Browsing by Author "Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso"

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    Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men
    (2023) Zugman, André; Alliende, Luz María; Medel, Vicente; Bethlehem, Richard A.I.; Seidlitz, Jakob; Ringlein, Grace; Arango, Celso; Arnatkevičiūtė, Aurina; Asmal, Laila; Bellgrove, Mark; Benegal, Vivek; Bernardo, Miquel; Billeke, Pablo; Bosch-Bayard, Jorge; Bressan, Rodrigo; Busatto, Geraldo F.; Castro, Mariana N.; Chaim-Avancini, Tiffany; Compte, Albert; Costanzi, Monise; Czepielewsk, Leticia; Dazzan, Paola; Fuente-Sandoval, Camilo de la; Forti, Marta Di; Díaz-Caneja, Covadonga M.; Díaz-Zuluaga, Ana María; Ples, Stefan Du; Duran, Fabio L. S.; Fittipaldi, Sol; Fornito, Alex; Freimer, Nelson B.; Gadelha, Ary; Gama, Clarissa S.; Garani, Ranjini; Garcia-Rizo, Clemente; Gonzalez Campo, Cecilia; Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso; Guinjoan, Salvador; Holla, Bharath; Undurraga, Juan
    Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women's worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women's brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.
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    High prevalence of metabolic alterations in Latin American patients at initial stages of psychosis
    (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2020) Iruretagoyena, Bárbara; Castañeda, Carmen; Undurraga, Juan; Nachar, Rubén; Mena, Cristian; Gallardo, Carlos; Crossley, Nicolas; Gonzalez-Valderrama, Alfonso
    Aim Studies conducted in the United States have highlighted a higher prevalence of metabolic alterations (MA) in Latino population and Latino psychotic patients. Metabolic risk in psychosis is known to be present from initial stages of the disease. To better characterize this population, we explored the prevalence of MA and metabolic syndrome (MS) in early psychosis patients in a Latin American country. Methods Transversal, observational study comparing the prevalence of MA and MS in patients with early psychosis from an outpatient program in Chile (n = 148) with a community representative sample from the 2009‐2010 National Health Survey (n = 568). ANOVA and regression analysis were performed obtaining odds ratio for MA and MS. Results The prevalence of MS was 44.7% in patients compared to 11.4% in the community sample (odds ratio [OR] 5.28, confidence interval [CI] 95% 3.07‐9.08; P‐value <0.001). There was no effect of gender. Subgroup analyses showed no significant association of MS with clozapine/olanzapine use, treatment duration or tobacco use. There was an association between treatment duration and hypertriglyceridemia (P = 0.024; OR 1.02, CI 95% 1.00‐1.04) and obesity (P = 0.007; OR 5.93, CI 95% 1.82‐20.22). Clozapine/olanzapine use was associated with hyperglycaemia (P = 0.007; OR 6.04, CI 95% 1.63‐22.38) and high low density lipoprotein (P = 0.033 ANOVA; OR 5.28, CI 95% 1.14‐24.37). Conclusion Latino psychotic patients have a high risk of MA and MS at initial stages of the disease which is not entirely explained by the higher risk in the whole Latino population, is irrespective of gender, and does not seem to be entirely a response to atypical antipsychotic use.

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