Relations between social support, appraisal and coping and both positive and negative outcomes in young carers.

This study examined a stress/coping model of adjustment in early caregiving. It was hypothesized that better adjustment would be related to higher social support and approach coping, and lower stress appraisals and avoidant coping. One hundred young carers aged 10-25 years completed questionnaires.

Mapping cortical thickness in children with 22q11.2 deletions.

The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (velocardiofacial/DiGeorge syndrome, 22q11.2DS) involves cardiac and craniofacial anomalies, marked deficits in visuospatial cognition, and elevated rates of psychosis.

Incidence and survival rates for young blacks with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the United States.

Objectives: To compare the incidence rates of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) among US black, white, and Asian/Pacific Islander (Asian) populations, with a focus on those diagnosed before age 20 years and between ages 20 and 29 years. Our secondary objective was to determine differences in survival rates between US blacks, whites, and Asians with NPC who were younger than 30 years.

Design: Data from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) tumor registry system were used to determine incidence and survival rates for cases of NPC diagnosed in the specified age groups between 1973 and 2002.

The relationship between performance and fMRI signal during working memory in patients with schizophrenia, unaffected co-twins, and control subjects.

While behavioral research shows working memory impairments in schizophrenics and their relatives, functional neuroimaging studies of patients and healthy controls show conflicting findings of hypo- and hyperactivation, possibly indicating different relationships between physiological activity and performance. In a between-subjects regression analysis of fMRI activation and performance, low performance was associated with relatively lower activation in patients than controls, while higher performance was associated with higher activation in patients than controls in DLPFC and parietal cortex, but not occipital cortex, with unaffected twins of schizophrenics being intermediate between the groups. Accordingly, this supports the idea that both hyper and hypoactivation may be possible along a continuum of behavioral performance in a way consistent with a neural inefficiency model.

Brain dopamine d1 receptors in twins discordant for schizophrenia.

Objective: It has been suggested that deficits in higher-order cognitive functions serve as intermediate phenotypic indicators of genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia postulates that insufficiency of dopamine transmission in the prefrontal cortex contributes to the cognitive deficits observed in patients with the disease, and there is robust empirical evidence for a central role of prefrontal cortex dopamine D(1) receptors in working memory functions.

Method: The authors examined the genetic and nongenetic effects on D(1) receptor binding in schizophrenia by studying monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia as well as healthy comparison twins using positron emission tomography (PET) and the D(1) receptor antagonist ligand [(11)C]SCH 23390.

Pharmacotherapy for stress urinary incontinence.

The purpose of this review article is to highlight new pharmacotherapies on the horizon for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. Although behavioral and surgical therapies are currently the mainstay of treatment for this condition, we are hopeful that pharmacotherapy will one day take center stage of the various treatment options. Currently, there are no medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Inherited auditory-cortical dysfunction in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia.

Background: Information on the inheritance of neurophysiological abnormalities might help elucidate the molecular genetic basis of schizophrenia. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the inheritance of auditory-cortical deficiencies in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia.

Methods: Auditory EEG/MEG responses to frequent standard and occasional deviant tones were measured in mono- and dizygotic (MZ and DZ) twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia and demographically matched healthy twin pairs, recruited from a total population cohort.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in young patients: a systematic review of racial demographics.

Objectives: To evaluate patients 25 years of age or younger who were treated for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Study Design: Retrospective review, systematic literature review.

Methods: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is rare in the Western world.

The inheritance of intermediate phenotypes for schizophrenia.

Purpose Of Review: While schizophrenia is substantially heritable, the mode of inheritance is complex, involving numerous genes of small effect and a non-trivial environmental component. The 'endophenotype' approach is an alternative method for measuring phenotypic variation that may facilitate the identification of susceptibility genes in the context of complexly inherited traits. Here we review recent studies applying this method to measures of brain structure, physiology, and function in samples of schizophrenia patients and their non-ill first-degree relatives (siblings and co-twins).

Mapping heritability and molecular genetic associations with cortical features using probabilistic brain atlases: methods and applications to schizophrenia.

There is an urgent need to decipher the complex nature of genotype-phenotype relationships within the multiple dimensions of brain structure and function that are compromised in neuropsychiatric syndromes such as schizophrenia. Doing so requires sophisticated methodologies to represent population variability in neural traits and to probe their heritable and molecular genetic bases. We have recently developed and applied computational algorithms to map the heritability of, as well as genetic linkage and association to, neural features encoded using brain imaging in the context of three-dimensional (3D), populationbased, statistical brain atlases.

Neurocognitive performance and functional disability in the psychosis prodrome.

Objective: This study evaluates the pattern of neuropsychological deficits and their association with clinical symptomatology and social functioning in individuals identified as ultra-high-risk (UHR) for psychosis.

Methods: A sample of 45 UHR individuals was identified using the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) from consecutive referrals to the Staglin Music Festival Center for the Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States (CAPPS) at UCLA. Participants were administered a neurocognitive test battery, as well as measures of global (Strauss-Carpenter Outcome Scale) and social functioning (UCLA Social Attainment Survey).

Patterns of antibody response in humans to the anthrax vaccine adsorbed (AVA) primary (six-dose) series.

