Xenia Gonda

• MA PharmD PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at Semmelweis University

Early-life stress may increase the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders via immune activation. While the purinergic signaling pathway is implicated in psychiatric disorders, the specific role of the P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) in anxiety, depression, and childhood trauma still requires further clarification. Upon chronic stress, excessive ATP release activ...

Chronotypes reflect individual differences in the preference for wake and sleep times within a 24-hour period. They have been linked to emotional well-being, yet findings remain inconsistent, potentially due to variations in study populations, methodologies, and measures of emotional well-being. This study aimed to clarify the contribution of chron...

Our Hungarian cross-sectional study highlights the crucial mediating role that adult attachment styles play in the relationship between early traumas and suicidal behaviour, shaping how individuals process and respond to traumatic experiences. Early traumas, such as abuse or neglect, often disrupt the development of secure attachment, leading to in...

Suicide remains a critical public health issue in Hungary, with over 1,500 deaths annually and approximately 40,000 estimated suicide attempts. Given that most individuals who die by suicide interact with primary care providers within months prior to their death, general practitioners (GPs) are uniquely positioned to conduct early detection and int...

The frequent co-occurrence of chronic pain (CP) and depression is a well-known phenomenon, supported by both the high prevalence of major depression among CP patients and studies describing a substantial genetic correlation between the two phenotypes. Neuroticism, a trait characterised by maladaptive stress responses and a tendency to experience ne...

Affective temperaments are inherited parts of personality determining mood and activity, affecting the management of somatic conditions. We aimed to investigate the association between affective temperaments, depressive symptoms, and self-care (physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption), and their effect on glycemic control, among patients wi...

Introduction: The Russo-Ukrainian War (RUW) poses a significant mental health burden, warranting a scoping review of the evidence to shed light on the unmet needs. Methods: MEDLINE /PubMed and EMBASE databases were inquired from inception until September 1st, 2023, to address the following a priori formulated questions: i) “Which psychiatric popula...

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex psychiatric condition significantly impacted by environmental stress and inflammation. Previous research suggests that stress-induced alterations in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) may allow pro-inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-6 (IL-6) to enter the brain, contributing to depression. Tu...

Bipolar disorders are chronic psychiatric conditions characterized by recurrent episodes of mania and depression.Affecting over 1% of the global population, these disorders contribute significantly to disability and mortality, oftendue to suicide and cardiovascular disease. Diagnostic challenges arise from symptom overlap with unipolardepression, f...

A mozgásszegény életmód világszerte 5,3 millió ember korai halálozásáért felelős, és bizonyos krónikus betegségek kialakulása szoros összefüggést mutat az egészségtelen életmóddal. Az elhízás népbetegség, mely a hazai felnőtt lakosság közel egyharmadát érinti, a túlsúllyal élőkkel összevonva pedig több mint a felét. Európában minden harmadik gyerme...

Mounting evidence supports the key role of the disrupted integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in stress- and inflammation-associated depression. We assumed that variations in genes regulating the expression and coding proteins constructing and maintaining this barrier, along with those involved in inflammation, have a predisposing or protecti...

Objective Suicide and suicidal behaviour strongly contribute to overall male youth mortality. An understanding of worldwide data contextualises suicide and suicidal behaviour in young men within any given country. Method Members and colleagues of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry’s Task Force on Men’s Mental Health review...

Background: To estimate quality of life (QOL) in patients with frequent extrasystolic arrhythmia (ES) using the SF-36 Health Status Survey. Materials and methods: The patient group consisted of 634 individuals (42-79 y.o) with ES >700 per 24 hours, as diagnosed by Holter ECG, and the control group included 106 patients (38-79 y.o.) with ES <700...

Background: Suicide is a major global health concern, particularly among young people. This study evaluates an online suicide risk calculator based on the Risk Assessment of Suicidality Scale (RASS), which is designed to enhance accessibility and early detection of suicide risk. Methods: The study involved 444 participants who completed the RASS...

Background: We examined the prevalence and spread of conspiracy beliefs about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic among representatives of the Russian population. Our study aimed to identify belief clusters and develop predictive models to understand the factors that influence conspiracy beliefs, particularly in the context of how they might evol...

Introduction There has been a recent shift in the conceptualisation of personality disorders in diagnostic systems such as DSM-5 or ICD-11, from a categorical approach towards a dimensional approach reflecting severity in general or severity of dysfunction and related pathological traits. In addition, several psychotherapeutic approaches work with...

Introduction Depression is a highly prevalent, multifactorial, complex disorder, its etiology is assumed to involve both genetic and environmental factors. Genetic factors, including biological clock genes such as CLOCK and SIRT1 , have been linked to depression, particularly its symptom related sleep disturbances. Environmental factors also play a...

Introduction Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a debilitating illness with rapidly increasing incidence. The longer it lasts the more difficult is to cure. Although in the majority of the cases the main treatment is psychotherapy severe cases require inpatient admission for life saving support. The presentation expounds the combined therapeutic approach tha...

