We assessed the utility of raloxifene (60 mg/day) as an adjuvant treatment for cognitive symptoms in postmenopausal women with schizophrenia in a 24-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Patients were recruited from the inpatient and outpatient services of Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Hospital Universitari Institut Pere Mata, and Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí. Seventy eight postmenopausal women with schizophrenia were randomized to either adjunctive raloxifene or placebo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDecision-making capacity in children and adolescents in healthcare requires thorough assessment: the minor's maturity, understanding of the decision, risk of the situation and contextual factors needs to be explored. The intention was to design and validate a test-the Maturtest-to assess the maturity of minors in decision-making processes in healthcare. A reasoning test on moral conflicts for adolescents was designed to infer the degree of maturity of minors applied to decision-making regarding their own health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) have been involved in the atherogenic process in the high-risk population. The goal of this study was to demonstrate that AGEs are related to subclinical atheromatous disease in subjects with low to moderate vascular risk.
Methods: A cross-sectional study in which 2,568 non-diabetic subjects of both sexes without cardiovascular disease were included.
Several double-blind clinical trials have reported improvement in positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia with raloxifene, a selective receptor estrogen modulator. However, there are some inconsistencies in replicating findings between studies of different countries. The failure to replicate these findings may result from genetic factors that could explain some of the variability in the treatment response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The potential therapeutic utility of estrogens in schizophrenia is increasingly being recognized. Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, appears to act similarly to estrogens on dopamine and serotonin brain systems. One previous trial by our team found that raloxifene was useful to improve negative, positive, and general psychopathological symptoms, without having the negative side effects of estrogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on a 61-year-old postmenopausal female with schizophrenia included in a raloxifene vs. placebo clinical trial and monitored during a 12-month period including a 3-month withdrawal period (6-9 months) without treatment. The patient was treated with raloxifene 60 mg/day adjuvant to antipsychotic medication for 6 months, medication was then withdrawn for 3 months and was reintroduced due to a worsening of symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudies of estrogen therapy in postmenopausal women provide evidence of an effect of sex hormones on cognitive function. Estrogen has demonstrated some utility in the prevention of normal, age-related decline in cognitive functions, especially in memory. The potential therapeutic utility of estrogens in schizophrenia is increasingly being recognized.
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