Parental separation, loss and psychosis in different ethnic groups: a case-control study.

Background: Numerous studies have reported high rates of psychosis in the Black Caribbean and Black African populations in the UK. However, few studies have investigated the role of specific risk factors in different ethnic groups. We sought to investigate the relationship between long-term separation from, and death of, a parent before the age of 16 and risk of adult psychosis in different ethnic groups.

Clinical and social determinants of duration of untreated psychosis in the AESOP first-episode psychosis study.

Background: Despite considerable research investigating the relationship between a long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and outcomes, there has been much less considering predictors of a long DUP.

Aims: To investigate the clinical and social determinants of DUP in a large sample of patients with a first episode of psychosis.

Method: All patients with a first episode of psychosis who made contact with psychiatric services over a 2-year period and were living in defined catchment areas in London and Nottingham, UK were included in the AESOP study.

Aggressive behaviour at first contact with services: findings from the AESOP First Episode Psychosis Study.

Background: Aggressive behaviour is increased among those with schizophrenia but less is known about those with affective psychoses. Similarly, little is known about aggressive behaviour occurring at the onset of illness.

Method: The main reasons for presentation to services were examined among those recruited to a UK-based first episode psychosis study.

Minor physical anomalies across ethnic groups in a first episode psychosis sample.

Minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are more prevalent amongst individuals with psychosis, supporting a neurodevelopmental model for psychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that neurodevelopmental adversity contributes to the excess of psychosis found in some ethnic groups in the UK. Subjects with first onset psychosis and healthy neighbourhood controls were enrolled in the AESOP study in South East London and Nottingham between 1997 and 1999.

Grey matter correlates of minor physical anomalies in the AeSOP first-episode psychosis study.

Background: Minor physical anomalies are more prevalent among people with psychosis. This supports a neurodevelopmental aetiology for psychotic disorders, since these anomalies and the brain are both ectodermally derived. However, little is understood about the brain regions implicated in this association.

Incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses in ethnic minority groups: results from the MRC AESOP Study.

Background: The incidence of schizophrenia in the African-Caribbean population in England is reported to be raised. We sought to clarify whether (a) the rates of other psychotic disorders are increased, (b) whether psychosis is increased in other ethnic minority groups, and (c) whether particular age or gender groups are especially at risk.

Method: We identified all people (n=568) aged 16-64 years presenting to secondary services with their first psychotic symptoms in three well-defined English areas (over a 2-year period in Southeast London and Nottingham and a 9-month period in Bristol).

Trends in cannabis use prior to first presentation with schizophrenia, in South-East London between 1965 and 1999.

Background: There is evidence that cannabis use might be relevant to the aetiology of schizophrenia. We aimed to measure any change in cannabis use over time in those first presenting with schizophrenia in South-East London from 1965 to 1999, and compare this with change in use in those presenting with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders.

Method: The rate of cannabis use in the year prior to first ever presentation was measured over seven time periods.

Polyurea-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes: synthesis, morphology, and Raman spectroscopy.

An in situ polycondensation approach was applied to functionalize multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), resulting in various linear or hyperbranched polycondensed polymers [e.g., polyureas, polyurethanes, and poly(urea-urethane)-bonded carbon nanotubes].

First episode psychosis and ethnicity: initial findings from the AESOP study.

In this paper we provide an overview of the design and the initial findings of the AESOP (Aetiology and Ethnicity in Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses) study. The AESOP study is a major multi-centre incidence and case-control study conducted in the UK. Its primary aim is to investigate the high rates of psychosis in African-Caribbean populations from the UK, and from this to shed light on the aetiology of psychosis in general.

Environmental factors in schizophrenia: the role of migrant studies.

There is now compelling evidence that migrant groups in several countries have an elevated risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Though the findings of earlier studies were greeted with skepticism, and ascribed by some to have methodological shortcomings and diagnostic biases, the more rigorous recent studies, from a variety of countries, have still found markedly increased incidence rates. While this phenomenon is an important health issue in its own right, understanding the reasons for the increased rates may provide valuable insights into the causes of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders in general.

Social outcomes in schizophrenia: from description to action.

Purpose Of Review: The reality of schizophrenia is not fully expressed by measures of psychopathology and both descriptive research and research into interventions benefit from the investigation of social outcomes. We define these as measures which reflect performance compared to normal social expectations, either of oneself or of another. The studies we reviewed looked at the effects on summary measures, for example, quality of life, as well as simpler, more self-explanatory outcomes such as employment, marital status, financial independence and housing.

Heterogeneity in incidence rates of schizophrenia and other psychotic syndromes: findings from the 3-center AeSOP study.

Context: Convention suggests uniformity of incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses; variation would have implications for their causes and biological characteristics.

Objective: To investigate variability in the incidence of psychotic syndromes in terms of place, ethnicity, age, and sex.

Design: Three-center, prospective, comprehensive survey of clinically relevant first-onset psychotic syndromes over a 2-year period (1997-1999).

Gray matter abnormalities associated with duration of untreated psychosis.

Purpose: A long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is associated with relatively poor clinical and social outcomes. In order to identify whether an anatomically mediated mechanism may give rise to poorer outcomes, it is important to identify whether a long DUP is associated with greater brain structural abnormalities.

