Publications by authors named "C Alloza"

Background: Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disorder characterized by increased cortical thinning throughout the life span. Studies have reported a shared genetic basis between schizophrenia and cortical thickness. However, no genes whose expression is related to abnormal cortical thinning in schizophrenia have been identified.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Illegal stimulant use is linked to a higher risk of first-episode psychosis (FEP), with 14.5% of patients experiencing FEP reporting lifetime stimulant use compared to 10.8% of controls.
  • The study analyzed 1,130 FEP patients and 1,497 controls across Europe and Brazil, using logistic regression to determine the relationship between stimulant use and FEP risk.
  • Findings suggest that eliminating stimulant use could potentially prevent 3.35% to 7.61% of FEP cases, indicating a significant public health concern that varies by country.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Regulators are faced with many challenges surrounding health data usage, including privacy, fragmentation, validity, and generalizability, especially in the European Union, for which synthetic data may provide innovative solutions. Synthetic data, defined as data artificially generated rather than captured in the real world, are increasingly being used for healthcare research purposes as a proxy to real-world data (RWD). Currently, there are barriers particularly challenging in Europe, where sharing patient's data is strictly regulated, costly, and time-consuming, causing delays in evidence generation and regulatory approvals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Emerging evidence suggests brain white matter alterations in adolescents with early-onset psychosis (EOP; age of onset <18 years). However, as neuroimaging methods vary and sample sizes are modest, results remain inconclusive. Using harmonized data processing protocols and a mega-analytic approach, we compared white matter microstructure in EOP and healthy controls using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Schizophrenia can make the brain age faster, leading to more cognitive problems and health issues.
  • A study looked at brain scans of 2,803 people with schizophrenia and 2,598 healthy people to see how much older their brains looked compared to their actual ages.
  • The results showed that people with schizophrenia had brains that looked about 3.55 years older than they should be, but this wasn’t linked to how long they had the illness or how severe their symptoms were.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF