Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (42)

The relationship between type, timing and duration of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and adolescent self-harm and depression: Findings from three UK prospective population-based cohorts (2024)
Journal Article
Farooq, B., Russell, A., Howe, L., Herbert, A., Smith, A., Fisher, H., …Mars, B. (in press). The relationship between type, timing and duration of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and adolescent self-harm and depression: Findings from three UK prospective population-based cohorts. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13986

Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are well-established risk factors for self-harm and depression. However, despite their high comorbidity, there has been little focus on the impact of developmental timing and the duration of exposure t... Read More about The relationship between type, timing and duration of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and adolescent self-harm and depression: Findings from three UK prospective population-based cohorts.

Depressive symptoms in adolescence and adult educational and employment outcomes: A structured life course analysis (2024)
Journal Article
López-López, J., Tilling, K., Pearson, R., Fazel, M., Washbrook, E., Zhu, Y., …Smith, A. (in press). Depressive symptoms in adolescence and adult educational and employment outcomes: A structured life course analysis. Psychological Medicine,

Depression is a common mental health disorder which often starts during adolescence, with potentially important future consequences including ‘Not in Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET) status. In this study, we took a structured life course mo... Read More about Depressive symptoms in adolescence and adult educational and employment outcomes: A structured life course analysis.

Ambulance clinicians implementing evidence-based practice: Mind the gap! Attitudes, perceptions and experiences of student paramedics (2023)
Journal Article
Newton, J., & Smith, A. (2023). Ambulance clinicians implementing evidence-based practice: Mind the gap! Attitudes, perceptions and experiences of student paramedics. British Paramedic Journal, 8(3), 11-19. https://doi.org/10.29045/14784726.2023.12.8.3.11

Background: Evidence-based practice (EBP) represents the conscientious and judicious use of the best contemporaneous evidence in partnership with patient values and clinical expertise to guide healthcare professionals. As a result, EBP is a recommend... Read More about Ambulance clinicians implementing evidence-based practice: Mind the gap! Attitudes, perceptions and experiences of student paramedics.

Association between the timing of childhood adversity and epigenetic patterns across childhood and adolescence: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) prospective cohort (2023)
Journal Article
Lussier, A. A., Zhu, Y., Smith, B. J., Cerutti, J., Fisher, J., Melton, P., …Dunn, E. C. (2023). Association between the timing of childhood adversity and epigenetic patterns across childhood and adolescence: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) prospective cohort. Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, 7(8), 532-543. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642%2823%2900127-X

Background: Childhood adversity is a potent determinant of health across development and is associated with altered DNA methylation signatures, which might be more common in children exposed during sensitive periods in development. However, it remain... Read More about Association between the timing of childhood adversity and epigenetic patterns across childhood and adolescence: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) prospective cohort.

Home and epigenome: How DNA methylation could explain the association between housing quality and depression (2023)
Journal Article
Sanders, F., Baltramonaityte, V., Alexander, L., Smith, A., Dunn, E., & Walton, E. (2023). Home and epigenome: How DNA methylation could explain the association between housing quality and depression. Neuroscience Applied, 2(Supplement 1), Article 101111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nsa.2023.101111

Poor housing quality is a consistent risk factor for mental health problems. Despite the large body of evidence for housing’s relationship with mental health, housing quality as an environmental stressor has not yet been investigated with regards to... Read More about Home and epigenome: How DNA methylation could explain the association between housing quality and depression.

Sensitive periods for the effect of child maltreatment on psychopathology symptoms in adolescence (2023)
Journal Article
Dunn, E. C., Busso, D. S., Davis, K. A., Smith, A. D. A. C., Mitchell, C., Tiemeier, H., & Susser, E. S. (2023). Sensitive periods for the effect of child maltreatment on psychopathology symptoms in adolescence. Complex Psychiatry, 9(1-4), 145-153. https://doi.org/10.1159/000530120

Introduction: Child maltreatment is among the strongest risk factors for mental disorders. However, little is known about whether there are ages when children may be especially vulnerable to its effects. We sought to identify potential sensitive peri... Read More about Sensitive periods for the effect of child maltreatment on psychopathology symptoms in adolescence.

