BACKGROUND: The base rate of transition from subthreshold psychotic experiences (the exposure) to clinical psychotic disorder (the outcome) in unselected, representative and non-help-seeking population-based samples is unknown.MethodA systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted of representative, longitudinal population-based cohorts with baseline assessment of subthreshold psychotic experiences and follow-up assessment of psychotic ...

BACKGROUND: Cognitive adaptation training (CAT) targets the adaptive behaviour of patients with schizophrenia and has shown promising results regarding the social aspects of psychosocial treatment. As yet, no reports have appeared on the use of CAT in combination with assertive community treatment (ACT). Our purpose was to evaluate the effect ...

Premorbid adjustment varies widely among individuals with schizophrenia and has been shown to bear significantly on prodrome and onset characteristics, and on cognition, symptoms, and functioning after onset. The current analysis focused on the Premorbid Adjustment Scale, a retrospective measure assessing social and academic function at several time points from ...

Striatal dysfunction is thought to be a fundamental element in schizophrenia. Striatal dopamine dysfunction impacts on reward processing and learning and is present even at rest. Here, we addressed the question whether and how spontaneous neuronal activity in the striatum is altered in schizophrenia. We therefore assessed intrinsic striatal activity ...

Olfaction deficits in individuals with schizophrenia are well documented. A meta-analysis conducted nearly a dozen years ago on the topic revealed a deficit of a full standard deviation in magnitude compared to nonpatient controls. Recent efforts have been attempted to determine whether deficits in olfactory identification and acuity reflect a ...

There is a strong impetus in the psychosis research field to develop interventions that aim to prevent the onset of psychotic disorders. Over the past 15 years there has been a tremendous development in the work aimed at understanding the pre-psychotic period. More recently there has been a focus on ...

Over the last couple of decades, the treatment of psychoses has much advanced; yet, despite all progress, the individual and societal burden associated with psychosis and particularly schizophrenia has largely remained unchanged. Therefore, much hope is currently placed on indicated prevention as a mean to fight these burdens before they ...

Introduction. The knowledge of the specificity of cognitive biases in psychiatric disorders is important in order to develop disorder-specific cognitive models and therapies. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the specificity of jumping to conclusions (JTC) and attributional biases (AB) for patients with schizophrenia. Methods. Twenty patients with paranoid schizophrenia ...

BACKGROUND: The introduction of convulsive therapy (COT) was undoubtedly one of the milestones in the history of psychiatry. Its originator, László Meduna, has become one of the founding fathers of biological psychiatry. METHODS: In his first major publication on COT, Meduna described the short-term treatment outcome of the first 26 ...

The effect of placebo observed in schizophrenia clinical trials represents a growing problem that interferes with signal detection for treatments, increases costs of development, discourages investment in schizophrenia research and delays the introduction of new treatments. This paper seeks to clarify key issues related to this problem and identify potential ...

The main purpose of this study was to follow up a group of persons who, fifteen years ago were considered to be fully recovered from schizophrenia, in order to examine how many have sustained their recovery and to investigate the role of resilience in recovery. A semi-structured interview was designed ...

Introduction: This article briefly reviews the efficacy, as well as safety and tolerability, data pertaining to asenapine in bipolar mania and schizophrenia. Postulated mechanism of action is also reviewed. Methods: A PubMed search was conducted using the search term asenapine. All displayed articles were reviewed; we selected for review studies ...

Major depressive disorder is reported to be the most common mental disorder, and one of the leading causes of disability-adjusted life years. It causes high levels of family burden and of expressed emotions. Research interest in family functioning in mental disorders has recently shifted from schizophrenia to unipolar and bipolar ...

Oxidative stress may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. No double-blind study has compared the effects of typical and atypical antipsychotics on both antioxidant enzyme activity and nitric oxide (NO) levels in schizophrenic patients. Seventy-eight inpatients with chronic schizophrenia were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of treatment with 6mg/day ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: To fully assess the various dimensions affected by schizophrenia, clinical trials often include multiple scales measuring various symptom profiles, cognition, quality of life, subjective well-being, and functional impairment. In this exploratory study, we characterized the relationships among six clinical, functional, cognitive, and quality-of-life measures, identifying a parsimonious set ...

ABSTRACT: Evidence linking schizophrenia to alterations in presynaptic dopamine (DA) grows, although treatments to date have largely focused on postsynaptic D2 receptor blockade. This study examined augmenting response in treatment-resistant schizophrenia through the addition of tetrabenazine (TBZ), a presynaptic vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) inhibitor. Participants included 41 outpatients (mean age, ...

Objective To report and discuss the outcome of a prospective, internally controlled, randomized, double-blind, split-face study comparing the onset of action of 2 commercially available botulinum neuromodulators.Methods Ninety individuals with moderate-to-severe lateral orbital rhytids were treated with onabotulinumtoxinA, 10 U, and abobotulinumtoxinA, 30 U, for the treatment of lateral orbital ...

