Pharmacopsychiatry 2025; 58(03): 139-140
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1807291
Abstracts | AGNP/DGBP
Poster

Neural links of paranoia in a transdiagnostic sample

M Neidhart
1   Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, CCM, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
2   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany
3   German Center for Mental Health, Berlin-Potsdam, Berlin, Germany
5   Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
,
G-I Henze
1   Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, CCM, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
3   German Center for Mental Health, Berlin-Potsdam, Berlin, Germany
,
K Janson
2   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany
4   German Center for Mental Health, Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Ulm, Germany
5   Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
,
N Holz
2   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany
4   German Center for Mental Health, Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Ulm, Germany
,
F Nees
5   Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
,
S Desrivières
6   Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
,
A Marquand
7   Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
8   Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
,
G Schumann
3   German Center for Mental Health, Berlin-Potsdam, Berlin, Germany
9   Centre of Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience CCM, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
10   Centre for Population Neuroscience and Stratified Medicine (PONS), Institute for Science and Technology of Brain-inspired Intelligence (ISTBI), Fudan University, Shanghai, China
,
H Walter
1   Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, CCM, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
3   German Center for Mental Health, Berlin-Potsdam, Berlin, Germany
,
T Banaschewski
2   Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Germany
4   German Center for Mental Health, Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Ulm, Germany
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Objective: Paranoia is the belief that someone intends to harm you, despite no actual intent. It is common, affects over 10% of the general population and occurs across psychiatric disorders such schizophrenia, depression, or anxiety. The triple network model (TPN) in schizophrenia research links aberrant saliency mapping and cognitive dysfunction to the salience network (SN), default mode network (DMN), and central executive network (CEN). Here, we examined paranoia within a transdiagnostic sample (N=546) and its neural correlates within main TPN-hubs to better understand the etiology of paranoia as a transdiagnostic phenomenon.

Methods: In a transdiagnostic sample (N=546) data was harmonized, resulting in a standardized paranoia score using Symptom-Checklist-90 and Brief Symptom Inventory, with healthy controls (N=1625) as reference. Resting state functional connectivity data was preprocessed and analyzed using ENIGMA HALFpipe and FSL 6.0. Seed-based correlation analyses used TPN-seeds for SN (left/right insula, left/right dACC), DMN (middle posterior cingulate cortex (pcc), middle precuneus, left/right hippocampus), and CEN (left/right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)). Paranoia effects were investigated via group-level t-tests, correcting for age, sex, site and diagnosis. Fisher Z-transformation and FDR correction were applied.

Results: Validation checks showed successful data harmonization, as pre- and post-scores did not change and correlated highly significantly (p<0.01). Paranoia was significantly associated with within- and between hyperconnectivity (p FDR <0.01) of primary hubs of the SN (dACC), DMN (precuneus, pcc, hippocampus) and CEN (dlPFC) to other brain structures part of DMN, CEN, visual network (VN) and sensorimotor network (SMN).

Conclusion: Key nodes of the TPN-networks (SN, DMN, CEN) showed significant (p FDR <0.01) between- and within hyperconnectivity to other networks, such as the SN, DMN, CEN, VN and SMN in association with paranoia. Given this is a transdiagnostic sample, it highlights the importance of TPN-connectivity for feelings of threat and addressing cognitive explanations of internal/external stimuli for the development of paranoia.



Publication History

Article published online:
30 April 2025

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