Testing lifecourse theories characterising associations between maternal depression and offspring depression in emerging adulthood: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (2022)
Journal Article
Lacey, R. E., Gondek, D., Smith, B. J., Smith, A. D., Dunn, E. C., & Sacker, A. (2023). Testing lifecourse theories characterising associations between maternal depression and offspring depression in emerging adulthood: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 64(8), 1149-1158. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13699

Background: Maternal depression is a major determinant of offspring mental health. Yet, little is understood about how the duration and timing of maternal depression shapes youth risk for depressive symptoms, which if understood could inform when bes... Read More about Testing lifecourse theories characterising associations between maternal depression and offspring depression in emerging adulthood: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Socioeconomic changes predict genome-wide DNA methylation in childhood (2022)
Journal Article
Liu, J., Cerutti, J., Lussier, A. A., Zhu, Y., Smith, B. J., Smith, A. D. A. C., & Dunn, E. C. (2023). Socioeconomic changes predict genome-wide DNA methylation in childhood. Human Molecular Genetics, 32(5), 709-719. https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddac171

Childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) is a major determinant of health and well-being across the entire life course. To effectively prevent and reduce health risks related to SEP, it is critical to better understand when and under what circumstances... Read More about Socioeconomic changes predict genome-wide DNA methylation in childhood.

Examining the epigenetic mechanisms of childhood adversity and sensitive periods: A gene set-based approach (2022)
Journal Article
Zhu, Y., Lussier, A. A., Smith, A. D. A. C., Simpkin, A. J., Suderman, M. J., Walton, E., …Dunn, E. C. (2022). Examining the epigenetic mechanisms of childhood adversity and sensitive periods: A gene set-based approach. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 144(October 2022), 105854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105854

Background: Sensitive periods are developmental stages of heightened plasticity when life experiences, including exposure to childhood adversity, have the potential to exert more lasting impacts. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation (DNAm... Read More about Examining the epigenetic mechanisms of childhood adversity and sensitive periods: A gene set-based approach.

Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood adversity on DNA methylation: Updated results from a prospective, longitudinal study (2022)
Journal Article
Lussier, A. A., Zhu, Y., Smith, B. J., Simpkin, A. J., Smith, A. D. A. C., Suderman, M. J., …Dunn, E. C. (2023). Sensitive periods for the effect of childhood adversity on DNA methylation: Updated results from a prospective, longitudinal study. Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, 3(3), 567-571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2022.04.002

Association between measures derived from children's primary exfoliated teeth and psychopathology symptoms: Results from a community-based study (2022)
Journal Article
Dunn, E. C., Mountain, R. V., Davis, K. A., Shaffer, I., Smith, A. D. A. C., Roubinov, D. S., …Boyce, W. T. (2022). Association between measures derived from children's primary exfoliated teeth and psychopathology symptoms: Results from a community-based study. Frontiers in Dental Medicine, 3, Article 803364. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdmed.2022.803364

Mental disorders are among the most disabling health conditions globally. However, there remains a lack of valid, reliable, noninvasive, and inexpensive biomarkers to identify (at an early age) people who are at the greatest risk of experiencing a fu... Read More about Association between measures derived from children's primary exfoliated teeth and psychopathology symptoms: Results from a community-based study.

Updates to data versions and analytic methods influence the reproducibility of results from epigenome-wide association studies (2022)
Journal Article
Lussier, A. A., Zhu, Y., Smith, B. J., Simpkin, A. J., Smith, A. D., Suderman, M. J., …Dunn, E. C. (2022). Updates to data versions and analytic methods influence the reproducibility of results from epigenome-wide association studies. Epigenetics, https://doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2022.2028072

Introduction: Biomedical research has grown increasingly cooperative through the sharing of consortia-level epigenetic data. Since consortia preprocess data prior to distribution, new processing pipelines can lead to different versions of the same d... Read More about Updates to data versions and analytic methods influence the reproducibility of results from epigenome-wide association studies.

2008 financial crisis versus 2020 economic fallout: How COVID-19 might influence fertility treatment and live births (2021)
Journal Article
Gromski, P. S., Smith, A. D., Lawlor, D. A., Sharara, F. I., & Nelson, S. M. (2021). 2008 financial crisis versus 2020 economic fallout: How COVID-19 might influence fertility treatment and live births. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 42(6), 1087-1096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2021.03.017

Research question The economic and reproductive medicine response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the USA has reduced the affordability and accessibility of fertility care. What is the impact of the 2008 financial recession an... Read More about 2008 financial crisis versus 2020 economic fallout: How COVID-19 might influence fertility treatment and live births.

