The effect of prednisolone on symptom severity in schizophrenia: A placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Immune dysregulation may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Given the need for new treatment options in schizophrenia, anti-inflammatory medication could be a potential treatment in this illness.

Methods: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or psychosis NOS were randomized 1:1 to either prednisolone or placebo, in addition to their regular antipsychotic medication.

Hostility and aggressive behaviour in first episode psychosis: Results from the OPTiMiSE trial.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to determine clinical factors related to hostility and disturbing and aggressive behaviour and to examine the effect of medication on these behaviours in FEP.

Methods: Data from phase I and II of the OPTiMiSE trial are used. Outcome measures are the hostility item of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS P7) and the disturbing and aggressive behaviour domain of the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP-D).

Safety, tolerability and efficacy of the glutaminyl cyclase inhibitor PQ912 in Alzheimer's disease: results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2a study.

Background: PQ912 is an inhibitor of the glutaminyl cyclase enzyme that plays a central role in the formation of synaptotoxic pyroglutamate-A-beta oligomers. We report on the first clinical study with PQ912 in subjects with biomarker-proven Alzheimer's disease (AD). The aim was to determine the maximal tolerated dose, target occupancy and treatment-related pharmacodynamic effects.

Heritability of cortical thickness changes over time in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia.

Background: Cortical thickness and surface area changes have repeatedly been found in schizophrenia. Whether progressive loss in cortical thickness and surface area are mediated by genetic or disease related factors is unknown. Here we investigate to what extent genetic and/or environmental factors contribute to the association between change in cortical thickness and surface area and liability to develop schizophrenia.

Longitudinal development of hormone levels and grey matter density in 9 and 12-year-old twins.

Puberty is characterized by major changes in hormone levels and structural changes in the brain. To what extent these changes are associated and to what extent genes or environmental influences drive such an association is not clear. We acquired circulating levels of luteinizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol and testosterone and magnetic resonance images of the brain from 190 twins at age 9 [9.

Genes contributing to subcortical volumes and intellectual ability implicate the thalamus.

It has been shown that brain volume and general intellectual ability are to a significant extent influenced by the same genetic factors. Several cortical regions of the brain also show a genetic correlation with intellectual ability, demonstrating that intellectual functioning is probably represented in a heritable distributed network of cortical regions throughout the brain. This study is the first to investigate a genetic association between subcortical volumes and intellectual ability, taking into account the thalamus, caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, hippocampus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens using an extended twin design.

IQ change over time in schizophrenia and healthy individuals: a meta-analysis.

Background: Cognitive deficits have been recognized as a key feature of schizophrenia, since the first description by Kraepelin. Specifically, lower intelligence is considered a core feature of the disorder and may represent a risk factor for its development. However, whether global intelligence decreases over time in schizophrenia is not known.

Tract-based diffusion tensor imaging in patients with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic siblings.

Structural brain abnormalities have consistently been found in patients with schizophrenia. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been shown to be a useful method to measure white matter (WM) integrity in this illness, but findings in the earlier disease stages are inconclusive. Moreover, the relationship between WM microstructure and the familial risk for developing schizophrenia remains unresolved.

White matter development in early puberty: a longitudinal volumetric and diffusion tensor imaging twin study.

White matter microstructure and volume show synchronous developmental patterns in children. White matter volume increases considerably during development. Fractional anisotropy, a measure for white matter microstructural directionality, also increases with age.

Overlapping and segregating structural brain abnormalities in twins with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Context: The nosologic dichotomy between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) as formulated by Kraepelin is currently being questioned, stimulated by the finding that schizophrenia and BD partly share a common genetic origin. Although both disorders are characterized by changes in brain structure, family studies suggest more segregating than overlapping neuroanatomical abnormalities in both disorders.

Objectives: To investigate whether patients with schizophrenia and patients with BD display overlapping abnormalities in brain volumes and cortical thickness and whether these are caused by shared genetic or environmental influences.

Heritability of volumetric brain changes and height in children entering puberty.

The human brain undergoes structural changes in children entering puberty, while simultaneously children increase in height. It is not known if brain changes are under genetic control, and whether they are related to genetic factors influencing the amount of overall increase in height. Twins underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans at age 9 (N = 190) and 12 (N = 125).

Scale-free modulation of resting-state neuronal oscillations reflects prolonged brain maturation in humans.

