Psychometric liability to psychosis and childhood adversities are associated with shorter telomere length: A study on schizophrenia patients, unaffected siblings, and non-clinical controls.

Compared to the general population, individuals diagnosed with Schizophrenia (SCZ) experience a higher frequency and an earlier onset of chronic medical disorders, resulting in a reduction in life expectancy by an average of 15-25 years. Recently, it has been hypothesized that SCZ is a syndrome of accelerated aging. Childhood adversity was also associated with the pathogenesis and course of SCZ.

Cognitive Features of High-functioning Adults with Autism and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.

Objective: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia share common features in terms of pathophysiology and clinical appearance. Cognitive deficits are also present in both disorders. However, ASD and schizophrenia are heterogeneous syndromes, and  few  studies  have addressed patients with these disorders who have above average educational attainment.

Higher schizotypy predicts better metabolic profile in unaffected siblings of patients with schizophrenia.

Rationale: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more frequent in schizophrenia (Sz) than in the general population. This association is partly accounted for by shared susceptibility genetic variants.

Objective: We tested the hypotheses that a genetic predisposition to Sz would be associated with higher likelihood of insulin resistance (IR), and that IR would be predicted by subthreshold psychosis phenotypes.

[Differential Diagnosis of Schizophrenia: Psychotic Symptoms in Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Psychotic Disorders due to other Medical Conditions].

This review focuses on the differentiation of schizophrenia in the setting of adult psychiatry from neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD's) and psychosis due to other medical conditions (PDMC). Psychotic disorders in early adulthood are most frequently diagnosed with the schizophrenia spectrum or mood disorders. However, they may be the manifestation of neurologic, endocrine or immunologic disease.

Exploring the Role of Social Anhedonia in the Positive and Negative Dimensions of Schizotypy in a Non-Clinical Sample.

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the role of social anhedonia, defined as the lack of ability to feel pleasure from interpersonal relationship, in a multidimensional model of schizotypy and to determine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of Chapman's Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (SAS) in a non-clinical sample.

Methods: Second-grade students of Ankara University Medical Faculty were recruited (n=266, Mage=20.28).

Identifying gene-environment interactions in schizophrenia: contemporary challenges for integrated, large-scale investigations.

Recent years have seen considerable progress in epidemiological and molecular genetic research into environmental and genetic factors in schizophrenia, but methodological uncertainties remain with regard to validating environmental exposures, and the population risk conferred by individual molecular genetic variants is small. There are now also a limited number of studies that have investigated molecular genetic candidate gene-environment interactions (G × E), however, so far, thorough replication of findings is rare and G × E research still faces several conceptual and methodological challenges. In this article, we aim to review these recent developments and illustrate how integrated, large-scale investigations may overcome contemporary challenges in G × E research, drawing on the example of a large, international, multi-center study into the identification and translational application of G × E in schizophrenia.

[Science, Psychiatry, and the DSM].

The upcoming publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), provides an opportunity to revisit the seldom-addressed methodological issues in contemporary psychiatry. We think that DSM widely determines the scientific and clinical orientation of the discipline, and therefore provides a good vantage point to critique the current psychiatric methodology. The main scientific problem is a perseverative attempt at validating descriptively defined disorders that are standardized and simplified to achieve diagnostic reliability.

[Fragile X premutation in adult psychiatry: four cases and overview of clinical presentation].

Fragile X carrier status, also named as Fragile X premutation (FraX-PM), is defined by trinucleotide repeat expansions of shorter length compared to those that cause the full syndrome. Its clinical significance has been limited to the risk of further expansion to a full mutation in the offspring of carriers, until it was recently recognized as a clinical syndrome on its own, manifested by unique symptom constellations, as well as a combination of neuropsychiatric signs and symptoms that may be indistinguishable from several commonly seen disorders. The complex heterogeneity of its neuropsychiatric manifestations may render the diagnosis challenging, unless the clinician is familiar with the clinical picture and transmission pattern.

Hemispatial neglect evaluated by visual line bisection task in schizophrenic patients and their unaffected siblings.

