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Room
Gartensaal
Friday, September 14  »  8:45 - 10:00
Symposium 14
The Swiss Etiological Study of Adjustment and Mental Health (sesam)
Host
Roselind Lieb (University of Basel)
Chair
Roselind Lieb (University of Basel)
Discussant
Mike Martin (University of Zurich)
The enormous costs as well as the massive individual impact of mental disturbances make it imperative to understand the pre-disease pathways leading to the development of mental disorders and maladjustment. The NCCR sesam (Swiss Etiological Study of Adjustment and Mental Health) aims to open the door to a breakthrough in understanding the etiology and development of mental health and adjustment to the social, psychological, and biological environments in which we live. Sesam adresses the complex multi-directional interactions of psychosocial and biological variables across time and between generations. Beginning with pregnancy and including the entire “risk period” for the development of most mental disorders, a large non-treatment population sample of 3,000 children will be followed over 20 years together with their parents and grandparents at multiple sites in Switzerland. By adding in a subproject an experimental manipulation of the nurture component of the assumed etiological factors (i.e., preventive intervention modules in defined high-risk subjects), causal understanding will be enhanced. Sesam will yield a valuable data pool for scientists, public policy developers, and the future generation. In this symposium, the different research perspectives of sesam will be highlighted and discussed by members of the sesam team.
Speakers
Silvia Schneider
Sleeping-, feeding-, crying- and fussing behavior of infants: comparison of electronic and paper-and-pencil diaries
Authors
Silvia Schneider (University of Basel )
Silvana Müller (University of Basel )
Katrin Bruchmüller (University of Basel)

An individual project within sesam assesses how accurate parents remember important life events of their children, such as sleeping-, feeding-, crying- and fussing behavior, during their course of development. Paper-and-pencil diaries as well as electronic diaries are used as methods of assessment of infant behavior.
Until recently, paper-and-pencil diaries were used for data collection. However, within the last 10 years, electronic diaries became more prevalent, especially since this method of assessment can lead to a decrease of retrospection errors and an increase of compliance. In a pilot study both methods of assessment are compared in terms of their compatibility of assessing infant behavior. The goal of this study is to compare the validity, the acceptance, and the feasibility of paper-and-pencil diaries as well as electronic diaries. 120 German-speaking women with an infant at the age of 6 months will be asked to complete a paper-and-pencil diary and an electronic diary within a time frame of three days. Additionally, as an objective method of assessement, actigraphs will be used for obtaining information about the infants and mothers sleep/wake pattern. First results of the pilot study and their implications will be presented and discussed.
Gunther Meinlschmidt
The biological perspective on sesam
Authors
Gunther Meinlschmidt (University of Basel)
The biological research perspective within sesam shines light on the development of mental health and mental disorders from three directions. 1) We will assess biological environmental exposures that affect the child and its family, 2) within the framework of “developmental programming”, we will examine biological systems that are involved in mediating vulnerability for or resilience against mental disorders, and 3) we will look at long-term biological outcomes, especially those related to mental disorders and psychosomatic illnesses.
We expect to be able to identify and specify psychobiological components that are involved in the three processes outlined above and their interactions with the sociological and psychological perspectives. A specific focus of the biological perspective of sesam will be to describe the interaction between genes and environment, especially at the level of epigenetic changes.
Within this presentation, we give a brief overview of the biological perspective of sesam, illustrated by selected research questions and applied methods. Moreover, we discuss theoretical, practical, and ethical challenges of biological assessments within a multi-center longitudinal cohort study.
Christopher Pryce
From neuropathology of depression to long-term effects of early life stress in monkeys, and back again
Authors
Christopher Pryce (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
Dimitrula Arabadzisz (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
Irene Knuesel (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
Joram Feldon (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
Paul Harrison (University of Oxford (UK))
Qi Pei (University of Oxford (UK))
Amanda Law (University of Oxford (UK))
Rochellys Diaz-Heijtz (Karolinska Institute (S))
To test the hypothesis that the brain-region specific reduced levels of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), the serotonin 1A receptor (5HTR1A), and of pre- and post-synaptic markers, described for depressed patients are causally important in the disease, neuroanatomical studies were conducted in young adult marmoset monkeys. These monkeys had experienced moderate social separation stress in infancy, and exhibited moderate phenotypes of reduced interest in reward, increased blood pressure and increased HPA activity. Relative to their sibling controls, the early life stressed monkeys exhibited reduced GR expression in the hippocampus, reduced 5HT1A in the hippocampus, reduced GAP-43 in the hippocampus and reduced spinophilin in the subgenual cortex. In addition, mineralocorticoid receptor expression was reduced in the neocortex. In terms of the regional specificity, direction and magnitude of these effects, the findings in the monkey model are very strikingly similar to the human neuropathology evidence. They provide strong translational evidence that reduced expression of GR, 5HT1A, GAP-43, spinophilin, and MR, are causally involved in depression, and therefore important targets for its treatment.
David A. Coall
Primacy of the maternal grandmother: An evolutionary analysis of grandparent-grandchild relationships in Switzerland
Authors
David A. Coall (University of Basel )
Barbara Marti (University of Basel )
Ralph Hertwig (University of Basel )
Michaela Wänke (University of Basel )
François Höpflinger (University of Zurich)

Recent demographic changes in life expectancy have greatly increased the opportunity for grandparents and grandchildren to develop meaningful relationships. However, as in any relationship great variability exists in the role grandparents play in their grandchildren’s lives. An evolutionary life history theory perspective proposes that the quality of grandparent-grandchild relationships should vary according to their genetic relationship, sex-specific reproductive strategies and paternity certainty. Data from 1,759 Swiss grandchildren (12-16 years of age) were used to examine whether grandparent-grandchild relationships varied systematically according to lineage (maternal vs. paternal) and gender (grandfather vs. grandmother) of the grandparent. Each grandchild completed self-report questionnaires examining the nature of their relationships with each of their living grandparents including the frequency of contact, value of relationship, activities they shared, and how much care they received from the grandparent. A consistent influence of lineage was found: grandchildren reported greater value in their relationship, more shared activities and greater contact with their mother’s parents compared with their father’s parents. There was little evidence that relationships with grandmothers were rated more highly than those with grandfathers. The most robust finding across all analyses was the important role maternal grandmothers play in the lives of their grandchildren.
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