Effects of aripiprazole, risperidone, and olanzapine on 5-HT1A receptors in patients with schizophrenia.

To investigate the impact of various antipsychotic drugs on the 5-HT1A serotoninergic system, we performed a [F]4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(N-2-pirydynyl)-p-luorobenzamido]-ethyl-piperazine PET study in 19 schizophrenic patients treated with either aripiprazole, which has a partial agonist activity at 5-HT1A receptors, or second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) (olanzapine or risperidone), which do not demonstrate such property. We used a simplified reference tissue model to generate parametric images of [F]MPPF-binding potential (BPND). A significant reduction of [F]MPPF BPND was found in treated schizophrenic patients compared to age- and sex-matched healthy subjects.

[Crosscultural aspects of bipolar disorder: results of a comparative study between French and Tunisian patients].

Background: Bipolar disorders are one of the most potentially severe psychiatric disorders, implying a high degree of morbidity and incapacity for patients. Indeed, the World Health Organization in 1996 ranked them as the sixth most disabling condition worldwide. Major advances have been achieved in their understanding and management.

[Clinical potentialities and perspectives for the use of aripiprazole in other disorders than its classical indications. A critical analysis of the recent literature].

Aripiprazole is indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia in Europe and the United States, and for bipolar disorders in the latter. Nevertheless, a review of recent literature has shown that aripiprazole has been studied in many other disorders, notably resistant depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, borderline personality, Tourette syndrome, addiction, psychotic symptoms in children and adolescents, and neurological and psychiatric disorders in the elderly (late onset delusional disorders, Alzheimer, Parkinson, and delirium). The study of aripiprazole in these numerous indications is motivated by its excellent tolerance and original pharmacological effect (partial agonistic effect on the D2 and 5-HT1A receptors, and antagonistic effect on the 5-HT2A receptors).

[Present data and treatment schedule of aripiprazole in the treatment of schizophrenia].

Among the second generation antipsychotics, aripiprazole presents a new pharmacological profile, basically differentiated by a partial agonist effect on the D2 and D3 dopaminergic receptors. Five short-term efficacy studies, conducted on 1648 patients presenting with schizophrenia or acute relapse of schizoaffective disorders, demonstrated the greater efficacy of aripiprazole than the placebo and comparable efficacy to that of haloperidol and risperidone. The short-term tolerance profile was characterised by a lesser incidence of the extrapyramidal side effects and drowsiness than with haloperidol.

Visual-perceptual abilities in healthy controls, depressed patients, and schizophrenia patients.

Previous studies have suggested a right hemineglect in schizophrenia, however few assessed possible visual-perceptual implication in this lateralized anomaly. A manual line bisection without (i.e.

Summer birth and deficit schizophrenia in Tunisia.

Summer birth has been associated with the deficit Schizophrenia syndrome, while DSM-IV schizophrenia is associated with winter birth. We confirm these monthly differences in a Tunisian sample of patients with schizophrenia, with a summer birth peak (n=34 deficit patients) and an expected winter birth peak (n=46 non-deficit patients).

Pseudoneglect in schizophrenia: a line bisection study with cueing.

Introduction: Numerous authors have reported the existence of lateralised abnormalities towards the right side in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: In the present study, a manual line bisection task was used to assess the existence of a visuospatial bias in patients with schizophrenia as compared to healthy subjects and left unilateral neglect patients. In addition, we used a local cueing paradigm (consisting of a number placed on the right, on the left, or at both ends of the line).

Serotonergic response to stress: a protective factor against abnormal dopaminergic reactivity in schizophrenia?

In a double-blind-crossover-study, 10 patients with schizophrenia, 10 of their unaffected siblings and 9 healthy controls randomly received metabolic stressor and placebo. A significant HVA plasma elevation in response to stress was found in siblings whose response was intermediate to that of patients and controls. Only siblings additionally displayed an exaggerated 5HIAA response.

Abnormalities of auditory event-related potentials in students with high scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire.

Some auditory event-related potential (ERP) abnormalities characterize both patients with schizophrenia and subjects with schizotypal personality disorder. It was therefore hypothesized that subjects from the community with schizotypal traits might also present ERP abnormalities. In this study, we compared auditory ERP latencies and amplitudes in 13 subjects with high (H-SPQ) and 12 subjects with low (L-SPQ) scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), selected from 198 Tunisian students.

Exaggerated leftward bias in the mental number line of patients with schizophrenia.

Several visuo-motor tasks can be used to demonstrate biases towards left hemispace in schizophrenic patients, suggesting a minor right hemineglect. Recent studies in neglect patients used a new number bisection task to highlight a lateralized defect in their visuo-spatial representation of numbers. To test a possible lateralized representational deficit in schizophrenia, we used the number bisection task in 11 schizophrenic patients compared to 11 healthy controls.

[Impact of a new cognitive remediation strategy on interpersonal problem solving skills and social autonomy in schizophrenia].