Human neuronal circuits undergo life-long functional reorganization with profound effects on cognition and behavior. Well documented prolonged development of anatomical brain structures includes white and gray matter changes that continue into the third decade of life. We investigated resting-state EEG oscillations in 1433 subjects from 5 to 71 years.

Mapping reliability in multicenter MRI: voxel-based morphometry and cortical thickness.

Multicenter structural MRI studies can have greater statistical power than single-center studies. However, across-center differences in contrast sensitivity, spatial uniformity, etc., may lead to tissue classification or image registration differences that could reduce or wholly offset the enhanced statistical power of multicenter data.

Genetic and environmental influences on focal brain density in bipolar disorder.

Structural neuroimaging studies suggest the presence of subtle abnormalities in the brains of patients with bipolar disorder. The influence of genetic and/or environmental factors on these brain abnormalities is unknown. To investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors on grey and white matter brain densities in bipolar disorder, monozygotic and dizygotic twins concordant and discordant for bipolar disorder were scanned using 1.

Network analysis of resting state EEG in the developing young brain: structure comes with maturation.

During childhood, brain structure and function changes substantially. Recently, graph theory has been introduced to model connectivity in the brain. Small-world networks, such as the brain, combine optimal properties of both ordered and random networks, i.

Brain plasticity and intellectual ability are influenced by shared genes.

Although the adult brain is considered to be fully developed and stable until senescence when its size steadily decreases, such stability seems at odds with continued human (intellectual) development throughout life. Moreover, although variation in human brain size is highly heritable, we do not know the extent to which genes contribute to individual differences in brain plasticity. In this longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study in twins, we report considerable thinning of the frontal cortex and thickening of the medial temporal cortex with increasing age and find this change to be heritable and partly related to cognitive ability.

Heritability of DTI and MTR in nine-year-old children.

Overall brain size is strikingly heritable throughout life. The influence of genes on variation in focal gray and white matter density is less pronounced and may vary with age. This paper describes the relative influences of genes and environment on variation in white matter microstructure, measured along fiber tracts with diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging, in a sample of 185 nine-year old children from monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs.

Genetic and environmental influences on pro-inflammatory monocytes in bipolar disorder: a twin study.

Context: A monocyte pro-inflammatory state has previously been reported in bipolar disorder (BD).

Objective: To determine the contribution of genetic and environmental influences on the association between monocyte pro-inflammatory state and BD.

Design: A quantitative polymerase chain reaction case-control study of monocytes in bipolar twins.

Heritability of regional and global brain structure at the onset of puberty: a magnetic resonance imaging study in 9-year-old twin pairs.

Puberty represents the phase of sexual maturity, signaling the change from childhood into adulthood. During childhood and adolescence, prominent changes take place in the brain. Recently, variation in frontal, temporal, and parietal areas was found to be under varying genetic control between 5 and 19 years of age.

Does having a twin brother make for a bigger brain?

Objective: Brain volume of boys is larger than that of girls by approximately 10%. Prenatal exposure to testosterone has been suggested in the masculinization of the brain. For example, in litter-bearing mammals intrauterine position increases prenatal testosterone exposure through adjacent male fetuses, resulting in masculinization of brain morphology.

Influence of genes and environment on brain volumes in twin pairs concordant and discordant for bipolar disorder.

Context: Structural neuroimaging studies suggest the presence of subtle abnormalities in the brains of patients with bipolar disorder. The influence of genetic and/or environmental factors on these brain abnormalities is unknown.

Objective: To investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors on brain volume in bipolar disorder.

Heritability of changes in brain volume over time in twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia.

Context: Structural brain abnormalities have consistently been found in schizophrenia, with increased familial risk for the disease associated with these abnormalities. Some brain volume changes are progressive over the course of the illness. Whether these progressive brain volume changes are mediated by genetic or disease-related factors is unknown.

Sex steroids and brain structure in pubertal boys and girls.

Sex steroids exert important organizational effects on brain structure. Early in life, they are involved in brain sexual differentiation. During puberty, sex steroid levels increase considerably.

Longitudinal MRI study in schizophrenia patients and their healthy siblings.

To investigate whether genetic and/or disease-related factors are involved in progressive structural brain changes in schizophrenia, magnetic resonance imaging scans with a 5-year scan interval were acquired in patients, their same-gender siblings and matched healthy controls. Structural equation modelling was applied to assess disease and familial effects. Whole brain and cerebral grey matter volumes decreased excessively in patients compared with their siblings and the controls, suggesting that the progressive brain loss in schizophrenia may be related to the disease process.