Psych EM

Background: Most suicides are first attempts that are difficult to predict, possibly reflecting impaired and unstable behavior regulation. We sought to identify characteristics specifically associated with severe suicidal behavior by comparing risk ratios (RRs) for severe suicidal attempts (ATTP) to RRs for suicidal ideation (SI) only in a transdiagnostic sample of Veterans, focusing on impulsive-aggressive or externalizing behavior (EB), substance use disorders (SUDs), and recurrent affective or psychotic disorders (ie, severe mental illness [SMI])...

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Schizophrenia remains a major burden on patients and society. The dopamine hypothesis attempts to explain the pathogenic mechanisms of the disorder, and the neurodevelopmental hypothesis the origins. In the past 10 years an alternative, the cognitive model, has gained popularity. However, the first two theories have not been satisfactorily integrated, and the most influential iteration of the cognitive model makes no mention of dopamine, neurodevelopment, or indeed the brain. In this Review we show that developmental alterations secondary to variant genes, early hazards to the brain, and childhood adversity sensitise the dopamine system, and result in excessive presynaptic dopamine synthesis and release...

OBJECTIVE: Our aim in this study was to compare the assessments of neuropsychological tests and the p50 neurophysiological test of patients with seizure diagnosed as conversion disorder and healthy control subjects, and to investigate the neurological status in conversion disorder with pseudoseizure. METHODS: A total of 22 female conversion disorder patients with convulsions diagnosed according to SCID-I/CV and 22 healthy women were included in the assessment. The participants were administered WMS-R, the cancellation test, and the Stroop test as neuropsychological tests and p50 was assessed as a neurophysiological test...

The role of cannabis in the etiology of schizophrenia has been documented as possibly the strongest environmental risk factor. However, the pathomechanism whereby cannabis use increases this risk has not yet been identified. We argue that this pathomechanism may involve direct effects of exogenous cannabinoids on T-type calcium channels in the thalamus. These channels are crucial for amplification of corticothalamic inputs, as well as for the ability of the thalamus to generate neuronal burst firing. Cortically induced thalamic burst firing has been found to be important in trans-thalamic cortico-cortical interactions...