Altered brain creatine cycle metabolites in bipolar I disorder with childhood abuse: A H magnetic resonance spectroscopy study.

Background: Childhood abuse (CA) is a risk factor for a number of psychiatric disorders and has been associated with higher risk of developing bipolar disorders (BD). CA in BD has been associated with more severe clinical outcomes, but the neurobiological explanation for this is unknown. Few studies have explored in vivo measurement of brain metabolites using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) in CA and no studies have investigated the association of CA severity with brain neurometabolites in BD.

Epistasis between COMT Val158Met and DRD3 Ser9Gly polymorphisms and cognitive function in schizophrenia: genetic influence on dopamine transmission.

Objective: To assess the relationship between cognitive function, a proposed schizophrenia endophenotype, and two genetic polymorphisms related to dopamine function, catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) Val158Met and dopamine receptor 3 (DRD3) Ser9Gly.

Methods: Fifty-eight outpatients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and 88 healthy controls underwent neurocognitive testing and genotyping. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) using age, sex, and years of education as covariates compared cognitive performance for the proposed genotypes in patients and controls.

Facial emotion recognition and its correlation with executive functions in bipolar I patients and healthy controls.

Introduction: The ability to recognize facial emotions is altered in patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) during mood episodes and even in euthymia, while cognitive functioning is similarly impaired. This recognition is considered a fundamental skill for successful social interaction. However, it is unclear whether the ability to recognize facial emotions is correlated with the cognitive deficits observed in BD.

Gender effects of the COMT Val 158 Met genotype on verbal fluency in healthy adults.

Cognitive performance in healthy individuals is associated with gender differences in specific tests; a female advantage has been demonstrated in language tests, whereas a male advantage has been demonstrated in spatial relation examinations. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) mediates important cognitive domains and is influenced by dopamine (DA) activity. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4680 in the catechol‑O‑methyltransferase (COMT) gene results in an amino acid substitution from valine (Val) to methionine (Met).

The ARIQUELI study: potentiation of quetiapine in bipolar I nonresponders with lithium versus aripiprazole.

Background: The treatment of bipolar disorder (BD) remains a challenge due to the complexity of the disease. Current guidelines represent an effort to assist clinicians in routine practice but have several limitations, particularly concerning long-term treatment. The ARIQUELI (efficacy and tolerability of the combination of lithium or aripiprazole in young bipolar non or partial responders to quetiapine monotherapy) study aims to evaluate two different augmentation strategies for quetiapine nonresponders or partial responders in acute and maintenance phases of BD treatment.

The impact of limbic system morphology on facial emotion recognition in bipolar I disorder and healthy controls.

Introduction: Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD) subjects during all mood states. This study aims to investigate the impact of limbic system morphology on FER scores in BD subjects and healthy controls.

Material And Methods: Thirty-nine euthymic BD I (type I) subjects and 40 healthy controls were subjected to a battery of FER tests and examined with 3D structural imaging of the amygdala and hippocampus.

Association of the COMT Met¹⁵⁸ allele with trait impulsivity in healthy young adults.

Dopamine (DA) is considered to be an important neurotransmitter in the control of impulsive behavior, however, its underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a key enzyme in the catabolism of DA within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and has been suggested to play a role in the mediation of impulsive behavior. The COMT single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4680 (Val158Met) Met allele has been shown to decrease COMT enzyme activity and is associated with improved PFC cognitive function (intelligence and executive functions).

Burden of maternal bipolar disorder on at-risk offspring: a controlled study on family planning and maternal care.

Introduction: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a highly incapacitating disease typically associated with high rates of familial dysfunction. Despite recent literature suggesting that maternal care is an important environmental factor in the development of behavioral disorders, it is unclear how much maternal care is dysfunctional in BD subjects.

Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize maternal care in DSM-IV/SCID diagnosed BD type I subjects compared to healthy controls with (PD) and without (NPD) other psychiatric diagnoses.

The impact of the CACNA1C risk allele on limbic structures and facial emotions recognition in bipolar disorder subjects and healthy controls.

Introduction: Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD) during all mood states. FER has been the focus of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies evaluating differential activation of limbic regions. Recently, the α1-C subunit of the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel (CACNA1C) gene has been described as a risk gene for BD and its Met allele found to increase CACNA1C mRNA expression.

COMT Met (158) modulates facial emotion recognition in bipolar I disorder mood episodes.

Background: One of the many cognitive deficits reported in bipolar disorder (BD) patients is facial emotion recognition (FER), which has recently been associated with dopaminergic catabolism. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the main enzymes involved in the metabolic degradation of dopamine (DA) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The COMT gene polymorphism rs4680 (Val158Met) Met allele is associated with decreased activity of this enzyme in healthy controls.

Creativity and executive function across manic, mixed and depressive episodes in bipolar I disorder.

Introduction: Creativity is a complex construct involving affective and cognitive components. Bipolar Disorder (BD) has been associated with creativity and is characterized by a wide range of affective and cognitive symptoms. Although studies of creativity in BD have tended to focus on creativity as a trait variable in medicated euthymic patients, it probably fluctuates during symptomatic states of BD.

Vocational rehabilitation improves cognition and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Several studies in schizophrenia found a positive association between cognitive performance and work status, and it has been reported that good cognitive performance at the outset does predict the success of vocational interventions. However little has been done to investigate whether vocational interventions itself benefit cognitive performance. To test this hypothesis we performed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to investigate in remitted schizophrenic patients the effect of a 6-months vocational rehabilitation program on cognitive performance.

LICAVAL: combination therapy in acute and maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder.

Background: The challenge of Bipolar Disorder (BD) treatment is due to the complexity of the disease. Current guidelines represent an effort to help clinicians in their everyday practice but still have limitations, specially concerning to long term treatment. LICAVAL (efficacy and tolerability of the combination of LIthium and CArbamazepine compared to lithium and VALproic acid in the treatment of young bipolar patients) study aim to evaluate acute and maintenance phase of BD treatment with two combined drugs.

SHORT COMMUNICATION: Apolipoprotein E genotype and cognition in bipolar disorder.

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) has been extensively studied as a risk factor for sporadic and late onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD). APOE allele (∗)3, the most frequent variant, is not associated to cognitive dysfunction (CD) or to increased AD risk. Differently, the (∗)4 allele is a well-established risk factor for CD, while the (∗)2 allele is associated with survival and longevity.