Schizophrenia

Despite the accepted link between childhood abuse and positive psychotic symptoms, findings between other adversities, such as neglect, and the remaining dimensions in people with psychosis have been inconsistent, with evidence not yet reviewed quantitatively. The aim of this study was to systematically examine quantitatively the association between broadly defined childhood adversity (CA), abuse (sexual/physical/emotional), and neglect (physical/emotional) subtypes, with positive, negative, depressive, manic, and disorganized dimensions in those with psychosis...

INTRODUCTION: Police force interaction rates with individuals with mental health conditions are on the rise. International research reveals that the presence of a mental health condition increases the risk for detention and use of force by police officers. Stigmatization of individuals with mental health conditions as dangerous and unpredictable is assumed to have an impact on the likelihood of police use of force. The following study examines a trialogical intervention to reduce stigmatization of individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in a police officer sample...

Contemporary preclinical models suggest that abnormal functioning of a brain network consisting of the hippocampus, midbrain and striatum plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Previous neuroimaging studies examined individual aspects of this model in schizophrenia patients and individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis. However, this exact preclinical brain network has not been translated to human neuroimaging studies with schizophrenia patients and therefore it is currently unknown how functioning of this network is altered in patients...

Dopamine exerts its physiological effects through two subtypes of receptors, i.e. the receptors of the D1 family (D1R and D5R ) and the D2 family (D2R , D3R, and D4R ), which differ in their pattern of distribution, affinity, and signaling. The D1 -like subfamily (D1R and D5R ) are coupled to Gαs/olf proteins to activate adenylyl cyclase whereas the D2 -like receptors are coupled to Gαi/o subunits and suppress the activity of adenylyl cyclase. Dopamine receptors are capable of forming homodimers, heterodimers, and higher-order oligomeric complexes, resulting in a change in the individual protomers' recognition, signaling, and pharmacology...

Although it has been nearly 100 years since the first description of monoamine oxidase, we are still learning about its role in the healthy brain and how it is altered in various disease states. The present review provides a survey of our current understanding of monoamine oxidases, with a focus on their contributions to neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disease. Important species differences in monoamine oxidase function and development in the brain are highlighted. Sex-specific monoamine oxidase regulatory mechanisms and their implications for various neurological disorders are also discussed...

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine whether gastric symptoms are associated with later eating disorder (ED) symptoms during early adolescence, and whether this relationship is moderated by parental warmth/acceptance and/or the child's sex. METHOD: Longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM Study were utilized. Participants ages 9-10 years old (N = 4,950; 2,370 female) completed measures at baseline and 1 year later (Y1). At baseline, gastric symptoms were measured by parent-reported items from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and perceived parental acceptance was measured by youth report on the Children's Report of Parent Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) Acceptance subscale separately for mothers and fathers...

Research has linked disturbances in narrative identity with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. One such disturbance is diminished agency and communion themes in past life stories. However, projecting oneself into the future is also central to identity and potentially impacts recovery. Hence, we examined themes of agency and communion in both past and future life stories and related themes to psychosocial functioning in 20 individuals with schizophrenia, 20 individuals with depressive disorder, and 19 nonpsychiatric controls...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Mental illness is disproportionately common in people with epilepsy (PWE). This systematic literature review identified original research articles that reported the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities based upon clinical assessments in a sample of PWE and assessed the clinical features of the populations found in studies included in our review of mental health comorbidity. METHODS: The included articles were written in English and published from 2008 to 2018, and focused on adults aged ≥18 years who had psychiatric diagnoses determined in clinical assessments, such as those found in medical records, clinician psychiatric evaluations, structured diagnostic interviews, and mental health screening questionnaires specific for a psychiatric disorder...

Background Medication adherence is essential in the management of schizophrenia. Yet poor treatment uptake has negative consequences on patients and their primary caregivers. Objective To examine the association among beliefs about psychotropic medications, side effects and adherence from a patient-caregiver dyad perspective. Setting This study was conducted in a public psychiatric hospital setting in Accra, Ghana. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 121 patient-caregiver dyads using an interviewer-administered data collection approach...

While the implementation of digital technology in psychiatry appears promising, there is an urgent need to address the implications of the absence of ethical design in the early development of such technologies. Some authors have noted the gap between technology development and ethical analysis and have called for an upstream examination of the ethical issues raised by digital technologies. In this paper, we address this suggestion, particularly in relation to digital healthcare technologies for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders...