Depression is a complex and highly heterogeneous disorder with an omnigenic and multifactorial background. This diversity is obvious not only in its symptomatic manifestation but also in its neurobiological underpinnings which is one potential factor contributing to the high observed rate of treatment resistance. Thus, subtyping depressions, unders...

Introduction Exploring the positive psychological and behavioural dimensions of people living with mental disorders can establish a firm ground in a therapeutic alliance for setting up positive life goals. Objectives The present study aimed to explored whether the strength of the mental health capacities and the severity of mental disorder symptom...

Introduction The Mental Health Test serves as the operationalized, comprehensive measurement of Maintainable Positive Mental Theory which defines mental health (for either the non-clinical or psychiatric population) as a high level of global well-being, psychological, social and spiritual functioning, resilience, effective creative and executive fu...

Introduction Affective temperaments can play a significant role in the development, progression and outcome of various somatic diseases, as well as in the effectiveness of their treatment. Although infertility is influenced by both physical and psychological factors, the relationship between affective temperaments and infertility treatment success...

Introduction The presence of eating disorders is often associated with serious physical complications, self-destruction, and suicidal tendencies. Furthermore, eating disorders may often present as a symptom of or in comorbidity with personality disorders. In order to treat eating disorder patients successfully we need a more complex and individual...

Introduction Although suicide claims more lives than war and homicide, we still have no sufficient and effective methods either for its prediction or for its prevention. Our screening methods are laborous and subjective both on the side of the patient and on the side of the clinician. Understanding the genetic background of suicidal behaviour would...

The heterogeneity and complexity of symptom presentation, comorbidities and genetic factors pose challenges to the identification of biological mechanisms underlying complex diseases. Current approaches used to identify biological subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD) mainly focus on clinical characteristics that cannot be linked to specific...

The present study aimed to investigate whether the strength of mental health competencies and the severity of mental disorder symptoms, and their interaction, differ in the strength of their associations with several dimensions of well-being in Hungarian adult psychiatric and non-clinical samples. All respondent in the psychiatric sample (129 patie...

Unlabelled: Our study presents the Hungarian adaptation of the Mental Health Quality of Life Questionnaire (MHQoL). Background: In recent decades, there has been a shift in the field of healthcare, with a notable change in the ultimate goal of health interventions. Rather than merely reducing symptoms and prolonging life, the objective of health...

Affective temperaments have been shown to robustly affect infertility treatment success. However, identification of possible mediating factors through which they exert their influence is still lacking. A growing number of results suggest that adherence to recommended treatments may be such a mediator, on the one hand, because affective temperaments...

Most current approaches to establish subgroups of depressed patients for precision medicine aim to rely on biomarkers that require highly specialized assessment. Our present aim was to stratify participants of the UK Biobank cohort based on three readily measurable common independent risk factors, and to investigate depression genomics in each grou...

Aim – Our goal is to pinpoint genetic markers that could increase the risk of developing PTSD. Identifying these markers can guide future research aimed at creating preventive measures and treatments for PTSD. Material and methods. We searched the PubMed database and found 623 articles. After screening, 20 articles met our criteria: they were publi...

To assist psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to assess their patients' psychological immune competence-based capacities and resources, depending on the mental health disorder diagnosis and the severity of the symptoms, the present study examined the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Test in a psychiatric sample. The research was ca...

The present study aimed to investigate whether the strength of mental health capacities and the severity of mental disorder symptoms, and their interaction, differ in the strength of their associations with several dimensions of well-being in Hungarian adult psychiatric and non-clinical samples. All respondent in the psychiatric sample (129 patient...

Background The prevalence of medical illnesses is high among patients with psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed to investigate multi-comorbidity in patients with psychiatric disorders in comparison to the general population. Secondary aims were to investigate factors associated with metabolic syndrome and treatment appropriateness of ment...

Introduction The aim of the study was to search rates of depression and mental health in university students, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods This is an observational cross-sectional study. A protocol gathering sociodemographic variables as well as depression, anxiety and suicidality and conspiracism was assembled, and data wer...

Both early childhood traumatic experiences and current stress increase the risk of suicidal behaviour, in which immune activation might play a role. Previous research suggests an association between mood disorders and P2RX7 gene encoding P2X7 receptors, which stimulate neuroinflammation. We investigated the effect of P2RX7 variation in interaction...

Infertility has a multifactorial background, where, besides somatic factors, psychological contributors also play a role in development and outcome. While affective temperaments have been associated with development, course, and outcome as well as treatment success in various somatic conditions, their association with infertility and its treatment...

Depression is a highly prevalent and debilitating condition, yet we still lack both in-depth knowledge concerning its etiopathology and sufficiently efficacious treatment options. With approximately one third of patients resistant to currently available antidepressants there is a pressing need for a better understanding of depression, identifying s...

Affective temperaments have been shown to robustly affect infertility treatment success. However, identification and understanding of possibly modifiable processes and mediating factors through which they exert their influence is still lacking. A growing number of results suggest that adherence to recommended treatments may be such a mediator becau...

