China’s aging population faces increased prevalence in mid- and later life depression, with married middle-aged and older women vulnerable due to disproportionate caregiving and socioeconomic stress. Although emotional contagion between partners is well-documented, pathways through which depressive symptoms spread between these spouses remain unclear. This study examines the directional predictive patterns of depressive symptoms, wives to husbands specifically, within middle-aged and older Chinese couples.

Using the 2011–2013 longitudinal data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we analyzed 2,578 heterosexual couples aged 45 years or older. Depressive symptoms were assessed at two time points using the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D-10). Cross-lagged panel network (CLPN) modeling estimated temporal changes in predictive pathways of each spouse’s symptoms in the other’s, capturing intra-personal symptom interactions and inter-spousal predictive dynamics while comparing patterns between couples.

Distinct symptom networks emerged for husbands and wives, with wives’ emotional states showing stronger cross-partner predictive associations, highlighting gender-specific patterns. Wives’ fearfulness emerged as a critical bridge symptom, significantly predicting increases in husbands’ depressive symptoms. Overall, significant cross-spousal spillover associations were observed; emotional contagion patterns were notably asymmetric, showing more pronounced symptom predictions from wives to husbands.

Findings indicate bidirectional associations of depressive symptoms with significant gender disparities in symptom dynamics among middle-aged and older couples, highlighting the necessity for gender-sensitive, relationship-focused research and interventions. Dyadic network analysis provides new insights into depression dynamics, advocating approaches addressing relational factors with individual symptoms in mental health strategies for China’s aging population.

Domestic violence is a widespread public health problem and a serious human rights violation. It occurs worldwide, across all generations, nationalities, communities and spheres of societies, irrespective of age, ethnicity, disability or other background. Domestic violence victims have a higher risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. Despite a critical link between domestic violence and mental health, very few such studies exist in Nepal.

To investigate the association between depressive symptoms and physical, sexual and emotional domestic violence.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 429 women aged 30–60 years who underwent cervical cancer screening in Dhulikhel and Banepa municipalities, Kavrepalanchowk District, Nepal. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between depressive symptoms and domestic violence and abuse.

Findings suggest 2.99 times (95% CI 1.57–5.67, p = 0.001) higher odds of having depressive symptoms in women experiencing any type of violence. Similarly, the odds of having depressive symptoms were 2.5 times (95% CI 1.26–4.98, p = 0.009) higher in participants who had experienced physical violence and 6.21 times (95% CI 2.49–15.46, p < 0.001) higher among participants who had experienced sexual violence or emotional abuse.

Women experiencing physical, sexual or emotional abuse are more likely to experience depressive symptoms. To better understand the factors contributing to these symptoms, further in-depth and exploratory studies are needed. Community-based interventions are needed to offer counselling, support groups and safe spaces for women affected by violence.

Research on the link between threat-related and deprivation-related adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the risk of gastrointestinal (GI) and liver diseases in later life remains limited. This study aims to evaluate the independent associations of threat-related and deprivation-related ACEs with the development of GI and liver disorders in middle-aged and older Chinese adults.

This prospective cohort study used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which included participants aged 45 and older who had complete ACE data, two health assessments, and no pre-existing GI or liver conditions at baseline. Participants reported on five threat-related and deprivation-related ACEs before age 17. GI and liver diseases were classified based on self-reported physician diagnoses.

The outcomes of GI and liver diseases are based on self-reported physician diagnosis and broad categories. Compared with no exposures, participants with two or more threat-related ACEs exhibited a higher risk of both chronic liver disease (hazard ratio [HR], 1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04–1.52; P = 0.016) and GI disease (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.20–1.55; P < 0.001); two or more deprivation-related ACEs showed stronger associations with GI disease (HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.28–1.70; P < 0.001); and no significant associations with liver disease risk across all exposure levels. Additionally, depressive symptoms accounted for 10.7% (P = 0.003) of the association between threat-related ACEs and liver disease risk and accounted for 12.7% (P < 0.001) of the association between threat-related ACEs and GI disease risk. Midlife loneliness accounted for 5.3% (P = 0.001) of the association between threat-related ACEs and incident GI diseases and for 3.7% (P = 0.004) of the association between deprivation-related ACEs and incident GI diseases.

