Aleix Solanes

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Researcher at Consorci Institut D'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi I Sunyer

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex psychiatric disorder that affects the lives of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe. Even today, researchers debate if morphological alterations in the brain are linked to MDD, likely due to the heterogeneity of this disorder. The application of deep learning tools to neuroimaging data, c...

Objective: To identify the COVID-19 impact on well-being/mental health, coping strategies and risk factors in adolescent worldwide. Method: Anonymous online multi-national/language survey in the general population (representative/weighted non-representative samples, 14-17years), measuring change in well-being (WHO-5/range=0-100) and psychopathology...

There is no multi-country/multi-language study testing a-priori multivariable associations between non-modifiable/modifiable factors and validated wellbeing/multidimensional mental health outcomes before/during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, studies during COVID-19 pandemic generally do not report on representative/weighted non-probability sample...

Background and Hypothesis This umbrella review aims to comprehensively synthesize the evidence of association between peripheral, electrophysiological, neuroimaging, neuropathological, and other biomarkers and diagnosis of psychotic disorders. Study Design We selected systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies on diagnostic biom...

The age of onset in psychosis (AOP) has been of particular interest in research due to its association with the prognosis and expression of psychotic disorders. There is a lack of research concerning the influence of environmental factors such as stressful life events or exposure to traumatic events on AOP, especially among non-refugee immigrants....

Background Bipolar disorder is highly prevalent and consists of biphasic recurrent mood episodes of mania and depression, which translate into altered mood, sleep and activity alongside their physiological expressions. AimsThe IdenTifying dIgital bioMarkers of illnEss activity and treatment response in BipolAr diSordEr with a novel wearable device...

Introduction Beyond mood abnormalities, bipolar disorder (BD) includes cognitive impairments that worsen psychosocial functioning and quality of life. These deficits are especially severe in older adults with BD (OABD), a condition expected to represent most individuals with BD in the upcoming years. Restoring the psychosocial functioning of this p...

International studies measuring wellbeing/multidimensional mental health before/ during the COVID-19 pandemic, including representative samples for >2 years, identifying risk groups and coping strategies are lacking. COH-FIT is an online, international, anonymous survey measuring changes in well-being (WHO-5) and a composite psychopathology P-score...

Stimulants, such as methylphenidate (MPH), are effective in treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but there is individual variability in response, especially in adults. To improve outcomes, we need to understand the factors associated with adult treatment response. This longitudinal study investigated whether pre-treatment anato...

Background: Depressive and manic episodes within bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) involve altered mood, sleep, and activity alongside physiological alterations that wearables can capture. Objective: We explored whether physiological wearable data could predict: (aim 1) the severity of an acute affective episode at the in...

The relationship between brain diffusion microstructural changes and disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains poorly understood. We aimed to explore the predictive value of microstructural properties in white (WM) and grey matter (GM), and identify areas associated with mid-term disability in MS patients. We studied 185 patients (71% female; 8...

Objective Umbrella reviews are a new form of literature review that summarises the strength and/or quality of the evidence from all systematic reviews and meta-analyses conducted on a broad topic. This type of review thus provides an exhaustive examination of a vast body of information, providing the highest synthesis of knowledge. A critical stren...

Introduction: Estimating the risk of manic relapse could help the psychiatrist individually adjust the treatment to the risk. Some authors have attempted to estimate this risk from baseline clinical data. Still, no studies have assessed whether the estimation could improve by adding structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. We aimed to eval...

BACKGROUND Depressive and manic episodes within bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) involve altered mood, sleep, and activity, alongside physiological alterations wearables can capture. OBJECTIVE Firstly, we explored whether physiological wearable data could predict (aim 1) the severity of an acute affective episode at the in...

Background: The Collaborative Outcome study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT; www.coh-fit.com) is an anonymous and global online survey measuring health and functioning during COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to test concurrently the validity of COH-FIT items and the internal validity of the co-primary outcome,...

Multisite machine-learning neuroimaging studies need to remove the differences between sites to avoid effects of the site (EoS) that may either prevent or fraudulently help the creation of prediction models, leading to impoverished or inflated prediction accuracy. However, we have shown earlier that current Methods Aiming to Remove the EoS (MAREoS,...

Introduction: There has been an increase in the prescription of antidepressants (AD) in primary care (PC). However, it is unclear whether this was explained by a rise in diagnoses with an indication for AD. We investigated the changes in frequency and the variables associated with AD prescription in Catalonia, Spain. Methods: We retrieved AD pre...

