Sensory acuity and reasoning in delusional disorder.

Systematic research on delusional disorder (DD) is limited. The goal of this study was to assess DD patients in the following areas: sensory capacities, decision-making style, and complex reasoning. Ten DD patients and 10 matched normal controls completed the following (1) smell, taste, and vision testing; (2) a probabilistic inference test in which subjects made probability decisions; and (3) a gambling task assessing complex reasoning.

Pubertal neurodevelopment and the emergence of psychotic symptoms.

One of the chief epidemiological hallmarks of schizophrenia is its modal age at onset in early adulthood. Clinical onset is preceded by an adolescent period that is usually characterized by increasing adjustment problems. Recent theorizing about the etiology of schizophrenia has focused on postpubertal brain changes that may be involved in triggering the expression of vulnerability for schizophrenia.