Objective: To evaluate the modifiable daily behavior patterns associated with increased anxiety indicators in the general population in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods: The study examined the characteristics of the Russian population (n=7777) of the international multicenter project COMET-G. In particular, variables were...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on the child and adolescent population, with long-term consequences for physical health, socio-psychological well-being, and cognitive development, which require further investigation. We herein describe a study design protocol for recognizing neuropsychiatric complications associated w...

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness causing significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational, and other important areas of life. While there is no widely accepted endophenotype, peripheral blood cells may serve as an accessible model of intracellular changes in schizophrenia. Methods: We reviewed t...

Infertility can be caused by several factors, thus the effective treatment of infertility is a complex and multidisciplinary task. While psychological support is an essential part of infertility treatment, there is growing evidence that the role of psychological factors is much greater, as personality and psychological factors have a significant im...

Suicides are often related to depression. General medical practices (GMPs) should play a role in screening depression. We aimed to test the screening algorithm of Rihmer and Torzsa for depression and suicide and determine the prevalence and number of patients in the nationwide representative Hungarostudy 2002 population, and to estimate the corresp...

The heterogeneity and complexity of symptom presentation, comorbidities and genetic factors pose challenges to the identification of biological mechanisms underlying complex diseases. Current approaches used to identify biological subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD) mainly focus on clinical characteristics that cannot be linked to specific...

Introduction Depression shows a moderate heritability of 37-42%, which can be up to 75% in severely depressed samples 75%. At the same time SNP-based heritability of depression in GWAS-s is around 8-9%. Heterogeneity of the depressive phenotype may contribute not only to the lack of understanding its genetic background but may also hinder the ident...

To assist psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to assess their patients' psychological immune competence-based capacities and resources, depending on the mental health disorder diagnosis and the severity of the symptoms, the present study examined the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Test in a psychiatric sample. The research was ca...

The fight against suicide is highly challenging as it may be one of the most complex and, at the same time, most threatening among all psychiatric phenomena. In spite of its huge impact, and despite advances in neurobiology research, understanding and predicting suicide remains a major challenge for both researchers and clinicians. To be able to id...

The fight against suicide is highly challenging as it may be one of the most complex and at the same time most threatening among all psychiatric phenomena. In spite of its huge impact, and despite advances in neurobiology research, understanding and predicting suicide remains a major challenge for both researchers and clinicians. To be able to iden...

Emotional stress is a leading risk factor in the development of neuropsychiatric disorders possibly via immune activation. P2X7 receptors promote neuroinflammation, and research suggests a relationship between chromosome region 12q2431, in which the P2X7R gene is located, and development of mood disorders, however, few studies concentrate on its as...

Infertility has a multifactorial background, where, besides somatic factors, psychological contributors also play a role in development and outcome. While affective temperaments have been associated with development, course, and outcome as well as treatment success in various somatic conditions, their association with infertility and its treatment...

Manipulation of intake of serotonin precursor tryptophan has been exploited to rapidly induce and alleviate depression symptoms. While studies show that this latter effect is dependent on genetic vulnerability to depression, the effect of habitual tryptophan intake in the context of predisposing genetic factors has not been explored. Our aim was to...

The impact of suicide on our societies, mental healthcare, and public health is beyond questionable. Every year approximately 700 000 lives are lost due to suicide around the world (WHO, 2021); more people die by suicide than by homicide and war. Although suicide is a key issue and reducing suicide mortality is a global imperative, suicide is a hig...

Introduction The current study aimed to investigate the rates of anxiety, clinical depression, and suicidality and their changes in health professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak. Materials and methods The data came from the larger COMET-G study. The study sample includes 12,792 health professionals from 40 countries (62.40% women aged 39.76 ±...

Introduction The current study aimed to investigate the rates of anxiety, clinical depression, and suicidality and their changes in health professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak. Materials and methods The data came from the larger COMET-G study. The study sample includes 12,792 health professionals from 40 countries (62.40% women aged 39.76 ±...

Psychotherapeutic interventions diff er from other health care interventions in many ways, thus the indicators of evidence-based medicine should be used with modifications when necessary. Implementation of a unified evaluation and quality assurance framework would aid the psychotherapy scene in having their intervention methods acknowledged by othe...

The SARS-CoV-2 virus brought dramatic changes into daily life, subjecting society to the new and unforeseen era. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced challenges to governments, healthcare systems (including mental healthcare services), clinicians, and researchers worldwide, including management of healthcare sector investigations and international mult...

Introduction: The bidirectional relationship between diabetes and depression results in severe disease burden. Co-occurring depression is associated with a higher rate of diabetes complications. These complications impair quality of life, however, their impact on depressive symptoms is controversial. Objective: In our cross-sectional study, we a...

A 2-es típusú cukorbetegség, illetve a depresszió és a szorongás egyaránt népbetegség, és gyakran fordulnak elő együtt. A köztük lévő összefüggés komplex. Szerepet játszhatnak benne közös etiológiai tényezők, mint a genetikai háttér, a stresszrendszer és a szimpatikus idegrendszer aktiválódása, az immunrendszer működési zavara és az emelkedett gyul...