Ellen Greimel

• PhD
• Group Leader at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich

Background Rejection sensitivity (RS) has widely been considered unidimensional: the product sum of elevated (i) concern and (ii) expectation of rejection in social situations. Recent research suggests that rejection concern and expectancy are distinct constructs. This study aims to explore the role of Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) as a mediat...

Objective: To explore which cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) self-help app usage predicted depression during a selective prevention trial. Method: A recent controlled trial (ECoWeB-PREVENT) randomized young people aged 16–22, at increased risk for depression because of elevated worry/rumination, negative appraisals, and/or rejection sensitivity b...

Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a variant of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), is an established treatment for adults with major depressive disorder (MDD). Due to its favorable safety profile, iTBS is also a promising early intervention in the transition phase from adolescence to early adulthood, but this has not bee...

Introduction Early recognition and indicated prevention is a promising approach to decrease the incidence of Major depressive episodes (MDE), targeting the patients during their clinical high-risk state of MDE (CHR-D). The identification of a set of stressors at the CHR-D increases the success of indicated prevention with personalized early interve...

Hintergrund BioMD-Y ist eine umfassende Biobankstudie zu Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Depression und gesunden Kontrollen in München. Sie erhebt ein breites Spektrum an biologischen, klinischen und psychosozialen Aspekten von den Teilnehmenden und ihren Eltern, um genetische und umweltbedingte Risiko- und Schutzfaktoren für die Depression bei Kinder...

Bei Jugendlichen mit Depression werden mit einer Häufigkeit von bis zu 71 % Veränderungen des Schlafes berichtet. In dieser narrativen Übersichtsarbeit werden chronobiologische und schlafmedizinische Aspekte bei Depressionen im Jugendalter basierend auf der aktuellen Forschungsliteratur zusammenfassend dargestellt. Die circadiane Uhr des Menschen e...

Purpose: BioMD-Y is a comprehensive biobank study of children and adolescents with major depression (MD) and their healthy peers in Germany, collecting a host of both biological and psychosocial information from the participants and their parents with the aim of exploring genetic and environmental risk and protective factors for MD in children and...

Emotion regulation (ER) often is impaired in current or remitted major depression (MD), although the extent of the deficits is not fully understood. Recent studies suggest that frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) could be a promising electrophysiological measure to investigate ER. The purpose of this study was to investigate ER differences between partic...

Research shows the important role of parents’ mental health literacy in detecting depressive symptoms and supporting their children to seek professional help. Improving mental health literacy in parents has recently gained even greater importance due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents’ mental health. The aim...

Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) are thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of major depression (MD) in adolescents. In healthy adults, a task-based training of ER has previously proven effective to reduce stress, but no such studies are available for MD. It is also unclear whether findings can be generalized onto adolescen...

Depressive disorders are a main cause of disability-adjusted life years already in children and adolescents, in whom the clinical picture somewhat differs from adult-onset depression. Thus, we studied sociodemographic and clinical predictors of depression/dysthymia in a sample of minors. Our baseline sample (N=676) included patients at clinical hig...

Major Depression (MD) is a leading cause of global disease burden, and both experimental and population-based studies suggest that differences in DNA methylation (DNAm) may be associated with the condition. However, previous DNAm studies have not so far been widely replicated, suggesting a need for larger meta-analysis studies. In the present study...

Theoretical Background: Youth with major depressive disorder often do not receive appropriate treatment. Furthermore, evidence-based, highly acceptable, and easily accessible information about depression and its treatment along with services as a complementary strategy to professional treatment is needed for young people seeking help for depression...

Background: Adolescent major depression (MD) is characterized by deficits in emotion regulation (ER). Little is known about the neurophysiological correlates that are associated with these deficits. Moreover, the additional examination of visual attention during ER would allow a more in-depth understanding of ER deficits but has not yet been appli...

Background Prediction of mental disorders based on neuroimaging is an emerging area of research with promising first results in adults. However, research on the unique demographic of children is underrepresented and it is doubtful whether findings obtained on adults can be transferred to children. Methods Using data from 6916 children aged 9–10 in...

