Interaction Between Val158Met Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Polymorphism and Social Cognitive Functioning in Schizophrenia: Pilot Study.

The Val158Met catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) functional polymorphism may influence social cognitive functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Aspects of social cognition were evaluated with the Facial Expression Recognition Test, the Voice Emotion Recognition Test, and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. The Short Recognition Memory Test for Faces was used as a control measure.

Does employment promote the process of recovery from schizophrenia? A review of the existing evidence.

The aim of this review is to appraise current evidence on the association between employment and specific, non-vocational components that are indicators of recovery from schizophrenia, such as symptom remission, neurocognitive functioning, social cognitive functioning, and quality of life. Out of 754 studies identified in a comprehensive bibliographical data search, 43 were selected for abstract screening and 18 were included in the final review. The studies were categorized in terms of the type of employment investigated (supported employment, Individual Placement and Support, competitive employment).

Current and future treatment modalities in schizophrenia: novel antipsychotic drugs and cognitive therapy.

In 60 years of use of antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia, the only definite advance has been the introduction of clozapine. Some but not all other atypical or second-generation drugs may have small therapeutic advantages over conventional antipsychotics, but this remains controversial. New entrant atypicals seem unlikely to be therapeutically superior to conventional drugs, and glutamatergic drugs have yet to fulfill their theoretical promise.

Can antipsychotics improve social cognition in patients with schizophrenia?

Social cognition is described as the higher mental processes that are engaged while people store, process, and use social information to make sense of themselves and others. Aspects of social cognition include emotion perception, social cue interpretation, attribution style, and theory of mind, all of which appear disordered in schizophrenia. Such social cognitive deficits are believed to be important predictors of functional outcome in schizophrenia, therefore they may represent a crucial treatment target.

Social cognition and visual perception in schizophrenia inpatients treated with first-and second-generation antipsychotic drugs.

Purpose: Social cognition captures affect recognition, social cue perception, "theory of mind," empathy, and attributional style. The aim of our study was to assess social cognition in schizophrenia inpatients being treated with first-generation antipsychotic drugs (FGAs), n=28 (perphenazine and haloperidol, FGAs) or with second-generation antipsychotic drugs (SGAs), n=56 (olanzapine and clozapine, SGAs).

Subjects And Methods: Eighty-four patients completed the Facial Expression Recognition Test, the Voice Emotion Recognition Test, the Short Recognition Memory Test for Faces, and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test.

Attentional and emotional functioning in schizophrenia patients treated with conventional and atypical antipsychotic drugs.

Background: Effectiveness of antipsychotics in treating emotional and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia still remains controversial. The aim of our study was to assess emotional and cognitive functioning in schizophrenic inpatients currently treated with typical antipsychotics (perphenazine, perazine, fluphenazine, and haloperidol) and in another group of schizophrenic inpatients currently on atypical antipsychotics (olanzapine, risperidone, amisulpride, and quetiapine).

Material/methods: One hundred patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders (39 treated using typical antipsychotics and 61 treated with atypical antipsychotics) under naturalistic treatment conditions, and 50 healthy controls were given the following: Test of Everyday Attention, Facial Emotion Recognition Test, Facial Memory Recognition Test, and "Reading the mind in the eyes" Test.

Transcription and pathway analysis of the superior temporal cortex and anterior prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia.

The molecular basis of schizophrenia is poorly understood; however, different brain regions are believed to play distinct roles in disease symptomology. We have studied gene expression in the superior temporal cortex (Brodmann area 22; BA22), which may play a role in positive pathophysiology, and compared our results with data from the anterior prefrontal cortex (BA10), which shows evidence for a role in negative symptoms. Genome-wide mRNA expression was determined in the BA22 region in 23 schizophrenics and 19 controls and compared with a BA10 data set from the same subjects.

Clozapine for treatment-resistant schizophrenia: National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance in the real world.

Introduction: Clozapine, a poorly tolerated antipsychotic drug, is widely recognized as the only efficacious option in treatment-resistant psychosis. The United Kingdom (U.K.

Update on the management of symptoms in schizophrenia: focus on amisulpride.

Amisulpride is an atypical antipsychotic drug with a unique receptor pharmacology which is dose dependent. It is a standard treatment in dysthymia as well as in psychosis. Amisulpride is efficacious, effective and well tolerated in positive symptoms of schizophrenia: there is extensive evidence that it treats negative symptoms when given in low doses, although relative lack of EPS and an antidepressant effect may contribute.

Attention and executive function in people with schizophrenia: Relationship with social skills and quality of life.

Objective. Executive function and attention are highly complex cognitive constructs that typically reveal evidence of impairment in people with schizophrenia. Studies in this area have traditionally utilised abstract tests of cognitive function and the importance of using more ecologically valid tests has not been extensively recognised.

