatial contexts that required configural and cue processing. We assessed 20 patients with PTSD, 21 healthy trauma-exposed (TC) and 22 non-trauma-exposed (HC) participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging, skin conductance responses, and self-report measures.

During fear acquisition, patients with PTSD compared to TC showed lower activity in the hippocampi in the unpredictable and higher activity in the amygdalae in the predictable context. During fear extinction, TC compared to patients and HC showed higher brain activity in the vmPFC in the predictable context. There were no significant differences in self-report or skin conductance responses.

Our results suggest that patients with PTSD differ in brain activation from controls in regions such as the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the vmPFC in the processing of unpredictable and predictable contexts. Deficient encoding of more complex configurations might lead to a preponderance of cue-based predictions in PTSD. Exposure-based treatments need to focus on improving predictability of contextual processing and reducing enhanced cue reactivity.