This paper explores the potential of recent research on metacognition to offer new avenues to assess and address the phenomenon of fragmentation in schizophrenia, which was described by E.Bleuler as «splitting». The concepts of metacognition characterize and quantify alterations or decrements in the processes by which fragments or pieces of information are integrated into a coherent sense of self and others. A method for assessing metacognition is presented along with research examining the presence and importance of metacognitive deficits in schizophrenia...

OBJECTIVE: To study the features of the formation of gender reassignment`s ideas in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and to differentiate diagnosis of these psychopathological formations with transsexualism. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was carried out in the Department of Sexology and Therapy of Sexual Dysfunctions of the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry - a branch of the Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology in the period from October 2018 to May 2020...

The prolonged effects of maternal immune activation in response stressors during gestation on the offspring's molecular pathways after birth are beginning to be understood. An association between maternal immune activation and neurodevelopmental and behavior disorders such as autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders has been detected in long-term gene dysregulation. The incidence of alternative splicing among neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptor genes, critical cell-cell signaling molecules, associated with behavior may compromise the replicability of reported maternal immune activation effects at the gene level...

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to describe psychiatric nurses' and diabetes nurses' experiences of care with hospitalized patients with schizophrenia and diabetes. DESIGN AND METHODS: Eight psychiatric nurses and diabetes nurses were interviewed, and the data material was analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). FINDINGS: The analysis showed that nurses lack knowledge about schizophrenia, diabetes, and intersectoral collaboration...

By treating genetic variants as instrumental variables (IVs), two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) methods detect genetically regulated risk exposures for complex diseases using only summary statistics. When considering gene expression as exposure in transcriptome-wide MR (TWMR) analyses, the eQTLs (expression-quantitative-trait-loci) may have pleiotropic effects or be correlated with variants that have effects on disease not via expression, and the presence of those invalid IVs would lead to biased inference...

OBJECTIVE: A systematic review of literature was conducted to determine the association between serum lipids and suicidality in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. METHODS: We undertook a systematic search of multiple databases for studies that ascertained an association between serum lipids and suicidality in adult patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (18-65 years) from database inception to 2nd September 2020. Qualitative analysis was done using National Institute of Health (NIH) scales...

Matrix metalloproteinases 9 (MMP9) are enzymes involved in regulating neuroplasticity in the hippocampus. This, combined with evidence for disrupted hippocampal structure and function in schizophrenia, has prompted our current investigation into the relationship between MMP9 and hippocampal volumes in schizophrenia. 34 healthy individuals (mean age = 32.50, male = 21, female = 13) and 30 subjects with schizophrenia (mean age = 33.07, male = 19, female = 11) underwent a blood draw and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging...

GABAA -α5 subunit-containing receptors have been shown to play a key modulatory role in cognition and represent a promising drug target for cognitive dysfunction, as well as other disorders. Here we report on the preclinical and early clinical profile of a novel GABAA -α5 selective negative allosteric modulator (NAM), basmisanil, which progressed into Phase II trials for intellectual disability in Down syndrome and cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia. Preclinical pharmacology studies showed that basmisanil is the most selective GABAA -α5 receptor NAM described so far...

Observational studies have suggested bidirectional associations between psychiatric disorders and COVID-19 phenotypes, but results of such studies are inconsistent. Mendelian Randomization (MR) may overcome the limitations of observational studies, e.g., unmeasured confounding and uncertainties about cause and effect. We aimed to elucidate associations between neuropsychiatric disorders and COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. To that end, we applied a two-sample, bidirectional, univariable, and multivariable MR design to genetic data from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of neuropsychiatric disorders and COVID-19 phenotypes (released in January 2021)...

Copy number variation (CNV) at the 16p11.2 locus is associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. CNVs of the 16p gene can manifest in opposing head sizes. Carriers of 16p11.2 deletion tend to have macrocephaly (or brain enlargement), while those with 16p11.2 duplication frequently have microcephaly. Increases in both gray and white matter volume have been observed in brain imaging studies in 16p11.2 deletion carriers with macrocephaly. Here, we use human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) derived from controls and subjects with 16p11...