Method: 81 patients with first-episode psychosis (schizophrenia, affective, and other psychoses) were scanned using high resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Duration of untreated psychosis and ethnicity in the AESOP first-onset psychosis study.

Background: There is a common assumption that Black patients with a psychotic mental illness experience longer treatment delays during a first episode. We sought to investigate this issue in a large cohort of patients with a first episode of psychosis.

Method: All patients with a first episode of psychosis presenting to secondary mental health services within tightly defined catchment areas in south-east London and Nottingham over a 2-year period were included in the study.

The structural brain correlates of neurological soft signs in healthy individuals.

It has yet to be established whether neurological soft signs (NSS), which include poor motor coordination, sensory perceptual difficulties and difficulties in sequencing of complex motor tasks, result from specific or diffuse brain structural abnormalities. Studying the neuroanatomical basis of NSS in healthy individuals may help to identify which brain areas are specifically associated with these signs, while excluding the potential confounding effects of psychiatric and neurological disorders. We investigated the relationship between brain structure and NSS in 43 healthy individuals, using the Neurological Evaluation Scale for neurological assessment, and high resolution MRI and voxel-based methods of image analysis to investigate brain structure.

Increased pituitary volume in antipsychotic-free and antipsychotic-treated patients of the AEsop first-onset psychosis study.

Subjects at their first psychotic episode show an enlarged volume of the pituitary gland, but whether this is due to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyperactivity, or to stimulation of the prolactin-secreting cells by antipsychotic treatment, is unclear. We measured pituitary volume, using 1.5-mm, coronal, 1.

Dermatoglyphics and Schizophrenia: a meta-analysis and investigation of the impact of obstetric complications upon a-b ridge count.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia show deviances in their dermatoglyphics, in particular reductions in palmar a-b ridge counts (ABRCs), which are evidence of an early developmental deviance. However, the severity or the origin of these ABRC changes has not been established.

Method: (i) We examined the published literature on the ABRC in patients with schizophrenia against controls with a random effects meta-analysis.

Pathways to care and ethnicity. 2: Source of referral and help-seeking. Report from the AESOP study.

Background: Previous research has found that African-Caribbean and Black African patients are likely to come into contact with mental health services via more negative routes, when compared with White patients. We sought to investigate pathways to mental health care and ethnicity in a sample of patients with a first episode of psychosis drawn from two UK centres.

Method: We included all White British, other White, African-Caribbean and Black African patients with a first episode of psychosis who made contact with psychiatric services over a 2-year period and were living in defined areas.

Pathways to care and ethnicity. 1: Sample characteristics and compulsory admission. Report from the AESOP study.

Background: Many studies have found high levels of compulsory admission to psychiatric hospital in the UK among African-Caribbean and Black African patients with a psychotic illness.

Aims: To establish whether African-Caribbean and Black African ethnicity is associated with compulsory admission in an epidemiological sample of patients with a first episode of psychosis drawn from two UK centres.

Method: All patients with a first episode of psychosis who made contact with psychiatric services over a 2-year period and were living in defined areas were included in the (AESOP) study.

Different effects of typical and atypical antipsychotics on grey matter in first episode psychosis: the AESOP study.

Typical antipsychotic drugs act on the dopaminergic system, blocking the dopamine type 2 (D2) receptors. Atypical antipsychotics have lower affinity and occupancy for the dopaminergic receptors, and a high degree of occupancy of the serotoninergic receptors 5-HT2A. Whether these different pharmacological actions produce different effects on brain structure remains unclear.

Incidence of bipolar affective disorder in three UK cities: results from the AESOP study.

Background: There has been a relative dearth of epidemiological research into bipolar affective disorder. Furthermore, incidence studies of bipolar disorder have been predominantly retrospective and most only included hospital admission cases.

Aims: To determine the incidence of operationally defined bipolar disorder in three areas of the UK and to investigate any differences in gender and ethnicity.

Gender differences in incidence and age at onset of mania and bipolar disorder over a 35-year period in Camberwell, England.

Objective: Despite clear gender differences in the symptoms and course of bipolar affective disorder, studies investigating age at onset by gender have yielded inconsistent results. The authors investigated gender differences in age at onset and incidence of first-episode mania and bipolar disorder in an epidemiological catchment area in southeast London over a 35-year period.

Method: All adult cases of first-episode psychosis, mania, or hypomania presenting to services in Camberwell, southeast London (1965-1999), were identified.

Brain volumes in adult survivors of very low birth weight: a sibling-controlled study.

Objectives: To establish whether adults who were born very low birth weight (VLBW) show altered volumes of certain brain structures.

Methods: Unmatched case-control study was conducted of 33 individuals from a cohort of VLBW (<1500 g) infants who were born between 1966 and 1977 and 18 of their normal birth weight siblings. Whole brain, gray matter, ventricular, corpus callosum, and hippocampal volumes were measured on structural magnetic resonance imaging scans.

Towards a cognitive model and measure of dissociation.

Dissociation comprises a range of psychological processes, which have largely been the subject of psychodynamic discussion. Dissociative phenomena are for the most part unaddressed by cognitive theorists. Current measures are atheoretical and our understanding of dissociation has been hampered by the absence of clear psychological models.