Visuospatial attentional asymmetry has been investigated by the line bisection task in patients with schizophrenia, however, those studies are in small number and the results are controversial. The present study aimed to investigate hemispatial neglect in patients with schizophrenia (n=30), their healthy siblings (n=30) and healthy individuals (n=24) by a computerized version of the line bisection task. Deviation from the midline for both hemispaces (mean bisection error-MBE) were calculated and the effects of both hand and line length were controlled.

Social anxiety in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Previous research highlights the presence of social anxiety disorder related to disfiguring diseases, although DSM-IV precludes the diagnosis of social anxiety disorder related to a medical condition. The present study investigated the frequency and severity of social anxiety disorder in patients with Parkinson's disease (n=50) and comparison subjects (n=50). Social anxiety was diagnosed in 16% of patients with Parkinson's disease and 2% of the comparison subjects.

Defibrillation testing and early neurologic outcome.

During implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation, ventricular defibrillation testing (DFT) is considered a standard procedure. This procedure often requires multiple ventricular fibrillation (VF) inductions. These repeated short episodes of circulatory arrest with global cerebral ischemia may cause neurological damage.

[The factor structure of schizophrenic symptoms: which model is supported by independent item analysis?].

Objective: Most studies that have investigated the symptom dimensions of schizophrenia utilizing the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), both global rating scales, favored a 3-factor model. Only a few studies have examined the factor structure at the item level and they suggest a wider dimensional structure. The factor structure of schizophrenic symptoms has not been previously studied in Turkey, nor has the construct validity of these scales.

Peculiar word use as a possible trait marker in schizophrenia.

Peculiar word use in schizophrenia has been emphasized by many authors, however the definition or the linguistic and clinical correlates of this phenomenon are not clear. We propose a new, standard and reliable method to extract a numerical measure of peculiar word use with operationalized definitions. We applied a modified version of the Controlled Word Association Test (Turkish version) to a pool of healthy subjects (N=55) and used the data as norm to compare the degree of peculiarity and patterns of word association among patients with schizophrenia (N=33), their healthy siblings (N=31) and healthy controls (N=32).

Secondary social anxiety in hyperkinesias.

This is a comparison study that is aimed to investigate and compare the frequency and severity of secondary social anxiety disorder (SAD) in patients with hyperkinesias, which is associated with a significant sense of disfigurement and compromised social interaction. Patients with hemifacial spasm (n = 20), cervical dystonia (n = 20), and essential tremor (n = 20) were evaluated by SCID-I, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Rating Scales, and Sheehan Disability Scale. The DSM-IV H criterion excluding social anxiety related to a medical condition was disregarded for the diagnosis of secondary SAD.

Impaired verbal memory and otherwise spared cognition in remitted bipolar patients on monotherapy with lithium or valproate.

Objectives: Patients with bipolar disorder have been reported to have neurocognitive deficits; however, it is not known whether the cognitive dysfunctions are state-dependent or a stable trait. Lithium and valproate, 2 of the most widely used mood stabilizers in the treatment of bipolar disorder, have also been associated with cognitive impairment. However, the degree and pattern of neurocognitive impairment in euthymic bipolar patients on either monotherapy with lithium or valproate have not been compared before in depth.

Relative sparing of executive functions in the early phase of schizophrenia.

Findings about the impairment of executive functions in schizophrenia are not conclusive. The authors hypothesized that the severity of the impairments in the abilities that comprise EF might be different. Forty patients were assessed with a comprehensive battery that included four measures of executive functions and were compared with 60 healthy subjects.

Cortical inhibition in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients assessed with transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Although cortical inhibition deficit has been shown in schizophrenia patients by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), some controversies remain, possibly due to confounding factors such as medication use and clinical state at the time of assessment. First-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients, who share various degrees of genetic vulnerability with the patients, but are free from confounds related to medication and/or florid psychosis, have not been studied to date. We compared 12 relatives with 14 controls on several paradigms with TMS.

Dissociation between inattentiveness during mental status testing and social inattentiveness in the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms attention subscale.

The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) attention subscale has been found valid and reliable by some studies; however, there is some evidence to the contrary. We hypothesized that social inattentiveness (SANS 22) and inattentiveness during mental status testing (SANS 23) might be describing discrete constructs, and this dissociation might be a source of controversy. Thirty-five patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia were assessed by the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), SANS and a neuropsychological battery.