Threat-related ACEs are directly associated with an increased risk of liver and GI diseases. A modest proportion of this observed relationship is partially mediated through depressive symptoms and loneliness in middle age.

The prevalence and burden of depression are increasing among young people. Despite this, relatively few treatments specifically target this critical developmental period, and under-addressed mental health difficulties in youth often have lifelong consequences. Social isolation is commonly reported by young adults and is both a risk and maintenance factor for depression. There is a need for accessible, engaging interventions that can reduce depressive symptoms and improve social connectedness.

Building on evidence of the therapeutic potential of social dance-based activities for depression, this randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of an 8-week salsa dance intervention for young adults (aged 18–24 years) with mild to moderately severe depressive symptoms. 121 participants were randomly assigned to either a salsa intervention or a waitlist control. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a validated measure of depressive symptoms, and additional mental health measures at baseline, during, and after the intervention.

Participants in the salsa dance condition showed a significantly greater reduction in depressive symptoms than the waitlist control, with a −2.45 PHQ-9 point between-group difference, exceeding the criterion for clinical significance. Both groups reported improvements in social anxiety, generalized anxiety, loneliness, and daily happiness, but salsa participants had significantly greater reductions in social anxiety and greater improvements in daily happiness.

These findings support the value of social dance as a novel, accessible intervention for reducing depressive symptoms. Implementing such programs within a suite of wellbeing-oriented interventions for young people could provide cost-effective mental health benefits.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected mental health, with a particular impact on depressive symptoms. Metabolic syndrome is also linked to depression, but their combined effects remain unclear.

To examine the independent and combined effects of COVID-19 seropositivity and metabolic syndrome on depressive symptoms, considering demographic and health-related factors.

A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using 2021–2022 Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición data. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD-7), including subscales for positive affect, negative affect and somatic symptoms. COVID-19 seropositivity was determined through seroprevalence data, and metabolic syndrome was defined using Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Logistic and linear regression models evaluated associations between COVID-19 seropositivity, metabolic syndrome and depressive symptoms, adjusting for demographic and health factors.

Among 10 890 adults, 3312 (30.4%) had depressive symptoms. COVID-19 seropositivity (n = 7790, 71.7%) was associated with higher odds of depressive symptoms (odds ratio 1.22, 95% CI 1.08–1.38) and increased CESD-7 scores (coefficient 0.39, 95% CI 0.19–0.58), particularly negative affect (coefficient 0.16, 95% CI 0.05–0.27) and somatic symptoms (coefficient 0.23, 95% CI 0.12–0.34). Metabolic syndrome was associated with depressive symptoms (odds ratio 1.17, 95% CI 1.02–1.33), mainly through negative affect (coefficient 0.27, 95% CI 0.12–0.41). No significant interaction was found between COVID-19 seropositivity and metabolic syndrome.

COVID-19 seropositivity and metabolic syndrome independently increase depression risk, highlighting the need for integrated mental and metabolic health screening.

Depression arises from diverse environmental and psychosocial risk factors, yet how these factors co-occur within individuals remains unclear. This study identifies profiles of multiple depression risk factors and examines their clinical and neuroimaging correlates.

Among 157,317 UK Biobank participants completing the mental health questionnaire, 24 psychological, environmental, and lifestyle factors were assessed using latent class analysis. Logistic regression evaluated associations between profiles and depression outcomes; linear models examined neuroimaging differences. Imaging transcriptomics and gene-set enrichment analyses contextualized neural findings.

Three latent profiles emerged: low risk profile (81.09%), childhood adversity-related profile (CA; 10.95%), and adulthood adversity-related profile (AA; 7.97%). Both the CA profile and AA profile show significantly higher depression risk than the low risk profile. Compared with the low risk profile, the AA profile shows a 2.7-fold increase in depression risk (OR = 3.701, 95%CI: 3.532~3.881), with appetite change and psychomotor symptoms being more prominent. The CA profile shows a 2.5-fold increase in depression risk (OR = 3.507, 95%CI: 3.353~3.607), with worthlessness, sleep problems, and suicidal ideation being more prominent. Both adversity profiles showed lower white-matter FA in cerebellar–thalamic and associative pathways. The CA profile additionally showed reduced FA in occipital tracts, whereas the AA profile showed greater reductions in prefrontal pathways and lower GMV in insula, amygdala, and cerebellar lobules VIIIb/IX, alongside higher occipital pole GMV. The most pronounced nominally significant difference between CA and AA centered on the right amygdala. Genes overlapping subcortical GMV differences were enriched for psychiatric disorders.

