Dysexecutive Behavior in First-Episode Schizophrenia.

Background: Dysexecutive syndrome is a prominent and functionally significant cognitive feature of schizophrenia. This study assesses and correlates executive function (EF) deficits and dysexecutive behavior (DB) in first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and healthy participants.

Methods: We evaluated 22 FES patients (aged 17-29 years, history of single episode of schizophrenia, treated with atypical antipsychotics) and 20 controls matched for gender, age, and education.

EEG Classification During Scene Free-Viewing for Schizophrenia Detection.

Currently, the diagnosis of schizophrenia is made solely based on interviews and behavioral observations by a trained psychiatrist. Technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) are used for differential diagnosis and not to support the psychiatrist's positive diagnosis. Here, we show the potential of EEG recordings as biomarkers of the schizophrenia syndrome.

[The association of schizophrenia with chronic non transmissible diseases].

The life expectancy of patients with schizophrenia (SCH) is 11 to 20 years less than the general population. There is an association between SCH and various diseases and chronic conditions, highlighting the cardio-metabolic diseases. This association has been attributed to the use of antipsychotics, however, evidence has also shown intrinsic susceptibility of schizophrenic patients the development of chronic conditions.

Psychosis-related matricide associated with a lesion of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Matricide, the killing of a mother by her biological child, is a rare event. We report a case of matricide associated with a woman who sustained a right ventromedial prefrontal lesion during surgery for nasal polyposis that was performed when she was 40 years old. After her surgery, she developed psychotic symptoms associated with the emergence of antisocial behavior.

Executive functioning in schizophrenia.

The executive function (EF) is a set of abilities, which allows us to invoke voluntary control of our behavioral responses. These functions enable human beings to develop and carry out plans, make up analogies, obey social rules, solve problems, adapt to unexpected circumstances, do many tasks simultaneously, and locate episodes in time and place. EF includes divided attention and sustained attention, working memory (WM), set-shifting, flexibility, planning, and the regulation of goal directed behavior and can be defined as a brain function underlying the human faculty to act or think not only in reaction to external events but also in relation with internal goals and states.

Small Saccades and Image Complexity during Free Viewing of Natural Images in Schizophrenia.

In schizophrenia, patients display dysfunctions during the execution of simple visual tasks such as antisaccade or smooth pursuit. In more ecological scenarios, such as free viewing of natural images, patients appear to make fewer and longer visual fixations and display shorter scanpaths. It is not clear whether these measurements reflect alterations in their proficiency to perform basic eye movements, such as saccades and fixations, or are related to high-level mechanisms, such as exploration or attention.

Executive attention impairment in first-episode schizophrenia.

Background: We compared the attention abilities of a group of first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and a group of healthy participants using the Attention Network Test (ANT), a standard procedure that estimates the functional state of three neural networks controlling the efficiency of three different attentional behaviors, i.e., alerting (achieving and maintaining a state of high sensitivity to incoming stimuli), orienting (ability to select information from sensory input), and executive attention (mechanisms for resolving conflict among thoughts, feelings, and actions).

[Update in the clinic of addictions: learning and dopamine].

There are two parallel explanatory models for addictions. One is the homeostatic model, that explains tolerance and the abstinence syndrome. Tolerance and abstinence are reversible phenomena that mask sensitization.

[Anxiety disorders among patients hospitalized in a medical ward].

Background: Anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders are common among medical patients, however few studies differentiate both and consider the psychiatric comorbidity of anxiety disorders among such patients.

Aim: To evaluate the presence of anxiety disorders among patients admitted to a medical ward.

Patients And Methods: Random selection of 406 patients (mean age 56 years, 203 female), hospitalized in a medical ward of a public hospital, mainly for cardiovascular, genitourinary and digestive diseases.