Perinatal depression (PND) is a heterogeneous disorder with differences in timing of onset of depression, which influences symptomology, severity, and treatment efficacy. Researchers must embrace the heterogeneity to bring fruition to a precision medicine approach for women in reproductive mental health care. Galea and Frokjaer discuss the heterogeneity of perinatal depression based on timing onset, which influences symptoms and has implications for etiology and treatment efficacy. The clinical and research community can exploit this heterogeneity to uncover precision treatment strategies.
The Alzheimer's disease (AD) was discovered and the pathological hallmarks were revealed more than a century ago. Subsequently, many remarkable discoveries and breakthroughs provided us with mechanistic insights into the pathogenesis of AD. The identification of the molecular underpinning of the disease not only provided the framework of AD pathogenesis but also targets for therapeutic inventions. Despite all the initial successes, no effective treatment for AD has emerged yet as all the late stage of clinical trials have failed.
Exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of developing Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease as well as to improve cognition in healthy and cognitively impaired individuals. However, the mechanisms of these benefits are not well understood. The stress hypothesis suggests that the cognitive benefits attributed to exercise may partially be mediated by changes in the cortisol secretion pattern.