ArticleAnnals of general psychiatry2026
Alexithymia and self-harm in depressed adolescents: the mediating role of resting-state functional connectivity of the ventral hippocampal-fusiform gyrus.
Article in Annals of general psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlexithymia is implicated in self-harm behaviors, including nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicide attempt (SA). However,, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood, especially among clinically referred adolescents with depressive symptoms.
methodsA total of 129 adolescents with depressive symptoms were recruited from Shenzhen Mental Health Center. NSSI, SA, alexithymia and its dimensions were measured using validated scales. Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) within a predefined set of emotion regulation (ER)-related regions of interest (ROIs).
resultsOf the analytic sample, 37 adolescents met the criteria for NSSI and 59 met the criteria for SA. The externally oriented thinking (EOT) subscale scores were positively associated with SA (adjusted OR = 1.21, 95% CI, 1.03–1.43). Adolescents with SA exhibited heightened connectivity within ER regions compared to controls, including between the left orbitofrontal cortex and right medial orbital superior frontal gyrus (z score = 0.19, P < 0.001), left medial orbitofrontal cortex and left inferior occipital gyrus (z score = 0.16; P < 0.001), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right medial orbital of the superior frontal gyrus (z score = 0.17; P < 0.001), right parahippocampal gyrus and right fusiform gyrus (z score = 0.17; P < 0.001), and between the right ventral hippocampus (vHC) and the right fusiform gyrus (FG) (z = 0.17; P < 0.001). Mediation analysis showed that the association between EOT and SA was fully mediated by right vHC-right FG connectivity (indirect effect β = 0.096, 95% CI, 0.027–0.190). No significant associations between alexithymia or rs-FC within ER regions and NSSI were found.
conclusionsIn clinically referred adolescents with depressive symptoms, EOT-related alexithymia is associated with SA, and this association appears to be fully mediated by enhanced vHC-FG connectivity. The vHC-FG circuit, which plays a key role in ER, may represent a novel neurobiological target for interventions aimed at preventing self-harm behaviors in this vulnerable population.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.