Background Adolescents with depression often show barriers to seek treatment offers due to various reasons, including limited knowledge about the manifestation of the disorder, its treatment options, or fear of stigmatization. Psychoeducational approaches might reduce these barriers by increasing depression literacy. The aim of the present randomiz...

Zusammenfassung Die Ursachen depressiver Erkrankungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter sind bislang noch nicht ausreichend erforscht. Ein umfangreiches Verständnis der Ätiologie depressiver Störungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter ist jedoch von zentraler Bedeutung, um neue und altersspezifische Ansätze zur Prävention und Intervention zu entwickeln und beste...

During the corona pandemic, youths were confronted with substantial challenges and in urgent need of information on how to prevent mental health problems. This experimental pre-post-follow-up study examined the efficacy and reception of an innovative website (www.corona-und-du.info) containing evidence-based information for youths on how to overcom...

Introduction Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in adolescence, highlighting the need for early identification of precursors. Research into psychopathological symptoms predicting depressive psychopathology in adolescents is therefore of great relevance. Moreover, given that the prevalence of depressive symptomatology in adolescence shows mark...

Background Individuals with major depression have difficulties employing cognitive reappraisal. Most prior studies have not accounted for attentional deployment, which seems to be involved in this process. Methods We investigated the cognitive reappraisal tactic reinterpretation in 20 depressed and 28 healthy youths and assessed regulation success...

In adolescence, both major depression (MD) and anorexia nervosa (AN) are associated with deficits in emotion regulation (ER). However, studies have yet to compare ER profiles within the disorders and the effect of comorbid MD+AN is unclear. This study examined the habitual use of ER in 229 girls, aged 12–18 years, with MD (n = 84), AN (n = 37), com...

Adolescent major depression (MD) is associated with impaired emotion regulation. However, results on cognitive reappraisal (CR) are mixed. Investigation of gaze behavior during CR allows a more thorough understanding of intact and deviant CR processes in MD. These studies examined for the first time the role of visual attention during CR in MD. We...

Substantial sex differences have been reported in the physiological response to stress at multiple levels, including the release of the stress hormone, cortisol. Here, we explore the genomic variants in 93 females and 196 males regulating the initial transcriptional response to cortisol via glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation. Gene expression l...

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Bedingt durch die Coronapandemie besteht für Kinder, Jugendliche und deren Eltern ein großer Informationsbedarf, wie sie mit den neuen Herausforderungen im Alltag, der Schule und der Familie gut umgehen können. Um die spezifischen Bedarfe dieser Zielgruppen zu adressieren, hat die Klinik und Poliklinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiat...

Contemporary cognitive models of depression propose that cognitive biases for negative information at the level of attention (attention biases; AB) and interpretation (interpretation biases; IB) increase depression risk by promoting maladaptive emotion regulation (ER). So far, empirical support testing interactions between these variables is restri...

Reward and punishment processing are subject to substantial developmental changes during youth. However, little is known about the neurophysiological correlates that are associated with these developmental changes, particularly with regard to both anticipatory and outcome processing stages. Thus, the aim of this study was to address this research g...

Substantial sex differences have been reported in the physiological response to stress at multiple levels, including the release of the stress hormone, cortisol. Here, we explore the genomic variants in 93 females and 196 males regulating the initial transcriptional response to cortisol via glucocorticoid receptor (GR) activation. Gene expression l...

Background Promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people is a major global priority. Building emotional competence (EC) skills via a mobile app may be an effective, scalable and acceptable way to do this. However, few large-scale controlled trials have examined the efficacy of mobile apps in promoting mental health in youn...

Introduction: Major depression (MD) often has its onset during adolescence and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. One important factor for the development and maintenance of adolescent MD are disturbances in emotion regulation and the underlying neural processes. Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is a particular adaptive emotion regu...

Background: A deficit in empathy has repeatedly been described in individuals with conduct disorder (CD), and in particular in those with callous unemotional traits. Until now, little is known about the neural basis of empathy in children and adolescents with early onset conduct disorder. The aim of this study was to examine neural responses during...

