Editorial

Abstract

Dear colleagues, It is my great pleasure to introduce to you the fourth issue of 2019 featuring original research in the field of early life experiences and Niemann-Pick disease type C. To begin with, after 10 years as the Chief Editor of the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry I want to look back on everything that was achieved and say thank you for all the opportunities and experiences of the last decade in a thank-you note from the Chief-Editor. In a review, Chistiakov and colleagues investigate early-life adversity-induced long-term epigenetic programming associated with early onset of chronic physical aggression (CPA). In humans and animal models of aggression, authors found that children and adolescents exposed to early-life abuse fail to efficiently cope with stress, which results in epigenetic reprogramming and increases the propensity to adult CPA behaviour. Flasbeck et al., assessed how childhood trauma affects processing of social interactions in borderline personality disorder, focussing on the empathy for pain. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in patients correlated with the level of personal distress and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Also, ERPs of patients could be predicted by childhood maltreatment and stress. The authors conclude that observed behavioural differences between patients with BPD and controls may be due to modulatory effects of empathic abilities on the evaluation of pain-related social stimuli based on childhood maltreatment. Tamman and associates investigated attachment style and effects of FKBP5 polymorphisms and childhood abuse on post-traumatic stress symptoms. The study on Veterans revealed that carriage of FKBP5 minor alleles, childhood abuse and insecure attachment style is associated with greater severity of PTSD. Monteleone and colleagues evaluated the effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure in adults with eating disorders (ED). In maltreated patients significantly reduced grey matter volume was detected in the right paracentral lobule and left inferior temporal gyrus. DTI analysis also revealed reduced white matter integrity in several brain regions of patients. Negative correlations emerged between white/grey matter changes and CTQ emotional and physical neglect scores. The study highlights that childhood trauma affects the integrity of brain structures modulating brain processes such as reward, taste and body perception, which play a fundamental role in the psychopathology of EDs. Bonnot et al., assessed the psychiatric and neurological symptoms in patients with Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C). The study shows that substantial delays in diagnosis of NP-C are long and that almost all patients have at least one neurological manifestation. The study highlights that patients presenting with psychiatric features and at least one of cognitive impairment, neurological manifestation and visceral symptoms should be screened for NP-C. Bonnot and colleagues also review psychiatric signs in Niemann-Pick disease type C. The authors found that cognitive, memory and instrumental impairments were most frequent, followed by psychosis, altered behaviour and mood disorders. NP-C should therefore be considered as a possible cause of psychiatric manifestations in patients with atypical disease course, acute-onset psychosis, treatment failure and when presenting a combination of psychiatric, neurological and visceral symptoms. In a brief report, Koenig and associates investigate hair hormones in male youth with internet gaming disorder. No differences were found on cortisol, cortisone, testosterone, progesterone, DHEA or corticosterone between groups. Therefore, the effects of IGF and associated psychopathology on basal HPA axis functioning are negligible.