Publications by authors named "Frans A Henskens"
Article Synopsis
- Schizophrenia is characterized by significant changes in brain structure, but it's not clear if these changes relate to the brain's network organization.
- Researchers analyzed MRI scans from nearly 2,500 people with schizophrenia alongside healthy controls to see how structural changes connect to brain networks.
- The study found that certain regions in the brain that are crucial for connectivity are more affected in schizophrenia, indicating a link between brain network vulnerability and the disease's impact, with some similarities to bipolar disorder but not major depressive disorder.
Article Synopsis
- The study explores the structural brain differences in individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls, focusing on various brain metrics like cortical thickness and subcortical volume using a large international dataset.
- Results show that people with schizophrenia have greater variability in brain structure, particularly in the frontotemporal regions, suggesting distinct subtypes of the disorder may exist.
- The findings highlight the significance of understanding brain structure variability to improve knowledge of schizophrenia and help identify potential biomarkers for the illness.
Article Synopsis
- Carriers of specific genetic variants (1q21.1 distal and 15q11.2 BP1-BP2) show both regional and global brain structure differences compared to noncarriers, but analyzing these differences can be complicated.
- The study used MRI data from various groups (carriers and noncarriers) to assess how regional brain characteristics diverge from overall brain structure differences.
- Findings revealed that certain brain regions in carriers exhibited distinct patterns of cortical surface area and thickness that deviated from the global average, suggesting more complex effects of these genetic variants on brain development.
Article Synopsis
- The study looked at how the brain's left and right sides might differ in people with schizophrenia compared to those without it, using brain scans from over 5,000 patients and 6,000 control subjects.
- Researchers found that people with schizophrenia had slightly thinner areas in the left side of their brains, especially in certain regions, compared to those without the disorder.
- The differences in brain structure might be linked to how schizophrenia affects brain functions, like language, but more research is needed to understand why they happen.
Article Synopsis
- Schizophrenia can make the brain age faster, leading to more cognitive problems and health issues.
- A study looked at brain scans of 2,803 people with schizophrenia and 2,598 healthy people to see how much older their brains looked compared to their actual ages.
- The results showed that people with schizophrenia had brains that looked about 3.55 years older than they should be, but this wasn’t linked to how long they had the illness or how severe their symptoms were.
Article Synopsis
- * Researchers discovered 287 genomic regions associated with schizophrenia, emphasizing genes specifically active in excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and identified 120 key genes potentially responsible for these associations.
- * The findings highlight important biological processes related to neuronal function, suggesting overlaps between common and rare genetic variants in both schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders, ultimately aiding future research on these conditions.
Article Synopsis
- Scientists studied the brain's outer layer, called the cerebral cortex, to learn how genes can affect its structure.
- They looked at brain scans from over 51,000 people and found 199 important genetic markers that relate to how the cortex is shaped.
- The study showed that these genetic markers are linked to different brain functions and conditions like thinking skills, sleep problems, and ADHD.
Background: The profile of cortical neuroanatomical abnormalities in schizophrenia is not fully understood, despite hundreds of published structural brain imaging studies. This study presents the first meta-analysis of cortical thickness and surface area abnormalities in schizophrenia conducted by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Schizophrenia Working Group.
Methods: The study included data from 4474 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age, 32.
Background: Web-based typed exchanges are increasingly used by professionals to provide emotional support to patients. Although some empirical evidence exists to suggest that various strategies may be used to convey emotion during Web-based text communication, there has been no critical review of these data in patients with chronic conditions.
Objectives: The objective of this review was to identify the techniques used to convey emotion in written or typed Web-based communication and assess the empirical evidence regarding impact on communication and psychological outcomes.
Copy number variants (CNVs) have been strongly implicated in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). However, genome-wide investigation of the contribution of CNV to risk has been hampered by limited sample sizes. We sought to address this obstacle by applying a centralized analysis pipeline to a SCZ cohort of 21,094 cases and 20,227 controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Community-based services such as telephone support lines can provide valuable informational, emotional, and practical support for cancer patients via telephone- or Web-based (live chat or email) platforms. However, very little rigorous research has examined the efficacy of such services in improving patient outcomes.
Objective: This study will determine whether: proactive telephone or Web-delivered support produces outcomes superior to printed information; and Web-delivered support produces outcomes comparable to telephone support.
Importance: A recently published study of national data by McGrath et al in 2014 showed increased risk of schizophrenia (SCZ) in offspring associated with both early and delayed parental age, consistent with a U-shaped relationship. However, it remains unclear if the risk to the child is due to psychosocial factors associated with parental age or if those at higher risk for SCZ tend to have children at an earlier or later age.
Objective: To determine if there is a genetic association between SCZ and age at first birth (AFB) using genetically informative but independently ascertained data sets.
Background: With increasing attention given to the quality of chronic disease care, a measurement approach that empowers consumers to participate in improving quality of care and enables health services to systematically introduce patient-centered initiatives is needed. A Web-based survey with complex adaptive questioning and interactive survey items would allow consumers to easily identify and prioritize detailed service initiatives.
Objective: The aim was to develop and test a Web-based survey capable of identifying and prioritizing patient-centered initiatives in chronic disease outpatient services.
Improving access to information and support for patients with less common cancers: hematologic cancer patients' views about Web-based approaches.
J Med Internet Res
December 2011
Background: Meeting the psychosocial needs of vulnerable groups such as cancer survivors remains an ongoing challenge. This is particularly so for those who have less access to the usual forms of medical specialist and in-person support networks. Internet-based approaches offer an opportunity to better meet patients' information and support needs by overcoming the barrier of geographic isolation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA unified, bioinformatics-driven, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based approach to microbial genotyping has been developed. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) databases consist of known variants of standardized housekeeping genes. Normally, seven fragments are defined; a sequence type (ST) consists of the variants of these fragments that are found in a particular isolate.
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