Co-morbid social phobia in schizophrenia.

Background: The co-morbid occurrence of anxiety disorders and schizophrenia has recently begun to be investigated. Social anxiety may be especially important to diagnose and manage among patients with schizophrenia.

Aim: To investigate the prevalence and correlates of social phobia in patients with schizophrenia.

Itching in the psychiatric ward.

Chronic itch is known to have psychogenic elements; however, there is no data on itch prevalence and characteristics among hospitalized psychiatric patients. We investigated the prevalence and types of itching among hospitalized psychiatric patients who met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia, affective or other psychiatric disorders. A validated itch questionnaire based on the McGill Pain Questionnaire, which examines the incidence and characteristics of itching, was administered to 111 patients, hospitalized in an Israeli university hospital.

Myocardin in tumor suppression and myofibroblast differentiation.

The malignant transformation process is associated with defects in cell cycle regulation and disruption of the normal differentiation programs in both neoplastic and adjacent stroma cells. However, the relationships between the cell cycle, differentiation and cancer are very complex and tissue specific. Recently we have demonstrated a previously unrecognized role in human carcinogenesis for the important regulator of cardiac and smooth muscle differentiation, myocardin.

Inactivation of myocardin and p16 during malignant transformation contributes to a differentiation defect.

Myocardin is known as an important transcriptional regulator in smooth and cardiac muscle development. Here we found that myocardin is frequently repressed during human malignant transformation, contributing to a differentiation defect. We demonstrate that myocardin is a transcriptional target of TGFbeta required for TGFbeta-mediated differentiation of human fibroblasts.

Transmission disequilibrium and haplotype analyses of the G72/G30 locus: suggestive linkage to schizophrenia in Palestinian Arabs living in the North of Israel.

Association of the G72/G30 locus with schizophrenia was recently reported in French Canadian, Russian, and Ashkenazi populations using case-control studies. In the present study we hypothesize the existence of a G72/G30 risk allele over-transmitted to affected sibs in Palestinian Arab families. A total of 223 Palestinian Arab families that included an affected offspring and parents were genotyped with 11 SNPs encompassing the G72/G30 genes.