Background: Preliminary evidence suggests that psychological trauma, especially childhood trauma, is a risk factor for the onset of fibromyalgia (FM). Objective: The main objective of this study consisted of evaluating the prevalence and detailed characteristics of psychological trauma in a sample of patients with FM, the chronology of trauma ac...

Detecting patients at high relapse risk after the first episode of psychosis (HRR-FEP) could help the clinician adjust the preventive treatment. To develop a tool to detect patients at HRR using their baseline clinical and structural MRI, we followed 227 patients with FEP for 18–24 months and applied MRIPredict. We previously optimized the MRI-base...

Background: A significant proportion of people attending Primary Care (PC) have anxiety-depressive symptoms and work-related burnout compounded by a lack of resources to meet their needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem and digital tools have been proposed as a solution. Objective: We present the development, feasibility, and...

Introduction Mood episodes in bipolar disorder (BD) are still identified with subjective retrospective reports and scales. Digital biomarkers, such as actigraphy, heart rate variability, or ElectroDermal activity (EDA) have demonstrated their potential to objectively capture illness activity. Objectives To identify physiological digital signatures...

The relationship between brain diffusion microstructural changes and disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains poorly understood. We aimed to explore the predictive value of microstructural properties in white (WM) and grey matter (GM), and identify areas associated with mid-term disability in MS patients. We studied 185 patients with the Expan...

Introduction: The wide range of psychosocial interventions designed to assist people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) makes it challenging to compile and hierarchize the scientific evidence that supports the efficacy of these interventions. Thus, we performed an umbrella review of published meta-analyses of controlled clinical trials that inves...

In the last decades, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and artificial intelligence (AI) have invested much effort in creating models that predict whether an MRI scan comes from a patient or control. This body of research represents a welcome proof-of-concept of the potential utility of MRI-based AI. In addition, it could be the base for MRI-ba...

Introduction The neural correlates of the cognitive dysfunction in first-episode psychosis (FEP) are still unclear. The present review and meta-analysis provide an update of the location of the abnormalities in the fMRI-measured brain response to cognitive processes in individuals with FEP. Methods Systematic review and voxel-based meta-analysis o...

Objectives: After an acute ischemic stroke, patients with a large CT perfusion (CTP) predicted infarct core (pIC) have poor clinical outcome. However, previous research suggests that this relationship may be relevant for subgroups of patients determined by pretreatment and treatment-related variables while negligible for others. We aimed to identi...

Background: . High-quality comprehensive data on short-/long-term physical/mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are needed. Methods: . The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT) is an international, multi-language (n=30) project involving >230 investigators from 49 countries/territories/re...

Background In mental health, comorbidities are the norm rather than the exception. However, current meta-analytic methods for summarizing the neural correlates of mental disorders do not consider comorbidities, reducing them to a source of noise and bias rather than benefitting from their valuable information. Objectives We describe and validate a...

Background . High-quality comprehensive data on short-/long-term physical/mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are needed. Methods . The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT) is an international, multi-language (n=30) project involving >230 investigators from 49 countries/territories/regi...

Objective: Previous studies have shown that meteorological factors may increase COVID-19 mortality, likely due to the increased transmission of the virus. However, this could also be related to an increased infection fatality rate (IFR). We investigated the association between meteorological factors (temperature, humidity, solar irradiance, pressu...

(1) Background: The evolution and predictors of cognitive impairment (CI) in multiple sclerosis (MS) are poorly understood. We aimed to define the temporal dynamics of cognition throughout the disease course and identify clinical and neuroimaging measures that predict CI. (2) Methods: This paper features a longitudinal study with 212 patients who u...

250/250 Background : The COVID-19 pandemic has altered daily routines and family functioning, led to closing schools, and dramatically limited social interactions worldwide. Measuring its impact on mental health of vulnerable children and adolescents is crucial. Methods : The Collaborative Outcome study on Health and Functioning during Infection...

Background While multiple studies have examined the brain functional correlates of reward, meta-analyses have either focused on studies using the monetary incentive delay (MID) task, or have adopted a broad strategy, combining data from studies using both monetary and non-monetary reward, as probed using a wide range of tasks. Objective To meta-an...

Background: . High-quality comprehensive data on short-/long-term physical/mental health effects of the COVID�19 pandemic are needed. Methods: . The Collaborative Outcomes study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times (COH-FIT) is an international, multi-language (n=30) project involving >230 investigators from 49 countries/territories/r...

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown might increase anxiety and depressive symptoms in most individuals. Health bodies recommend several coping behaviors to protect against such symptoms, but evidence on the relationship between these behaviors and symptoms mostly comes from cross-sectional studies in convenienc...