Background: Severe adverse life events, such as traumatic experiences, are well-known stressors implicated in (youth) major depression (MD). However, to date, far less is known about the role of more common psychosocial stressors in the context of MD, which are part of everyday life during youth. In addition, it is not well-understood whether and...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a prevalent and fast-growing pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder worldwide. Despite the increasing prevalence of ASD and the breadth of research conducted on the disorder, a conclusive etiology has yet to be established and controversy still exists surrounding the anatomical abnormalities in ASD. In particular, s...

Individuals with major depression (MD) show deficits in cognitive reappraisal. It is yet unexplored how the act of directing visual attention away from/towards emotional aspects impacts on cognitive reappraisal in MD. Thus, we examined the role of attentional deployment during cognitive reappraisal (specifially during distancing) in adolescent MD....

Objective: Identifying risk factors for major depression and depressive symptoms in youths could have important implications for prevention efforts. This study examined the association of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for a broad depression phenotype derived from a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) in adults, and its interaction with...

Objective: Major Depression (MD) results from a complex interplay between environmental stressors and biological factors. Previous studies in adults have shown that adverse life events interact with genetic variation in FKBP5, a gene implicated in the stress-response system, to predict depressive symptoms and MD. This is the first study to investig...

Objective: Greater relative right- than left-frontal cortical activity has been frequently found in adults with major depression (MD). As the few studies in adolescents with MD have been inconclusive, the aim of this study was to assess frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) in an adolescent sample with MD whilst taking into account possible confounding var...

Objective: Event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed abnormal neurophysiological patterns underlying selective attention in patients with Major Depression (MD). Only few included both patients in acute and remitted state to address the question whether these abnormalities are state- or trait- dependent and none focused on adolescent MD....

Background: Altered reward and punishment function has been suggested as an important vulnerability factor for the development of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Prior ERP studies found evidence for neurophysiological dysfunctions in reinforcement processes in adults with MDD. To date, only few ERP studies have examined the neural underpinnings of...

The brain´s reward system undergoes major changes during adolescence, and an increased reactivity to social and non-social incentives has been described as a typical feature during this transitional period. Little is known whether there are sex differences in the brain´s responsiveness to social or monetary incentives during adolescence. The aim of...

More right-sided frontal brain resting activity has been postulated to be a correlate of major depression in adults. In children and adolescents, more right-sided activity (as indicated by more left-sided alpha activity) seems to be associated with psychosocial risk factors. However, an association of frontal asymmetry and manifest unipolar depress...

Anorexia nervosa (AN) has been suggested to be associated with abnormalities in facial emotion recognition. Most prior studies on facial emotion recognition in AN have investigated adult samples, despite the onset of AN being particularly often during adolescence. In addition, few studies have examined whether impairments in facial emotion recognit...

Anorexia nervosa (AN) geht häufig mit emotionalen und sozialen Schwierigkeiten einher. Doch obwohl emotionale Gesichter eine der wichtigsten sozio-emotionalen Stimuluskategorien darstellen, wurden die neuronalen Grundlagen der Gesichterverarbeitung bei AN bisher wenig untersucht. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die neurophysiologischen Korrelate...

Objective: Rejection sensitivity (RS) is defi ned as the disposition to anxiously expect rejection, to perceive it as likely, and to overreact to it. Former studies showed heightened RS in clinically depressed adults and identifi ed it as a predictor for symptoms of depression in adolescents. However, to date there are no studies examining RS as a...

The present study explored the neurophysiological correlates of perception and recognition of emotional facial expressions in adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) patients using event-related potentials (ERPs). We included 20 adolescent girls with AN and 24 healthy girls and recorded ERPs during a passive viewing task and three active tasks requiring p...

To date, little is known about sex differences in the neurophysiological correlates underlying auditory information processing. In the present study, auditory evoked potentials were evoked in typically developing male (n = 15) and female (n = 14) adolescents (13-18 years) during an auditory oddball task. Girls compared to boys displayed lower N100...

