Analysis of coding-polymorphisms in NOTCH-related genes reveals NUMBL poly-glutamine repeat to be associated with schizophrenia in Brazilian and Danish subjects.

Abnormality in neurodevelopment is one of the most robust hypotheses on the etiology of schizophrenia and has found substantial support from brain imaging and genetic studies. Neurodevelopmental processes involve several signaling pathways, including the Notch, but little is known at present regarding their possible involvement in schizophrenia. In the present study we investigated the link of non-synonymous variants of five genes of the Notch pathway (NOTCH2, NOTCH3, JAGGED2, ASCL1 and NUMBL) to schizophrenia in a group of 200 Brazilian patients and 200-paired controls.

Taenia solium DNA is present in the cerebrospinal fluid of neurocysticercosis patients and can be used for diagnosis.

Neurocysticercosis is the most frequent parasitic infection of the CNS and the main cause of acquired epilepsy worldwide. Seizures are the most common symptoms of the disease, together with headache, involuntary movements, psychosis and a global mental deterioration. Absolute diagnostic criteria include the identification of cysticerci, with scolex, in the brain by MRI imaging.

[Biologic artifacts in quantitative EEG].

We studied the influence of five biologic artifacts sources on quantitative EEG (blinking, forced eyes closure, forced jaw closure, tongue movements and pursuit eyes movements) through both visual and spectral analysis, with the purpose of verifying how do these artifacts can be seen in a cartographic way. We found that the spectrums potentials showed the same topographic display that was found through visual analysis. Visual analysis was superior than the quantitative evaluation to recognise the artifacts, as the former preserved the morphological display of the paroxysms.

World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) guidelines for biological treatment of schizophrenia, part 2: long-term treatment of schizophrenia.

These guidelines for the biological treatment of schizophrenia were developed by an international Task Force of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP). The goal during the development of these guidelines was to review systematically all available evidence pertaining to the treatment of schizophrenia, and to reach a consensus on a series of practice recommendations that are clinically and scientifically meaningful based on the available evidence. These guidelines are intended for use by all physicians seeing and treating people with schizophrenia.

The detection of depression in medical setting: a study with PRIME-MD.

Background: Studies investigating the performance of instruments to detect major depressive disorder (MDD) have reported inconsistent results. Subsyndromal depression (SD) has also been associated to increased morbidity, and little is known about its detection in primary care setting. This study aimed to investigate the performance of the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) to detect MDD and any depression (threshold at SD) in an outpatient unit of a teaching general hospital.

Complex slow potential generators in a simplified attention paradigm.

We have recently obtained evidence for complex multifocal, individually variable generators of slow cortical potentials, elicited during performance of visual tasks involving expecting attention, comparison and memory [Basile, L.F.H.

The Short Cognitive Performance Test (SKT): a preliminary study of its psychometric properties in Brazil.

Background: Most instruments designed to detect dementia can lack appropriate sensitivity in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and are subject to educational bias. The Short Cognitive Performance Test (Syndrom-Kurztest, SKT) is considered a suitable instrument to measure cognitive decline as it assesses memory, attention, and related cognitive functions, taking into account the speed of information processing.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric characteristics of the SKT as a dementia screening instrument in a Brazilian population sample, as compared to the Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Clock-Drawing Test (CDT).

Olanzapine versus ziprasidone: results of a 28-week double-blind study in patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: The efficacy and safety of olanzapine were compared with those of ziprasidone.

Method: This was a multicenter randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, 28-week study of patients with schizophrenia. Patients were randomly assigned to treatment with 10-20 mg/day of olanzapine or 80-160 mg/day of ziprasidone.

World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) guidelines for biological treatment of schizophrenia, Part 1: acute treatment of schizophrenia.

These guide lines for the biological treatment of schizophrenia were developed by an international Task Force of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBO). The goal during the development of these guidelines was to review systematically all available evidence pertaining to the treatment of schizophrenia, and to reach a consensus on a series of practice recommendations that are clinically and scientifically meaningful based on the available evidence. These guidelines are intended for use by all physicians seeing and treating people with schizophrenia.

Childhood meningitis increases the risk for adult schizophrenia.

Objective: We investigated the hypothesis that a meningitic infection in childhood may increase the risk of a psychiatric disorder in adulthood.

Method: We conducted a follow-up study of 190 individuals affected by a meningitis infection the first 4 years of life, during an epidemic in São Paulo, Brazil, between 1971 and 1974. As a control group, we investigated 156 siblings of the meningitis patients who were not affected by meningitis at childhood.

Inhibition of calcium-independent phospholipase A2 activity in rat hippocampus impairs acquisition of short- and long-term memory.

Rationale: Phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) is a family of enzymes that cleave membrane phospholipids generating important lipid mediators in signal transduction. In rat hippocampal slices, both intracellular cytosolic Ca(2+)-dependent PLA(2) (cPLA(2)) and Ca(2+)-independent PLA(2) (iPLA(2)) have been implicated in mechanisms of synaptic plasticity underlying memory processes. In mice, intraperitoneal injections of a selective iPLA(2) inhibitor impaired spatial learning.

Inhibition of phospholipase A2 activity reduces membrane fluidity in rat hippocampus.

Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is a family of key enzymes in membrane phospholipid metabolism. In rats, the inhibition of PLA2 activity in the hippocampus was found to impair memory formation. Because memory function is largely dependent on the fluidity of brain membranes, we performed the present study to investigate the effects of in vivo PLA2 inhibition (with PACOCF3) on the fluidity of hippocampal membranes from rats trained in a learning task.