Introduction: Despite recent developments, the impact of pharmacotherapy on social autonomy and interpersonal problem solving skills in patients with schizophrenia remains limited, with consequences in terms of socio-professional functioning. Indeed, independently of the positive, negative and/or disorganization symptoms, functional deficits in patients with schizophrenia rely mainly on various cognitive impairments.

Objectives: To determine the impact of a new Cognitive Remediation Strategy on interpersonal problem solving skills, social autonomy and symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.

Autism and developmental delay: a comparative clinical study in very young children using IBSE scale.

Objective: This study improves the knowledge of early autistic symptomatology and research concerning (i) the significant differences in the behaviors of children with autistic disorder (AD) and children with a developmental delay (DD), and (ii) the influence of the cognitive delay on symptomatology.

Method: Two groups of 20 young children (7-42 months) were compared: children with AD, and those with DD. The groups were paired by chronological and developmental age.

[A new patient focused scale for measuring quality of life in schizophrenic patients: the Schizophrenia Quality of Life Scale (SOL)].

Unlabelled: RATIONALE/OBJECTIVE: Quality of Life (QOL) has been recognized as an important measure of the outcome of patients by clinicians and policy makers in Mental Health. The emerging consensus in the health field that personal values and the patient's preferences are important in monitoring the quality of medical care outcomes makes it even more important to assess the patient's perspectives. Unfortunately, there is little consensus about what constitutes QOL or how to measure it, particularly in psychotic patients.

Source monitoring deficits in hallucinating compared to non-hallucinating patients with schizophrenia.

In two source memory tests, hallucinating patients with schizophrenia (N=30), compared to non-hallucinating (N=31), are impaired in recognizing internal self-generated items and misattribute them to an external event. They are not impaired in recognizing events from two internal sources. Results support a selective source-monitoring deficit in the occurrence of auditory hallucinations.

[Wiscosin card sorting task in patients with schizophrenia and thier siblings].

Objective: This study's first objective was to confirm that patients with schizophrenia and their nonmentally ill siblings share the same impaired executive function when compared to healthy control subjects. The second objective was to study the relation between Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST) performance and the persistence and severity of clinical symptoms, as well as different clinical dimensions.

Method: Ninety subjects were involved in this study, divided in 3 groups of 30 each: one group of patients with schizophrenia, one group of their siblings, and a control group.

Low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation improves source monitoring deficit in hallucinating patients with schizophrenia.

Auditory hallucinations have been associated with a disruption in monitoring one's own speech suggesting an autonoetic agnosia in schizophrenia. This deficit can be measured by a source monitoring task. Low frequency transcranial magnetic stimulations (rTMS) applied to the left temporoparietal cortex can inhibit cortical areas involved both in autonoetic agnosia (which means 'the inability to identify self-generated mental events') and in auditory hallucinations (AH) phenomena.

Facial expression and sex recognition in schizophrenia and depression.

Background: Impaired facial expression recognition in schizophrenia patients contributes to abnormal social functioning and may predict functional outcome in these patients. Facial expression processing involves individual neural networks that have been shown to malfunction in schizophrenia. Whether these patients have a selective deficit in facial expression recognition or a more global impairment in face processing remains controversial.

Effects of emotion and identity on facial affect processing in schizophrenia.

We used facial affect labeling and matching tasks to study effects of (1) emotion and (2) identity on facial affect processing in patients with remitted schizophrenia (n=30) compared with healthy controls (n=30). The patients (1) had a specific deficit for labeling facial affects of sadness and anger but not happiness, disgust and fear; they (2) performed as well as controls in matching facial affects in one face but were impaired in matching facial affects in two different faces. The patients' impairment in facial affect processing may be emotion-specific.

Slow transcranial magnetic stimulation can rapidly reduce resistant auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

Background: Almost a quarter of patients with schizophrenia present with resistant auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), a phenomenon that may relate to activation of brain areas underlying speech perception. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at 1 Hz reduces cortical activation, and recent results have shown that 1-Hz left temporoparietal rTMS may reduce AVH. The aim of this study was to replicate recent data and investigate whether low-frequency rTMS with a high total stimulation number delivered in a shorter 5-day block produces similar benefit.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation does not potentiate antidepressant treatment.

In a double blind controlled study, rTMS results in a similar antidepressant effect to sham in combination with paroxetine. Both groups had the same delay in scale's scores improvement. rTMS seems not to be efficient as an add-on treatment to pharmacological medication in non-resistant major depression.

Hidden cardiac lesions and psychotropic drugs as a possible cause of sudden death in psychiatric patients: a report of 14 cases and review of the literature.

Objective: To confirm the hypothesis that psychotropic drugs, especially neuroleptics, lithium, and antidepressants, are implicated as a cause of unexpected sudden death in psychiatric patients because of their cardiotoxicity, especially when hidden cardiac lesions are present.

Method: We performed a full pathological examination of 14 psychiatric patients who unexpectedly and suddenly died between 1980 and 1999.

Results: Neuroleptics were involved in 13 instances, antidepressants in 9, and anxiolytics in 5.