Life-course adversity may be a key feature associated with distinct clinical and neural signatures, helping identify subgroups with co-occurring vulnerabilities. These patterns warrant further investigation in future studies.

Living in a country with a large gap between high and low earners has been linked to poor health, including depression. Less studied is gene-by-environment interplay with income inequality as the environmental exposure. Here, we examine the association between childhood exposure to inequality and individual differences in adult depressive symptoms, testing for moderation of genetic influences by inequality using polygenic indices for major depressive disorder, as well as twin models.

The research participants were 69,924 members of twin studies from four developed countries, born between 1893 and 1979, aged 22–103 years at depressive symptom assessment. Genotyping was available for 6,256 participants. Income inequality was operationalized as share of income accruing to the top 1% for each country when the participants were between age 5 and 15 years.

Childhood income inequality was associated with depressive symptom scores in adulthood, adjusting for covariates. Each 1% rise in inequality was associated with 0.295 higher depressive symptoms (scaled on T-score units). In genetic analyses, interaction effects showed that men who faced more inequality as children and had higher genetic risk for depression reported modestly higher depressive symptoms compared to other men. For women, both genetic risk and inequality mattered, with each independently associated with depressive symptoms. Twin models showed that inequality moderated genetic variance underlying depressive symptoms; heritability of depressive symptoms was higher where exposure to income inequality was higher.

Findings illustrate the long reach of childhood exposure to income inequality and suggest that advantaged environments may help protect against the effects of deleterious genes.

Emotion regulation, while closely linked to depressive symptoms, has seldom been examined together with them in studies of the relationship between chronotype and suicidality. We therefore examined whether chronotype predicts suicidality through the sequential mediation of poor emotion regulation and depressive symptoms. In addition, we examined whether these mediation pathways differ between morning-type and evening-type groups.

This study included 3109 Korean adults from the general population. Chronotype, depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and suicidality were assessed using the Composite Scale of Morningness, Self-Rating Depression Scale, Emotion Regulation Skills Questionnaire, and the Suicidality module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, respectively.

Chronotype did not have a direct effect on suicidality. Instead, eveningness was indirectly linked to higher suicidality. Specifically, individuals with stronger eveningness tendencies reported poorer emotion regulation, which increased depressive symptoms; depressive symptoms, in turn, predicted suicidal ideation, which emerged as a significant predictor of suicide attempts. Subgroup analyses revealed that the same sequential pathway was significant only among evening-types, but not among morning-types.

Chronotype appears to play a role in suicide risk in the general population. Screening for chronotype and focusing on emotion regulation and depressive symptoms may enhance prevention efforts tailored to chronotype, especially for evening-type individuals.

Mental–physical multimorbidity is an emerging prevalent global health challenge. This study aims to examine reciprocal relationships between depressive symptoms and multimorbidity, with the mediation role of functional dependence in activities of daily living.

Data were derived from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which included 11,572 Chinese residents aged 45 years and older, surveyed in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2018. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) at baseline and each follow-up survey. Multimorbidity was operationalized as the condition count and the patterns identified via exploratory factor analysis. Four-wave cross-lagged panel models (CLPM) with bootstrapping were employed to estimate the path coefficients and the mediation effect of functional dependence.

Multimorbidity (cardiometabolic and respiratory-degenerative) and depressive symptoms exhibited bi-directional associations. Multimorbidity had a stronger impact on later depression (β: 0.042–0.130) than depression on multimorbidity (β: 0.005–0.064). Associations were stronger for respiratory-degenerative (β: 0.027–0.104) than cardiometabolic diseases (β: 0.005–0.065). Functional dependence partially mediated these links, with higher mediation for cardiometabolic (9–21%) than respiratory-degenerative diseases (4-6%). Additionally, some sex- and age-specific differences were identified in these dynamic associations.

