Publications by authors named "G Nestadt"
Purpose: Although many women experience obsessive-compulsive symptoms during the perinatal period, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) has not yet been psychometrically evaluated in this population. This study examined the internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, and factor structure of the YBOCS among pregnant women.
Methods: 256 Women who were 20 to 24 weeks pregnant completed the clinician-administered YBOCS and Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) along with a series of self-report questionnaires including the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale (PASS) and Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R).
Article Synopsis
- The study focuses on the high prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among pregnant and postpartum women and emphasizes the importance of efficient screening tools for early detection in perinatal care.
- Researchers evaluated the 4-item Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (OCI-4) for its reliability, validity, and diagnostic sensitivity through assessments at various stages of pregnancy and postpartum.
- Results indicate that the OCI-4 is a reliable and effective screening tool for identifying OCD symptoms in perinatal women, with a specific score of 3 providing optimal sensitivity and specificity for detection.
Article Synopsis
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects about 1% of people and has a strong genetic component, but previous studies have not fully explained its genetic causes or biological mechanisms.
- A large genome-wide association study (GWAS) analyzed data from over 53,000 OCD cases and over 2 million control participants, identifying 30 significant genetic markers related to OCD and suggesting a 6.7% heritability from SNPs.
- The research also found 249 candidate risk genes linked to OCD, particularly in specific brain regions, and showed genetic correlations with various psychiatric disorders, laying the groundwork for further studies and potential treatments.
Background: Recent reports have indicated that symptom exacerbation after a period of improvement, referred to as relapse, in early-stage psychosis could result in brain changes and poor disease outcomes. We hypothesized that substantial neuroimaging alterations may exist among patients who experience relapse in early-stage psychosis.
Methods: We studied patients with psychosis within 2 years after the first psychotic event and healthy controls.