The Sex-dependent relationship between Amygdala activation and depressive symptoms with problematic drinking
Autor(in); Institution
Rosenthal, Annika; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, MSB Medical School Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
Rothkirch, Marcus; Department of Psychology, MSB Medical School Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
Krasniqi, Samanda; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, GERMANY
Bode, Erik L.; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, GERMANY
Daedelow, Laura S.; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GERMANY
Banaschewski, Tobias; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Square J5, 68159 Mannheim, GERMANY
Barker, Gareth J.; Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
Bokde, Arun L.W.; Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, IRELAND
Desrivières, Sylvane; Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
Flor, Herta; Department of Neuropsychology and Psychological Resilience Research, Research Group Learning and Brain Plasticity in Mental Disorders, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Square J5, Mannheim, GERMANY
Garavan, Hugh; Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont, 05405 Burlington, Vermont, USA
Gowland, Penny; Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK
Grigis, Antoine; NeuroSpin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, FRANCE
Martinot, Jean-Luc; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM U A10) "Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie", University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli, Gif-sur-Yvette, FRANCE
Paillère Martinot, Marie-Laure; nstitut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM U A10) "Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie", University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli, Gif-sur-Yvette, FRANCE
Artiges, Eric; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM U A10) "Trajectoires développementales & psychiatrie", University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CNRS; Centre Borelli, Gif-sur-Yvette, FRANCE
Nees, Frauke; Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, Munich, GERMANY
Orfanos, Dimitri Papadopoulos; Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, GERMANY
Poustka, Luise; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, GERMANY
Smolka, Michael N.; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, GERMANY
Holz, Nathalie; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Square J5, 68159 Mannheim, GERMANY
Vaidya, Nilakshi; Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, GERMANY
Walter, Henrik; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, GERMANY
Whelan, Robert; School of Psychology and Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, IRELAND
Wirsching, Paul; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, GERMANY
Schumann, Gunter; Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, GERMANY
Heinz, Andreas; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Tübingen, GERMANY
Background: Although the initiation of alcohol consumption is common in adolescence, some individuals express binge drinking behavior that could lead to harmful consequences such as developing alcohol use disorder later in life. Evidence suggests a relation between depressive symptoms and harmful alcohol consumption that seems to vary depending on sex. Furthermore, amygdala activation in response to negative emotional stimuli has been suggested to influence drinking due to depressive mood states. Therefore, we expected a sex-dependent effect of neuronal activation and depressive symptoms on risky drinking.
Methods: Here, we test our hypothesis using a large dataset of 19-year-old participants (n= 958) in the IMAGEN study. Amygdala activation during an emotional faces task were extracted and entered into sex-moderated mediation models that also included scores from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and Adolescent Depression Rating Scale.
Results: Moderated mediation models indicated that amygdala activation was associated with hazardous drinking through enhanced depressive symptoms in males, while amygdala reactivity in females was associated with decreased risky drinking.
Conclusions: Taken together, our findings reveal sex differences in negative emotional processing in at-risk adolescents. These associations have the potential to inform the development of sex-specific strategies as well as the detection of early neuronal risk factors to effectively curtail alcohol risk behavior.
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Rechteinformation
CC BY 4.0 ; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
Förderinformationen (1)
Förderername: European Union (EU)
Förderer ID: 0000 0001 2375 4495
Förderer ID Typ: ISNI
Förderprogramm: FP6 Integrated Project IMAGEN (Reinforcement-related behavior in normal brain function and psychopathology
Förderungsnummer: Grant No. LSHM-CT-2007-037286
Förderinformationen (2)
Förderername: European Union (EU)
Förderer ID: 0000 0001 2375 4495
Förderer ID Typ: ISNI
Förderprogramm: Horizon 2020
Titel der Förderung: ERC STRATIFY
Förderungsnummer: Grant No. 695313
Förderinformationen (3)
Förderername: Fondation de l'Avenir
Zitierung
Rosenthal, A., Rothkirch, M., Krasniqi, S., Bode, E. L., Daedelow, L. S., Banaschewski, T., Barker, G. J., Bokde, A. L., Brühl, R., Desrivières, S., Flor, H., Garavan, H., Gowland, P., Grigis, A., Martinot, J.-L., Paillère Martinot, M.-L., Artiges, E., Nees, F., Orfanos, D. P., Poustka, L., Smolka, M. N., Holz, N., Vaidya, N., Walter, H., Whelan, R., Wirsching, P., Schumann, G., & Heinz, A. (2026). The Sex-dependent relationship between Amygdala activation and depressive symptoms with problematic drinking. Biological Psychiatry, 100(3), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2026.02.007