Abstract Background Major depression (MD) is associated with deficits in selective attention. Previous studies in adults with MD using event-related potentials (ERPs) reported abnormalities in the neurophysiological correlates of auditory selective attention. However, it is yet unclear whether these findings can be generalized to MD in adolescence...

Background Recent studies have proposed the process of emotion regulation as a promising target to study the neurophysiological basis of adolescent depression. Emotion regulation has repeatedly been studied with emotional go/no-go paradigms. To date, no study has examined if the left-frontal hypoactivation associated with depression generalizes to...

Findings on face identity and facial emotion recognition in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are inconclusive. Moreover, little is known about the developmental trajectory of face processing skills in ASD. Taking a developmental perspective, the aim of this study was to extend previous findings on face processing skills in a sample of adolescents and...

In typical development, empathic abilities continue to refine during adolescence and early adulthood. Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show deficits in empathy, whereas adults with ASD may have developed compensatory strategies. We aimed at comparing developmental trajectories in the neural mechanisms underlying empathy...

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show impairments in processing coherent motion which have been proposed to be linked to a general deficit in the dorsal visual pathway. However, few studies have investigated the neural mechanisms underlying coherent motion processing in ASD. Thus, the aim of this study was to further test the hypothe...

Results on grey matter (GM) structural alterations in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are inconclusive. Moreover, little is known about age effects on brain-structure abnormalities in ASD beyond childhood. Here, we aimed to examine regional GM volumes in a large sample of children, adolescents, and adults with ASD. Magnetic resonance imaging scans w...

Multiple Processes Supporting Empathy Brain Networks Involved in Shared Representations of Emotions Brain Networks Involved in Theory of Mind Brain Networks Involved in Self-Referential Processing and Self-Other Distinction Summary and Outlook References

A deficit in empathy has repeatedly been described as a central feature of autistic disorders. However, little is known about how adolescents with autism evaluate their own empathic abilities, and how their parents judge these skills. The present study assesses affective components of empathy via both self-report and parental report. 18 boys with a...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of both tic disorder (TD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on attentional functions. N=96 children and adolescents participated in the study, including n=21 subjects with TD, n=23 subjects with ADHD, n=25 subjects with TD+ADHD, and n=27 controls. Attentional performance w...

The present study aimed at identifying dysfunctions in brain networks that may underlie disturbed empathic behavior in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). During functional magnetic resonance imaging, subjects were asked to identify the emotional state observed in a facial stimulus (other-task) or to evaluate their own emotional response (self-task)....

Although empathy is rooted early in life, the ability to understand and share the emotions of others continues to develop after childhood. Here, we aimed at exploring developmental changes in the neural mechanisms underlying empathy from childhood to early adulthood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, 47 healthy male subjects aged 8-27 ye...

A deficit in empathy has been repeatedly described in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and also, albeit less markedly, in their unaffected relatives. Here, we aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms of empathy in ASD, and to explore familial contributions to empathy correlates. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, 15 boys...

Es mehren sich Hinweise, dass Menschen uber ein Spiegelneuronensystem verfugen, das fur das Verstandnis von Handlungen, fur Imitation und fur Empathie von groser Bedeutung sein konnte. Autistische Storungen gehen mit Beeintrachtigungen in der Imitation und Empathie einher. Die Annahme, dass diesen Beeintrachtigungen defizitare Spiegelneuronenmechan...

Although the coexistence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and tic disorder (TD) is common, the nature of association is yet not fully understood. Thus, the aim of the present study was to explore attentional dysfunction in children with pure ADHD compared to children with comorbid ADHD + TD. Three groups of 20 children each, aged...

This study examined adults' affective and facial reactions to tastes which differ in quality and valence, and the impact of sadness and joy on these reactions. Thirty-six male and female subjects participated voluntarily. Subjects each tasted 6 ml of a sweet chocolate drink, a bitter quinine solution (0.0015 M) and a bitter-sweet soft drink. Follow...