Séminaire d’Andréa Paysserand

Vendredi 9 janvier 2026, à 11h, Salle Henri Gastaut

Andréa Paysserand, Canop Team (Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone)

“Developmental Origins of Mood Disorders : Uncovering the Role of Perinatal Adversity”

Abstract: Mood disorders rank among the most frequent and severe psychiatric conditions. Given the high rate of treatment resistance and an average diagnostic delay of about ten years, understanding these disorders is an absolute necessity to enable early intervention. Some patients present particularly severe forms, with comorbidities and cognitive deficits very elary in life, reflecting a deviation from typical neurodevelopmental trajectories. These patients exhibit sulcal abnormalities, abnomralities similar to those observed in neurodevelopmental disorder such as autism spectrum disorder, further supporting the hypothesis of a neurodevelopmental origin for the severe forms of mood disorders. Since cortical sulci form during the perinatal period and remain stable thereafter, these abnormalities indicate perinatal involvement. It thus becomes essential to identify the perinatal factors at play. Our team has developed a neurodevelopmental load score for bipolar disorder and demonstrated that this score is associated with disease severity. By characterizing this neurodevelopmental phenotype, our group identified advanced parental age as a major risk factor. Large-scale epidemiological studies have already shown that both adolescent (<20 years) and older parents (>40 years) have an increased risk of having a child with a mood disorder, while also exhibiting a higher frequency of perinatal complications. These complications, in turn, are known to promote early developmental abnormalities and increase psychopathological risk. It is therefore necessary to investigate the impact of such perinatal adversity on the risk of developing severe forms of mood disorders.