RISK aversion in Italian forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: Goal-directed decision-making is a central component of the broader reward and motivation system, and requires the ability to dynamically integrate both positive and negative feedback from the environment in order to maximize rewards and minimize losses over time. Altered decision-making processes, in which individuals fail to consider the negative consequences of their decisions on both themselves and others, may play a role in driving antisocial behaviour.

Aim: The main study aim was to investigate possible differences in loss and risk aversion across matched patients, all with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), but who varied according to whether they had a history of serious interpersonal violence or not, and a sample of healthy controls with no history of violence.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial rehabilitation of forensic psychiatric patients in Austria.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to increased psychological distress and far-reaching restrictions of freedom. In March 2020, Austrian penal authorities enacted various safety and protection measures to mitigate the propagation of COVID-19. While infection rates in penal institutions were low, restrictive conditions of detention limited the forensic care of offenders.

Decision-making and risk-taking in forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A multicenter European study.

Studies of patients with schizophrenia and offenders with severe mental disorders decision-making performance have produced mixed findings. In addition, most earlier studies have assessed decision-making skills in offenders or people with mental disorders, separately, thus neglecting the possible additional contribution of a mental disorder on choice patterns in people who offend. This study aimed to fill this gap by comparing risk-taking in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), with and without a history of serious violent offending assessing whether, and to what extent, risk-taking represents a significant predictor of group membership, controlling for their executive skills, as well as for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.

DNA barcoding Brooklyn (New York): A first assessment of biodiversity in Marine Park by citizen scientists.

DNA barcoding is both an important research and science education tool. The technique allows for quick and accurate species identification using only minimal amounts of tissue samples taken from any organism at any developmental phase. DNA barcoding has many practical applications including furthering the study of taxonomy and monitoring biodiversity.

Breath alcohol level and plasma amino acids: a comparison between older and younger chronic alcohol-dependent patients.

Aim: The aim of the present study is to examine the distribution of plasma excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, according to the age and current breath alcohol levels (BrAl+/-), of alcohol-dependent patients.

Participants And Methods: 78 alcohol-dependent patients (mean age=46.2+/-11 years, men/women=54/24) were clinically tested, including the determination of the major excitatory as well as inhibitory amino acids.

Glutamic acid in withdrawal and weaning in patients classified according to Cloninger's and Lesch's typologies.

Aims: Though glutamic acid is well known as a working excitatory in the CNS, its impact on the modulation of alcohol withdrawal symptoms and withdrawal fits are not yet clear. The study has been undertaken to examine the levels of glutamic acid in chronic alcohol-dependent patients at different stages of alcohol withdrawal and weaning and to examine any existence of any differences according to Cloninger's and Lesch's typologies.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and fifty-nine alcohol-dependent patients were assessed according to Cloninger's and Lesch's typologies and related to abstinence duration, age, and gender.

Epidemiology of substance use in a representative sample of 18-year-old males.

Aims: To assess recent drug use through urine testing as well as the prevalence of tobacco and alcohol dependence among young males and to analyse the associations between tobacco dependence and cannabis use (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC), tobacco dependence, and alcohol dependence as well as between THC use and other illicit drug use.

Methods: Urine samples were collected, and nicotine and alcohol questionnaires were administered. Carbon monoxide was assessed in exhaled air.

Gender differences: does alcohol affect females more than males?

Human substance use is complex, being influenced by many psychopathological and sociological factors as well as the substance's pharmacological effects. Dependence development is not attributable directly to the consumed substance, but takes also all the other issues into regard. One of all these issues might be that gender represents an influencing factor and impacts on tolerance of a substance, on abuse patterns and finally on development of dependence as well as on addiction related disorders.

Craving and other characteristics of the comorbidity of alcohol and nicotine dependence.

Purpose: In this cross-sectional study we compared alcohol-dependent smokers and non-alcohol-dependent smokers with respect to intensity of nicotine dependence, craving conditions, sleep disturbances, comorbidity with major depression, reasons for smoking, accompanying somatic diseases and patients' prolonged abstinence from smoking during the 3 years preceding the study.

Subjects And Methods: Fifty-one alcohol-dependent smokers and 327 non-alcohol-dependent smokers diagnosed as ICD-10 and DSM-IV-nicotine dependent, were investigated by means of the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, the Lübeck Craving-Recurrence Risk Questionnaire and the Lesch Alcohol Dependence Typology (both adapted to smoking).

Results: The intensity of nicotine dependence was more enhanced in alcohol-dependent smokers compared to non-alcohol-dependent smokers.

CDT values are not influenced by epithelial cell apoptosis in chronic alcoholic patients-preliminary results.

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) has been well established as a marker for high alcohol consumption. As studies concerning the specificity of CDT in patients with liver disease have shown controversial outcomes, efforts to illuminate mechanisms leading to impaired CDT specificity in this patient group cannot yet be considered successful. Evidence of apoptosis as examined in 72 alcohol-dependent patients using serum contents of caspase-related M30 monoclonal antibody significantly correlated with aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase but did not influence CDT levels.

The Austrian multicentre study on smoking: subgroups of nicotine dependence and their craving.

Background: The misconception of tobacco smoking as a 'bad habit' has been replaced by a diagnosis of addiction. Although help to quit is offered by nicotine replacement, antidepressants and psychotherapeutic support, there is no cure yet. One cause of impediment might be psychiatric comorbidity.