ArticleDepression and anxiety2022
Contribution of early-life unpredictability to neuropsychiatric symptom patterns in adulthood.
Article in Depression and anxiety, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Longitudinal associations between perceived stress and anhedonia during psychotherapy.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Trial
- Loss of pleasure (Anhedonia): A sex-dependent, cross-species consequence of unpredictable signals to the perinatal brain.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Developmental origins of ADHD: sex-specific influences of early life unpredictability on symptom profiles.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2026Article
- Age-dependent association of uric acid levels with depressive symptoms in adults: NHANES 2007-2018.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- A specific computational role for early-life unpredictability, and not lifelong traumatic experience, in decision-making under uncertainty.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Early adversity alters neurodevelopmental milestones in male and female rat pups and motor cortex morphology and gait in juveniles.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Anhedonia buffers the effects of early-life unpredictability on threat-reward decision-making.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Anhedonia underlies the association between childhood unpredictability and adult PTSD symptoms: Evidence from three independent longitudinal cohorts.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Adrenarche as a regulator of sensitivity to early adversity.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- Unpredictability is a childhood adversity that contributes to mental health problems.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Hearing and early life adversity: effects of developmental stress on sensory processing.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- The allostatic triage model of psychopathology (ATP Model): How reallocation of brain energetic resources under stress elicits psychiatric symptoms.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Provider and Parent Perspectives on Pediatric Screening for Research on Early Life Adversity.Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2025Article
- Sex-Specific Effects of Early-Life Unpredictability on Hippocampal and Amygdala Responses to Novelty in Adolescents.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Reconfiguration of brain-wide neural activity after early life adversity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Directed exploration is reduced by an aversive interoceptive state induction in healthy individuals but not in those with affective disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Reconfiguration of brain-wide neural activity after early life adversity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Exposure to unpredictable childhood environments is associated with amygdala activation during early extinction in adulthood.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Early life environmental unpredictability shapes non-suicidal self-injury: dual roles of experiential avoidance as mediator and moderator in Chinese college students.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Disrupted maternal behavior in morphine-dependent pregnant rats and anhedonia in their offspring.Neuropharmacology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRecent studies in both human and experimental animals have identified fragmented and unpredictable parental and environmental signals as a novel source of early-life adversity. Early-life unpredictability may be a fundamental developmental factor that impacts brain development, including reward and emotional memory circuits, affecting the risk for psychopathology later in life. Here, we tested the hypothesis that self-reported early-life unpredictability is associated with psychiatric symptoms in adult clinical populations.
methodsUsing the newly validated Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood, we assessed early-life unpredictability in 156 trauma-exposed adults, of which 65% sought treatment for mood, anxiety, and/or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. All participants completed symptom measures of PTSD, depression and anhedonia, anxiety, alcohol use, and chronic pain. Relative contributions of early-life unpredictability versus childhood trauma and associations with longitudinal outcomes over a 6-month period were determined.
resultsEarly-life unpredictability, independent of childhood trauma, was significantly associated with higher depression, anxiety symptoms, and anhedonia, and was related to higher overall symptom ratings across time. Early-life unpredictability was also associated with suicidal ideation, but not alcohol use or pain symptoms.
conclusionsEarly-life unpredictability is an independent and consistent predictor of specific adult psychiatric symptoms, providing impetus for studying mechanisms of its effects on the developing brain that promote risk for psychopathology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.