Treatment of Tardive Dystonia Induced by Antipsychotics, Old and New.

Objectives: Tardive dystonia is a serious extrapyramidal side effect emerging after long-term treatment with antipsychotics, frequently with a deteriorating course, and unsatisfactory treatment. Presently, clozapine is used for the cotreatment of tardive dystonia and psychosis, at the cost of serious side effects. Apart from clozapine, there have been case reports describing positive effects of quetiapine on dystonic symptoms.

[Active and prodromal phase symptomatology of young-onset and late-onset paranoid schizophrenia].

Introduction: Young and late onset patients with paranoid schizophrenia were compared, regarding the initial prodromal and active phases of the disorder, in order to examine the influence of age of onset on the prodromal and active phase symptomatology of the disease.

Materials And Methods: We examined 88 consecutively hospitalized patients with paranoid schizophrenia. Age cutoff points were set at <30 years of age for the young, and ≥35 years of age for the late onset group.

Short stature, type E brachydactyly, exostoses, gynecomastia, and cryptorchidism in a patient with 47,XYY/45,X/46,XY mosaicism.

We report a 72-year-old male patient with a 47,XYY/45,X/46,XY mosaicism associated with short stature, exostoses, type E brachydactyly, gynecomastia, cryptorchidism, mild mental retardation, and a paranoid personality and conversion disorder. Since his prevalent cell line was 47,XYY (about 75%), our patient could be karyotypically classified as a case of 47,XYY syndrome. In view of the striking similarity of the clinical features of this case and those of a XYY case previously reported by Ikegawa et al (1992), it seems reasonable to suggest that these patients are representatives of a novel syndrome with a XYY karyotype.

Major depression and risk of depressive symptomatology associated with short-term and low-dose interferon-alpha treatment.

Objective: The objective of this study is to identify early patients who are at-risk for major depression (MD) induced by interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and evaluate the response of depressive symptoms to antidepressants.

Methods: Thirty-six consecutive patients were treated with IFN-alpha. Psychiatric evaluations were performed prior to, and at 1 and 2 months after onset of therapy and upon completion of the study.

Enzyme replacement therapy in severe Fabry disease with renal failure: a 1-year follow-up.

We present here the course of clinical response of a 53-year-old haemodialysed Fabry patient who received recombinant human alpha-galactosidase A at a dose of 1 mg/kg every other week over a period of 1 year. The therapy was well tolerated by the patient, who revealed an impressive favourable cutaneous, gastrointestinal, neurological and psychiatric response and a dramatic improvement in his quality of life, but no improvement in cardiac and renal function.

Psychopathology and behavioural trends of children with accidental poisoning.

Objective: To study the psychopathology of both young children with accidental poisoning and their mothers, measure the poisoned children's trends of behaviour and explore whether there is an association between parental smoking and poisoning in children.

Methods: The psychopathology of 150 poisoned and 150 matched control young children, and their mothers was studied according to DSM-IV criteria. Children's perceptions of behaviour were examined by a measure assessing internalizing and externalizing behaviour.

Symptomatology of the initial prodromal phase in schizophrenia.

The initial prodromal symptoms in schizophrenia were studied in 100 DSM-diagnosed patients and 100 controls. The median number of symptoms in the patients and the controls was 8 (range 2-13) and 0 (range 0-5), respectively. Patients developed symptoms indicating social, occupational, and affective dysfunction, whereas the controls' symptoms included magical content and disturbance in mood.