Nogo CAA 3'UTR Insertion polymorphism is not associated with Schizophrenia nor with bipolar disorder.

The Nogo gene maps to 2p14-p13, a region consistently associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The association of a polymorphism in Nogo was previously investigated by two groups, with divergent results. In this report, using an alternative approach, we evaluated this same polymorphism in 725 individuals, including patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, normal controls and non-human primate samples.

Fluoxetine versus trimipramine in the treatment of depression in geriatric patients.

Introduction: Fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), and trimipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA), were compared in terms of efficacy and tolerability in a six-week, parallel group, double-blind pilot study in 41 geriatric patients with major depression (61 - 85 years old).

Method: The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD-17), the Montgomery-Asberg Rating Scale (MADRS), the Adjective Mood Scale (Bf-S), the Clinical Global Impression (CGI), and the Patients Global Impression (PGI) were used to measure changes in depressive symptoms.

Results: Improvement with treatment was found on all scales.

Reduced phospholipid breakdown in Alzheimer's brains: a 31P spectroscopy study.

Background: Abnormalities of membrane phospholipid metabolism have been described in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated, with the aid of (31)P magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the in vivo intracerebral availability of phosphomonoesters (PME) and phosphodiesters (PDE) in patients with AD.

Methods: Eighteen outpatients with mild or moderate probable AD and 16 nondemented elderly volunteers were assessed with the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly (CAMDEX) and its cognitive subscale of the CAMDEX schedule (CAMCOG).

Modulation of phospholipase A2 activity in primary cultures of rat cortical neurons.

In neurons, phospholipase A2 (PLA2) plays a central role in the regulation of membrane phospholipid metabolism. We have addressed the pharmacological modulation of PLA2 in primary cultures of rat cortical neurons. Inhibition curves were obtained in 4 day-in-culture neurons treated for 30 minutes with either the dual PLA2 inhibitor methyl arachidonyl fluorophosphonate (MAFP), or the iPLA2 inhibitor bromoenol lactone (BEL).

Transcranial magnetic stimulation accelerates the antidepressant effect of amitriptyline in severe depression: a double-blind placebo-controlled study.

Background: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive method to stimulate the cortex, and the treatment of depression is one of its potential therapeutic applications. Three recent meta analyses strongly suggest its benefits in the treatment of depression. The present study investigates whether repetitive TMS (rTMS) accelerates the onset of action and increases the therapeutic effects of amitriptyline.

Inhibition of platelet phospholipase A2 activity by catuaba extract suggests antiinflammatory properties.

In the inflammation process, phospholipase A2 (PLA2) catalyses the cleavage of the sn-2 ester-linked fatty acids from phospholipids, being the enzyme responsible for arachidonic acid (AA) release by cells for the biosynthesis of the prostaglandins and thromboxanes via the cyclooxygenase system, and the leukotrienes and eicosatetraenoids via the lipoxygenase pathway. AA mobilization by PLA2 and subsequent prostaglandins synthesis is considered to be a pivotal event in inflammation. Therefore, drugs that inhibit PLA2, thus blocking the COX and LOX pathways in the AA cascade, may be effective in the treatment of inflammatory processes.

Olanzapine versus flupenthixol in the treatment of inpatients with schizophrenia: a randomized double-blind trial.

Objective: The atypical antipsychotic olanzapine has extensively been compared with haloperidol, whereas studies vs. other (conventional) neuroleptics are scarce. This exploratory double-blind 4-week study was designed to compare the efficacy and the safety of olanzapine (OLA) and flupenthixol (FLU) which have recently been considered as a "partially atypical" antipsychotics.

Widespread electrical cortical dysfunction in schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study was to compare slow cortical electrical activity between healthy and schizophrenic individuals using 123-channel EEG and current density reconstruction (CDR). Twenty-nine healthy subjects and 14 drug-free patients performed three visual paired-associate tasks (verbal, pictorial and spatial). We modeled the generators of the slow potentials (SPs) at their peak amplitude by Lp-norm minimization using individual MRIs to model the volume conductor and source.

Allelic association analysis of phospholipase A2 genes with schizophrenia.

Several studies suggest increased activity of phospholipase A2 in schizophrenic patients. In the present study, variants of four genes coding for phospholipase A2 enzyme groups (sPLA2, cPLA2, iPLA2 and PAFAH) were analysed in a case-control sample using 240 schizophrenic patients and 312 healthy controls. No difference was observed on the allelic and genotypic distribution of cPLA2 and sPLA2 gene polymorphisms among the groups.

Altered thalamic membrane phospholipids in schizophrenia: a postmortem study.

Background: Membrane lipids are important mediators of neuronal function. In a postmortem study, we measured membrane lipid components in the left thalamus of schizophrenic patients. This region might play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and has not been studied thus far with respect to its membrane lipid composition.

Platelet phospholipase A(2) activity in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

Phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) controls the metabolism of phospholipids in cell membranes. In the brain, PLA(2) influences the processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and thus the production of the amyloid-beta peptides (Abeta), which are the major components of the senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Reduced PLA(2) activity has been reported in brain and in platelets of AD patients.

Conjugated estrogens as adjuvant therapy in the treatment of acute schizophrenia: a double-blind study.

In a double-blind, placebo controlled study, conjugated estrogens (CE) (0.625 mg/day) were added to a fixed dosage of haloperidol (5 mg daily). Forty-four female inpatients with acute schizophrenia were included in the study and randomized to one of the groups; 40 patients completed the trial.