A structured approach to evaluating life course hypotheses: Moving beyond analyses of exposed versus unexposed in the omics context (2020)
Journal Article
Zhu, Y., Simpkin, A. J., Suderman, M. J., Lussier, A. A., Walton, E., Dunn, E. C., & Smith, A. D. A. C. (2021). A structured approach to evaluating life course hypotheses: Moving beyond analyses of exposed versus unexposed in the omics context. American Journal of Epidemiology, 190(6), 1101-1112. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa246

The structured life course modeling approach (SLCMA) is a theory-driven analytic method that empirically compares multiple prespecified life course hypotheses characterizing time-dependent exposure-outcome relationships to determine which theory best... Read More about A structured approach to evaluating life course hypotheses: Moving beyond analyses of exposed versus unexposed in the omics context.

Exposure to early childhood maltreatment and its effect over time on social cognition (2020)
Journal Article
Crawford, K. M., Choi, K., Davis, K. A., Zhu, Y., Soare, T. W., Smith, A. D., …Dunn, E. C. (2022). Exposure to early childhood maltreatment and its effect over time on social cognition. Development and Psychopathology, 34(1), 409 - 419. https://doi.org/10.1017/s095457942000139x

Social cognitive deficits can have many negative consequences, spanning social withdrawal to psychopathology. Prior work has shown that child maltreatment may associate with poorer social cognitive skills in later life. However, no studies have exami... Read More about Exposure to early childhood maltreatment and its effect over time on social cognition.

The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? (2020)
Journal Article
Crawford, K. M., Zhu, Y., Davis, K. A., Ernst, S., Jacobsson, K., Nishimi, K., …Dunn, E. C. (2021). The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 1547–1558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01594-5

Pet ownership is common. Growing evidence suggests children form deep emotional attachments to their pets. Yet, little is known about children’s emotional reactions to a pet’s death. The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between exp... Read More about The mental health effects of pet death during childhood: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?.

Population implications of cessation of IVF during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020)
Journal Article
Smith, A. D., Gromski, P. S., Al Rashid, K., Tilling, K., Lawlor, D. A., & Nelson, S. M. (2020). Population implications of cessation of IVF during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 41(3), 428-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2020.07.002

Research question: Discontinuation of IVF cycles has been part of the radical transformation of healthcare provision to enable reallocation of staff and resources to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to estimate the impact of cessati... Read More about Population implications of cessation of IVF during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Live birth rates and perinatal outcomes when all embryos are frozen compared with conventional fresh and frozen embryo transfer: a cohort study of 337,148 in vitro fertilisation cycles (2019)
Journal Article
Smith, A., Tilling, K., Lawlor, D. A., & Nelson, S. M. (2019). Live birth rates and perinatal outcomes when all embryos are frozen compared with conventional fresh and frozen embryo transfer: a cohort study of 337,148 in vitro fertilisation cycles. BMC Medicine, 17(1), Article 202. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1429-z

BACKGROUND: It is not known whether segmentation of an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycle, with freezing of all embryos prior to transfer, increases the chance of a live birth after all embryos are transferred. METHODS: In a prospective study of UK H... Read More about Live birth rates and perinatal outcomes when all embryos are frozen compared with conventional fresh and frozen embryo transfer: a cohort study of 337,148 in vitro fertilisation cycles.

Adversity exposure during sensitive periods predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in children (2019)
Journal Article
Marini, S., Davis, K. A., Soare, T. W., Zhu, Y., Suderman, M. J., Simpkin, A. J., …Dunn, E. C. (2020). Adversity exposure during sensitive periods predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in children. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 113, Article 104484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.104484

Objectives: Exposure to adversity has been linked to accelerated biological aging, which in turn has been shown to predict numerous physical and mental health problems. In recent years, measures of DNA methylation-based epigenetic age––known as “epig... Read More about Adversity exposure during sensitive periods predicts accelerated epigenetic aging in children.

Adolescent body dissatisfaction and disordered eating: Predictors of later risky health behaviours (2019)
Journal Article
Bornioli, A., Lewis-Smith, H., Smith, A., Slater, A., & Bray, I. (2019). Adolescent body dissatisfaction and disordered eating: Predictors of later risky health behaviours. Social Science and Medicine, 238, Article 112458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112458

Rationale Body dissatisfaction is prevalent among teenagers, and may influence the uptake of risky health behaviours. Objective The study assessed the influence of body dissatisfaction on smoking, cannabis use, drug use, self-harm, gambling, and... Read More about Adolescent body dissatisfaction and disordered eating: Predictors of later risky health behaviours.