Background: Recent studies using cluster analysis and factor analysis have suggested that Tourette Syndrome (TS) should no longer be considered a unitary condition. Material and methods: We retrospectively studied the long term clinical course of 100 TS patients. The patients were assessed at the onset and after 10years follow-up to ...

OBJECTIVE: Mounting evidence suggests that inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This evidence implies that anti-inflammatory agents are potentially useful therapeutic strategies in schizophrenia. This article quantitatively summarizes the efficacy of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to augment antipsychotic treatment to reduce schizophrenia symptom severity. DATA SOURCES: An electronic ...

Anhedonia, defined as dysfunction in the experience of pleasant emotions, is a hallmark symptom of the schizophrenia spectrum. Of interest, it is well documented that patients with schizophrenia, at least as a group, do not show reductions in their state experience of pleasant stimuli. However, there is emerging evidence to ...

OBJECTIVE: Antipsychotic treatment strategy for the maintenance phase of schizophrenia has been inconsistent in the literature. The purpose of this systematic review is to overview recommendations in various guidelines and algorithms. METHODS: The guidelines and algorithms for schizophrenia that were published or updated in English after 2000 were searched, using ...

OBJECTIVES: The efficacy and tolerability characteristics of an antipsychotic are difficult to determine from a single registration study. We thus conducted an analysis that assessed key efficacy and tolerability outcomes post hoc from four pooled short-term (4-6 weeks) phase III studies that evaluated iloperidone versus placebo in patients with schizophrenia or ...

Over the past 15 years, MRI lesion activity has become the accepted surrogate primary outcome measure in proof-of-concept placebo-controlled clinical trials of new immunomodulating therapies in relapse-onset multiple sclerosis (MS). In parallel, the number of patients that are available for the placebo arm of trials has declined, and more-aggressive drugs ...

BACKGROUND: Measuring social adjustment (including attachment style and current social adaptation) in late-life depression may support planning secondary prevention, rehabilitation, and treatment. Insecure attachment style is a risk factor for developing new depression, and social adjustment may constitute a problem after symptoms abatement. Few studies have examined attachment style and ...

Background: Second-generation antidepressants dominate the management of major depressive disorder (MDD), but evidence on the comparative benefits and harms of these agents is contradictory. Purpose: To compare the benefits and harms of second-generation antidepressants for treating MDD in adults. Data Sources: English-language studies from PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, ...

Standard (qualitative) electroencephalography (EEG) is routinely used in the diagnostic evaluation of psychiatric patients. Quantitative EEG (qEEG) findings differ between patients with schizophrenia, patients with depression, but results are not consistent. The aim of our study was to determine the differences in qEEG parameters between patients with schizophrenia, patients with ...

Schizophrenia is a severe chronic psychiatric disorder for which treatment compliance is important in the prevention of relapse. Second generation antipsychotics (SGA), such as Risperidone, have been found to be more effective in the treatment of such patients than the high potency first generation antipsychotics (FGA). This is an open ...

Although patients with schizophrenia are reported to have excess mortality compared with the general population, many affected patients will nonetheless survive and continue to have the disorder in later life. Consequently, geriatric schizophrenia will be a significant public health concern in the years to come, and evidence-based treatment of schizophrenia ...

Most people with schizophrenia in low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries receive minimal formal care, and there are high rates of non-adherence to medication. To evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention that involves a family member in supervising medication administration - supervised treatment in out-patients for schizophrenia (STOPS) - in improving ...

Adherence to clinical guidelines for mental disorders among clinicians in industrialized countries is low. Research on guideline adherence among clinicians in lower- and middle-income countries is scarce. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of clinical guidelines for first-episode schizophrenia in the pilot phase of the Explicit ...

Although schizophrenia has been considered a distinct disease entity for the past century, its precise definition and etio-pathophysiology remain obscure and its treatment remains unsatisfactory. In this review, we summarize our state of knowledge about the etiology, pathophysiology, clinical features, and treatment of schizophrenia. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES: The inadequacy of the ...

Our aim in this article is 2-fold: first, to examine the mid-term to long-term data on efficacy, from controlled and naturalistic and other studies, in order to determine if they are consistent with the quantitative meta-analyses of mostly short-term, randomized controlled trials Our second (and most important) aim is to ...

Few controlled trials compared second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) with first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs) regarding relapse prevention in schizophrenia. We conducted a systematic review/meta-analysis of randomized trials, lasting 6 months comparing SGAs with FGAs in schizophrenia. Primary outcome was study-defined relapse; secondary outcomes included relapse at 3, 6 and 12 months; treatment failure; ...

OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this study was to compare the impact of risperidone long-acting injectable (R-LAI) to other antipsychotics on rates of hospitalisation in real-life settings. METHOD: The Cohort for the General study of Schizophrenia (CGS) followed 1859 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) from 177 psychiatric wards of public ...

The aim of this study is to investigate possible associations between a set of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within 10 genes with Schizophrenia (SCZ) and response to antipsychotics in Korean in-patients treated with antipsychotics. Two hundred and twenty-one SCZ in-patients and 170 psychiatrically healthy controls were genotyped for 42 SNPs within ...

BACKGROUND: Age at onset (AAO) in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may differentiate genetically and clinically heterogeneous subtypes. The current cross-sectional study compared the characteristics of early-onset OCD (onset age≤18years) and late-onset OCD (onset age >18years). The AAO cut-off was based on the onset distribution observed in our systematically recruited patients ...

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the course of unmet needs by patients with a first episode of schizophrenia and to determine associated variables.MethodWe investigated baseline assessments in the European First Episode Schizophrenia Trial (EUFEST) and also follow-up interviews at 6 and 12 months. Latent class growth analysis was used ...

BACKGROUND: The high use of long-term benzodiazepines (BZDs) with second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) has been identified as an important issue in the treatment of schizophrenia in Japan. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of gradual reduction or discontinuation of daytime BZD use on cognitive function and quality ...

BACKGROUND: Findings from the WHO sponsored multicenter studies done a few decades ago, which reported favorable outcome of schizophrenia in developing countries both in 2 and 5year follow-up studies, dominated the world view until recently. Emerging evidence from Low and Middle Income countries (LAMIC) started to challenge this long held ...

Aim: The present study aimed to explore whether some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the BDNF gene could be associated with major depression (MD), bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia, and whether they could predict clinical outcomes in Korean inpatients treated with antidepressants, mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, respectively. Methods: One hundred ...

OBJECTIVE: Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that a history of depression increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, particularly among individuals with early-onset depression. On the other hand, recent studies have suggested that a higher amyloid-β protein (Aβ)40 to Aβ42 ratio may be associated with the future onset of Alzheimer's disease. ...

Mobile Assessment and Treatment for Schizophrenia (MATS) employs ambulatory monitoring methods and cognitive behavioral therapy interventions to assess and improve outcomes in consumers with schizophrenia through mobile phone text messaging. Three MATS interventions were developed to target medication adherence, socialization, and auditory hallucinations. Participants received up to 840 text messages ...

BACKGROUND: Current classification of unipolar depression reflects the idea that prognosis is essential. However, do DSM categories of major depressive disorder (MDD), dysthymic disorder (Dysth) and double depression (DD=MDD+Dysth) indeed adequately represent clinically relevant course trajectories of unipolar depression? Our aim was to test DSM categories (MDD, Dysth and DD) ...

Background: A number of clinical features potentially reflect an individual's familial vulnerability to major depression (MD), including early age at onset, recurrence, impairment, episode duration, and the number and pattern of depressive symptoms. However, these results are drawn from studies that have exclusively examined individuals from a European ethnic background. ...

The present study is aimed at exploring whether some single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within GRIA1, GRIA2 and GRIA4 could be associated with schizophrenia and whether they could predict clinical outcomes in Korean in-patients treated with antipsychotics. One hundred forty five patients with MD, 221 in-patients with schizophrenia and 170 psychiatrically ...

BACKGROUND: Efforts to predict psychosis in individuals at high risk for schizophrenia have focused on the identification of sub-threshold clinical criteria and neurobiological markers, including neuropsychological assessment, structural and functional brain imaging, and psychophysiological testing. We sought to evaluate the relative utility of "psychosis-proneness" measures for prospective prediction of psychotic ...

ACCESSIBLE SUMMARY: •  Insight is a multidimensional concept that is defined as a patient's recognition of having a psychiatric disorder, of the social consequences of that disorder and of the need for treatment. •  Improving insight is one of the major aims of pharmacotherapy and psychosocial interventions in schizophrenia because ...

The most current treatment guidelines for schizophrenia recommend more than 1 year of maintenance therapy after the first psychotic episode, and more than 5 years of maintenance therapy after multiple psychotic episodes. Approximately two-thirds of such patients are known to relapse within 1 year and almost 90% of such patients ...

Aim: Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) refers to the time elapsing between psychosis onset and treatment initiation. Despite a certain degree of consensus regarding the definition of psychosis onset, the definition of treatment commencement varies greatly between studies and DUP may be underestimated due to lack of agreement. In the ...

The timing and rate of improvement after the initiation of an antidepressant has implications for establishing the mechanism of antidepressant action and for answering the clinically relevant question of how long an appropriate trial of antidepressant medication should be. We explore the individual trajectories of relative change in depression severity ...