News/Research

Pablo Paredes on Stress Markers for Mental States and Biotypes of Depression and Anxiety

03 May, 2021

Pablo Paredes on Stress Markers for Mental States and Biotypes of Depression and Anxiety

BCNM alum Pablo Paredes co-authored a study on stress markers of depression and anxiety published in the journal Chronic Stress. The research paper is titled, "Stress Markers for Mental States and Biotypes of Depression and Anxiety: A Scoping Review and Preliminary Illustrative Analysis." It examines whether physiological markers can be used to indicate the presence of depression and anxiety and how brain circuits are impacted by depression and anxiety. This study has implications for the diagnosis of depression and anxiety in future patients.

Pablo Paredes received his PhD in UC Berkeley's Computer Science department and is now a professor at Stanford. His research explores technological solutions for addressing mental health challenges.

From the research article abstract:

Depression and anxiety disrupt daily function and their effects can be long-lasting and devastating, yet there are no established physiological indicators that can be used to predict onset, diagnose, or target treatments. In this review, we conceptualize depression and anxiety as maladaptive responses to repetitive stress. We provide an overview of the role of chronic stress in depression and anxiety and a review of current knowledge on objective stress indicators of depression and anxiety. We focused on cortisol, heart rate variability and skin conductance that have been well studied in depression and anxiety and implicated in clinical emotional states. A targeted PubMed search was undertaken prioritizing meta-analyses that have linked depression and anxiety to cortisol, heart rate variability and skin conductance. Consistent findings include reduced heart rate variability across depression and anxiety, reduced tonic and phasic skin conductance in depression, and elevated cortisol at different times of day and across the day in depression.

Read the full article here !