The antibody profile during and after the six-dose primary vaccination series with anthrax vaccine adsorbed (AVA, Biothrax) was characterized in 86 human volunteers. Ninety-three percent of recipients developed IgG antibodies to Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) after two doses, and 100% were seropositive after dose #3. Geometric mean concentrations (GMC) of IgG to PA measured before and after each dose were significantly lower after injection #3 (peak GMC=146.

Infant motor development is associated with adult cognitive categorisation in a longitudinal birth cohort study.

Background: The relationship between the age of reaching infant developmental milestones and later intellectual function within the normal population remains unresolved. We hypothesised that the age of learning to stand in infancy would be associated with adult executive function and that the association would be apparent throughout the range of abilities, rather than confined to extremes.

Methods: The Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort is based upon 12,058 live-born children in a geographic and temporally defined population.

Striatal dopamine D1 and D2 receptor balance in twins at increased genetic risk for schizophrenia.

The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia postulates that a dysfunctional dopaminergic system is a major pathophysiological mechanism in the disease. Most studies have focused on striatal dopamine D2 receptors, but a disturbed link between dopamine D1 and D2 receptors has also been proposed. Schizophrenia is highly heritable, and recent evidence suggests that alterations in the dopaminergic system confer susceptibility for schizophrenia instead of being solely related to the to overt expression of the disease.

Positive family environment predicts improvement in symptoms and social functioning among adolescents at imminent risk for onset of psychosis.

This study investigated whether family factors, such as criticism, emotional over-involvement (EOI), warmth, and positive remarks, as measured by the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI), predict symptom change and social outcome for individuals identified as at imminent risk for conversion to psychosis. Twenty-six adolescent patients were administered the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes and the Strauss-Carpenter Outcome Scale at baseline and follow-up assessment approximately three months later. Patients' primary caregivers were administered the CFI at baseline.

Infant motor development and adult cognitive functions in schizophrenia.

Background: Childhood neuromotor dysfunction is a risk factor for schizophrenia, a disorder in which cognitive deficits are prominent. The relationship between early neurodevelopment and adult cognition in schizophrenia remains unclear.

Methods: We examined the associations between infant motor development and adult cognitive functions in schizophrenia (n = 61) and the general population (n = 104) in a sample drawn from the The Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort.

The prodromal questionnaire (PQ): preliminary validation of a self-report screening measure for prodromal and psychotic syndromes.

This study aims to establish preliminary validity of the Prodromal Questionnaire (PQ), a 92-item self-report screening measure for prodromal and psychotic symptoms. Adolescents and young adults (N = 113) referred to a prodromal psychosis research clinic completed the PQ and the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS [Miller, T.J.

Association of DISC1/TRAX haplotypes with schizophrenia, reduced prefrontal gray matter, and impaired short- and long-term memory.

Context: Chromosome 1q42 is among several genomic regions showing replicated evidence of linkage with schizophrenia, but the specific susceptibility mechanisms underlying this relationship remain to be identified.

Objective: To examine a series of haplotype blocks of single-nucleotide polymorphic markers from a segment of 1q42 spanning the disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) and translin-associated factor X (TRAX) genes for association with schizophrenia and several endophenotypic traits thought to be involved in disease pathogenesis.

Design: Population-based twin cohort study.

The HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin reverses the learning and attention deficits in a mouse model of neurofibromatosis type 1.

Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a common neurological disorder caused by mutations in the gene encoding Neurofibromin, a p21Ras GTPase Activating Protein (GAP). Importantly, NF1 causes learning disabilities and attention deficits. A previous study showed that the learning and memory deficits of a mouse model of NF1 (nf1+/-) appear to be caused by excessive p21Ras activity leading to impairments in long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular mechanism of learning and memory.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity during maintenance and manipulation of information in working memory in patients with schizophrenia.

Context: It remains unclear whether altered regional brain physiological activity in patients with schizophrenia during working memory tasks relates to maintenance-related processes, manipulation-related (ie, executive) processes, or both.

Objective: To examine regional functional activations of the brain during maintenance- and manipulation-related working memory processing in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy comparison subjects.

Design: Functional images of the brain were acquired in 11 schizophrenic patients and 12 healthy control subjects (matched for age, sex, handedness, and parental education) during 2 spatial working memory paradigms, one contrasting maintenance-only processing with maintenance and manipulation processing and the other contrasting parametrically varying maintenance demands.

Comparison of leak point pressure methods in an animal model of stress urinary incontinence.

We compared three different methods of testing leak point pressure (LPP) in rats with or without the pudendal nerves and nerves to the iliococcygeus/pubococcygeus muscles transected: (1) sneeze induced with a whisker in the nostril (sneeze LPP), (2) manually increased abdominal pressure (Crede LPP), and (3) increased intravesical pressure using the vertical tilt table method (vertical tilt table LPP). In sham rats, passive intravesical pressure rises in Crede and vertical tilt table methods induced active urethral closure mechanisms that contributed to high LPPs (41.4 and 35.

Spatial working memory function in twins with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Background: Family studies are in conflict as to whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have independent genetic etiologies. Given the relatively low prevalence (approximately 1%) of these disorders, the use of quantitative endophenotypic markers of genetic liability might provide a more sensitive strategy for evaluating their genetic overlap. We have previously demonstrated that spatial working memory deficits increase in a dose-dependent fashion with increasing genetic proximity to a proband among the unaffected co-twins of schizophrenic patients.