Symptom rating scales and outcome in schizophrenia.

Background: Symptom rating scales are now well established in schizophrenia research but their scores are not the same as outcome.

Aims: To appraise the usefulness of symptom rating scales in evaluating the outcome of people with schizophrenia.

Method: Literature on the use of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) in schizophrenia research was studied.

Treatment with amisulpride and olanzapine improve neuropsychological function in schizophrenia.

Objectives: Although antipsychotic drugs control acute psychotic manifestations of schizophrenia, improving cognitive symptoms is also important for long-term prognosis.

Methods: Three hundred and seventy-seven adult patients with acute psychosis were randomised to either amisulpride (200-800 mg/d) or olanzapine (5-20 mg/d) for 6 months. Neuropsychological performance was assessed at inclusion and after 6 months in a subgroup of 26 subjects (11 treated with amisulpride and 15 with olanzapine) using the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), the Trail Making Test (TMT) and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT).

Quality of life in schizophrenia on conventional versus atypical antipsychotic medication: a comparative cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Atypical antipsychotic drugs, with superior tolerability and possibly superior efficacy, were expected to give schizophrenia patients better quality of life (QOL) than conventional treatment. Research findings are equivocal.

Method: We evaluated QOL using three subjective measures--Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI); Sickness Impact Profile (SIP); Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SQLS)--in 126 routinely seen patients whose treatment was stable for six months, regardless of co-morbidity, current clinical status and concomitant medications.

Metabolic control in patients with schizophrenia treated with amisulpride or olanzapine.

The use of certain atypical antipsychotics has been associated with metabolic disturbances. We have assessed the evolution of body weight and glycaemia during a 6-month randomized comparative trial of amisulpride and olanzapine. Three hundred and seventy-seven adult patients with schizophrenia were randomized to either amisulpride (200-800 mg/day) or olanzapine (5-20 mg/day) for 6 months.

Cognitive function and social abilities in patients with schizophrenia: relationship with atypical antipsychotics.

Although atypical antipsychotics have been associated with improvements in cognitive function in schizophrenia, the neurochemical basis for such effects is not well understood. Candidate neurotransmitter systems primarily involve dopamine and serotonin. The current study explored this issue by examining the cognitive abilities, social function and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia who were medicated with atypical antipsychotics.

An early marker for semantic memory impairment in patients with schizophrenia.

Introduction: Semantic memory impairment is now a well-documented phenomenon in patients with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the characteristics of this deficit and any early markers remain contentious.

Methods: In this preliminary study, 12 schizophrenic patients underwent longitudinal assessment using a battery of semantic memory tests.

Primary care use of antipsychotic drugs: an audit and intervention study.

Background: Concerns regarding the use of antipsychotic medication in secondary care suggested an examination of primary care prescribing.

Aim: To audit and intervene in the suboptimal prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to primary care patients.

Design Of Study: Cross-sectional prevalence: subsequent open treatment intervention.

Stability of set-shifting and planning abilities in patients with schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia have deficits in executive function that involve attentional set-shifting and planning ability. It is unclear, however, whether such deficits are stable during the course of the illness or if they fluctuate in response to medication effects or symptom changes. Patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia (n=28) and healthy control subjects (n=17) were tested on computerised measures of attentional set-shifting and planning at baseline and 9-month follow-up.

Are the cognitive effects of atypical antipsychotics influenced by their affinity to 5HT-2A receptors?

It is well documented that atypical antipsychotics have an influence on cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia, although the neurochemical basis for this effect is not well understood. One suggestion is that the effects are exerted through action on 5HT-2A receptors, which leads to changes in the level of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. The following study explored this hypothesis by comparing the cognitive effects of the atypical antipsychotics which have a high affinity for 5HT-2A receptors, with those that have little or no affinity to these receptors.

Novel antipsychotics in schizophrenia.

Several atypical antipsychotics have become available for the treatment of schizophrenia that are at least as effective as conventional treatment and with fewer extrapyramidal side effects. Their presumed mechanisms of therapeutic action vary and are no longer limited to dopamine D2 receptor antagonism. Numerous novel drugs are in development, with a variety of receptor affinities and other supposed therapeutic effects.

A double-blind, randomized comparative trial of amisulpride versus olanzapine for 6 months in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Atypical antipsychotics offer advantages over earlier drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia, although few data exist on the relative merits of different atypical antipsychotics. A multicentre, double-blind, randomized trial was performed to compare amisulpride and olanzapine in the treatment of acute schizophrenia. Adult schizophrenic patients with dominant positive symptomatology received amisulpride (200-800 mg/day) or olanzapine (5-20 mg/day) for 6 months.