The study revealed bi-directional links between multimorbidity and depressive symptoms among Chinese adults. Functional dependence was a significant pathway in the cycle of multimorbidity and depressive symptoms, especially for cardiometabolic diseases. These insights suggest that interventions aimed at preventing functional dependence may be beneficial in mitigating the risk of coexisting mental and physical disorders.

Limited studies have conducted a comprehensive investigation on the impact of China’s birth policy change on the mental health among women of childbearing age. This study aimed to explore the potential impact of China’s Universal two-child policy on depressive symptoms among women of childbearing age, based on national-representative, longitudinal survey data.

Data we employed in this study were derived from the China Family Panel Study (CFPS) for the waves of 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. We included 7481 currently married females (17079 for pooled sample) aged 20–40 years. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Kessler 6 Rating Scale (K6) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). All scores were standardized for analysis. We employ the difference-in-difference model to investigate the association between the implementation of the Universal Two-child Policy (UTP) and women’s depressive symptoms.

Women in the exposed group, after implementing UTP, had a standardized score of depressive symptoms 0.10 higher (95% CI: 0.03–0.16, p = 0.007) than during the pre-intervention period after controlling for multiple covariates. They also faced a higher risk of having moderate or severe depressive symptoms (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.12–1.87, p = 0.004). The stratified analysis revealed that the negative impact of UTP on mental health was pronounced among women with advanced age, low education, medium family income, only male offspring before UTP, and no new birth after UTP.

We observed that the implementation of the UTP was associated with increased depressive symptoms among married women of childbearing age in China, with significant heterogeneity across different sociodemographic groups. Greater attention should be paid to the complex psychological conditions of women of childbearing age when adjusting fertility policies, which is crucial to prevent women from suffering poor mental health and to advance high-quality development in population health.

Chronic pain represents a major global public health issue. It is associated with wide-ranging psychosocial consequences. Extensive evidence has demonstrated that pain catastrophizing (PC) contributes to the bidirectional association between chronic pain and psychological distress. The present study aims to explore the psychological and cognitive correlates of chronic pain among individuals living in Gaza.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 272 adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Spearman’s correlations assessed associations between pain intensity, catastrophizing and depressive symptoms. Multiple regression and bootstrapped mediation analyses (5,000 resamples and PROCESS macro) evaluated predictors and the mediating role of catastrophizing in the pain–depression relationship.

Pain intensity was positively correlated with depression (r = 0.28, p < 0.001) and catastrophizing (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). A stronger correlation was found between catastrophizing and depression (r = 0.54, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis demonstrated that catastrophizing fully mediated the association between pain intensity and depression (indirect effect = 0.95, 95% confidence interval = [0.65–1.29]).

PC is a key psychological mechanism linking pain intensity and depression among patients with chronic pain in Gaza. Integrating cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness and emotion regulation strategies into pain management may improve mental health outcomes in conflict-affected settings.

Depressive symptoms are closely associated with cognitive decline and risk of incident dementia, and plasma biomarkers may play a significant role in this relationship. We aimed to investigate the influence of plasma biomarkers and explore the underlying mechanisms.

This study included 1,658 dementia-free community residents recruited in 2009–2011 from the Shanghai Aging Study. At baseline, we assayed plasma phosphorylated tau 217 (p-tau217) and neurofilament light chain (NfL), and assessed depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale. Cox regression models were performed to estimate the risks of incident dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) during the 5-year follow-up. Parallel and serial mediation models were applied to investigate whether plasma p-tau217 and NfL mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive decline.

Older adults with depressive symptoms had higher risks of dementia and AD, especially among those with higher concentrations of baseline plasma p-tau217/NfL. Sex-specific analysis revealed that depressive symptoms combined with high plasma NfL increased AD risk in men (hazard ratio, HR [95% confidence interval, CI] = 5.89 [2.01, 17.27], p = 0.001), whereas women with depressive symptoms and high plasma p-tau217 showed higher AD risk (HR [95%CI] = 6.07 [2.82, 13.09], p < 0.001). Parallel mediation analysis revealed that plasma p-tau217/NfL mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive decline, respectively. Additionally, serial mediation analysis found p-tau217 precedes NfL within the mediating pathway (β = 0.403, bootstrap 95% CI: 0.347, 0.452).

Plasma p-tau217 and NfL could individually or jointly mediate the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive decline.