Visual hallucinations (VH) are common in Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, two forms of Lewy body disease (LBD), but the neural substrates and mechanisms involved are still unclear. We conducted meta-analyses of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and neuropsychological studies investigating the neuroanatomical and cognitive correlates o...

Brain MRI researchers conducting multisite studies, such as within the ENIGMA Consortium, are very aware of the importance of controlling the effects of the site (EoS) in the statistical analysis. Conversely, authors of the novel machine-learning MRI studies may remove the EoS when training the machine-learning models but not control them when esti...

We examined bipolar disorder (BD) as a risk factor for developing cancer and the role of lithium on cancer incidence. We conducted two systematic review and meta-analyses of population-based studies providing data on these associations. We screened articles indexed in MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and PsycINFO up to August 2020. The first random-effects...

Background: About 30 to 50% of Primary Care (PC) users in Spain suffer mental health problems, mostly mild to moderate anxious and depressive symptoms, which account for 2% of Spain's total Gross domestic product and 50% of the costs associated to all mental disorders. Mobile health tools have demonstrated to cost-effectively reduce anxious and de...

Introduction Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to being satisfied with one's life, having positive affect and having little negative affect. We may understand it as a subjective definition of good life, or in colloquial terms “happiness”, and it has been associated with several important benefits such as lower mortality. In the last decades, sever...

Introduction Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to being satisfied with one's life, having positive affect and having little negative affect. We may understand it as a subjective definition of good life, or in colloquial terms “happiness”, and it has been associated with several important benefits such as lower mortality. In the last decades, sever...

Introduction: The neural correlates of the cognitive dysfunction in first-episode psychosis (FEP) are still unclear. The present review and meta-analysis provide an update of the location of the abnormalities in the fMRI-measured brain response to cognitive processes in individuals with FEP. Methods: Systematic review and voxel-based meta-analys...

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging can reveal quantitative information about the tissue changes in multiple sclerosis. The recently developed multi-compartment spherical mean technique can map different microscopic properties based only on local diffusion signals, and it may provide specific information on the underlying microstructural modificat...

Psychological trauma has been identified in substance use disorders (SUD) as a major etiological risk factor. However, detailed and systematic data about the prevalence and types of psychological trauma in dual disorders have been scarce to date. In this study, 150 inpatients were recruited and cross-sectionally screened on their substance use seve...

A common limitation of neuroimaging studies is their small sample sizes. To overcome this hurdle, the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium combines neuroimaging data from many institutions worldwide. However, this introduces heterogeneity due to different scanning devices and sequences. ENIGMA projects commonly...

Background Positive symptoms are a useful predictor of aggression in schizophrenia. Although a similar pattern of abnormal brain structures related to both positive symptoms and aggression has been reported, this observation has not yet been confirmed in a single sample. Method To study the association between positive symptoms and aggression in s...

Approximately one third of individuals who experience a severe traumatic event will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is crucial to identify what factors may be associated with increased or decreased risk for PTSD. We conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of risk/protective factors for PTSD and assessed...

Background: A multitude of risk/protective factors for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders have been proposed. We conducted an umbrella review to summarize the evidence of the associations between risk/protective factors and each of the following disorders: specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disord...

Patients with mental diseases have an increased prevalence of abnormalities in midline brain structures. One of these abnormalities is the cavum septum pellucidum (CSP), which occurs when the septum pellucidum fails to fuse. The detection and study of these brain abnor- malities in Magnetic Resonance Imaging requires a tedious and time- consuming p...

Published studies in Medicine (and virtually any other discipline) sometimes report that a difference or correlation did not reach statistical significance but do not report its effect size or any statistic from which the latter may be derived. Unfortunately, meta-analysts should not exclude these studies because their exclusion would bias the meta...

Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with deficits in both temporal and salience processing. The underlying neurological dysfunctions in both processes, which are interrelated and share neuroanatomical bases, remain poorly understood. The principal objective of this study was to elucidate whether there are any brain regions that show abnormal response...

Coordinate-based meta-analyses (CBMA) are very useful for summarizing the large number of voxel-based neuroimaging studies of normal brain functions and brain abnormalities in neuropsychiatric disorders. However, current CBMA methods do not conduct common voxelwise tests, but rather a test of convergence, which relies on some spatial assumptions th...

A relatively large number of studies have investigated the power of structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data to discriminate patients with schizophrenia from healthy controls. However, very few of them have also included patients with bipolar disorder, allowing the clinically relevant discrimination between both psychotic diagnostics. To a...

Results from comparing average-over-feature accuracies in the three group pairs. (DOC)

Description of learning algorithms. (DOC)