Metabolic syndrome in patients who have been subjected to isolation security measures and treated with atypical antipsychotics.

Objectives: The main aim of the study was to assess the incidence of metabolic syndrome and its individual components in patients subject to a confinement measure, treated with antipsychotics in mono - or polytherapy. Additional objectives included the analysis of associations between the occurrence of metabolic syndrome and patients' age, psychiatric diagnosis, overweight or obesity, and the presence of addictions to psychoactive substances.

Methods: The study involved 61 patients of the Department of Forensic Psychiatry, including 9 women and 52 men, subject to a confinement measure from September 2019 to August 2021.

RISK aversion in Italian forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: Goal-directed decision-making is a central component of the broader reward and motivation system, and requires the ability to dynamically integrate both positive and negative feedback from the environment in order to maximize rewards and minimize losses over time. Altered decision-making processes, in which individuals fail to consider the negative consequences of their decisions on both themselves and others, may play a role in driving antisocial behaviour.

Aim: The main study aim was to investigate possible differences in loss and risk aversion across matched patients, all with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), but who varied according to whether they had a history of serious interpersonal violence or not, and a sample of healthy controls with no history of violence.

Difference between forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in Italy and other European countries: Results of the EU-VIORMED project.

Background: There has been a substantial change in the law on the provision of secure health services for offender-patients in Italy, a country currently with the lowest general psychiatry bed availability per head of the population in Europe, raising questions about possible differences in offender-patient admissions between European countries.

Aims: In this multicentre case-control study, our aim was to compare the socio-demographic, clinical and criminological characteristics of a sample of Italian forensic in-patients with schizophrenia or similar psychosis with patients in a similar diagnostic range in specialist in-patient services elsewhere in Europe.

Methods: Secure hospital unit in-patients with psychosis were recruited across five European countries (Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland and England).

Highly varying concepts and capacities of forensic mental health services across the European Union.

Introduction: There is wide variation in the processes, structures and treatment models for dealing with mentally disordered offenders across the European Union. There is a serious lack of data on population levels of need, national service capacities, or treatment outcome. This prevents us from comparing the different management and treatment approaches internationally and from identifying models of good practice and indeed what represents financial efficiency, in a sector that is universally needed.

Treatment Decision-Making Capacity in Forensic vs Non-forensic Psychiatric Patients: A European Comparison.

Background: Consent to treatment is a cornerstone of medical ethics and law. Nevertheless, very little empirical evidence is available to inform clinicians and policymakers regarding the capacities of forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) to make decisions about their treatment, with the risk of clinical and legal inertia, silent coercion, stigmatization, or ill-conceived reforms.

Study Design: In this multinational study, we assessed and compared with treatment-related decisional capacities in forensic and non-forensic patients with SSD.

Decision-making and risk-taking in forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A multicenter European study.

Studies of patients with schizophrenia and offenders with severe mental disorders decision-making performance have produced mixed findings. In addition, most earlier studies have assessed decision-making skills in offenders or people with mental disorders, separately, thus neglecting the possible additional contribution of a mental disorder on choice patterns in people who offend. This study aimed to fill this gap by comparing risk-taking in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), with and without a history of serious violent offending assessing whether, and to what extent, risk-taking represents a significant predictor of group membership, controlling for their executive skills, as well as for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.

A Systematic Review of Non-pharmacological Strategies to Reduce the Risk of Violence in Patients With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders in Forensic Settings.

The purpose of this systematic review is to systematically investigate which non-pharmacological interventions are effective in reducing violence risk among patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) in forensic settings. Six electronic data bases were searched. Two researchers independently screened 6,003 abstracts resulting in 143 potential papers.

Psychological factors of aggressive behaviour in patients of forensic psychiatry wards with the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Scientific research shows that the likelihood of aggressive behaviour in people with mental disorders compared to healthy people is usually higher than among healthy people. Considering the social harmfulness of acts committed by persons suffering from schizophrenia, a thorough analysis of their conditions is recommended. The paper presents the results of research conducted by a team from the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology (IPiN) in Warsaw regarding the psychological determinants of aggressive behaviour of people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Financing of forensic psychiatry in view of treatment quality and threat to public safety.

Stay in a psychiatric hospital of persons who committed the gravest criminal acts while in a state of insanity aims to ensure their effective treatment (therapeutic function), but above all to prevent the repetition of prohibited acts of significant harm to the community (preventive function). Forensic patients are provided with suitable medical, psychiatric, rehabilitation and resocialization care. The court imposes an indefinite detention.

Cellular environment directs differentiation of human umbilical cord blood-derived neural stem cells in vitro.

Cord blood-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) are proposed as an alternative cell source to repair brain damage upon transplantation. However, there is a lack of data showing how these cells are driven to generate desired phenotypes by recipient nervous tissue. Previous research indicates that local environment provides signals driving the fate of stem cells.

Transplantation of neural stem cells derived from human cord blood to the brain of adult and neonatal rats.

Searching for a reliable source of alternative neural stem cells for experimental treatment of neurological disorders we have established neural stem cell line derived from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB-NSC) (Buzanska et al. 2006). These cells have been shown to differentiate along neuronal and glial lineages in the promoting in vitro conditions.

The role of astrocytes in the physiology and pathology of the central nervous system.

Astrocytes are the main class of neuroglia, serving a wide range of adaptive functions in the mammalian nervous system. They interact with neurons, providing structural, metabolic and trophic support for them. In pathological circumstances, astrocytes have the potential to induce neuronal dysfunction, but they can also play a neuroprotective role, releasing neuronal growth factors.

Early appearance of stem/progenitor cells with neural-like characteristics in human cord blood mononuclear fraction cultured in vitro.

Objective: The exposure of human umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells devoid of hematopoietic stem cells (HUCB-MNCsCD34-) to defined culture condition promotes their conversion into neural lineage. We have asked the question if observed fate change of HUCB-MNCsCD34- results from direct conversion of hematopoietic precursors into neural-like phenotypes due to expression of overlapping genetic program or, alternatively, these neural phenotypes arise from sequential differentiation of more primitive progenitors (embryonic-like cells) preexisting in HUCB-MNCsCD34- fraction.

Materials And Methods: HUCB-MNCs negatively selected for CD34 antigens were cultured in vitro up to 14 days.