Effects of aripiprazole, risperidone, and olanzapine on 5-HT1A receptors in patients with schizophrenia.

To investigate the impact of various antipsychotic drugs on the 5-HT1A serotoninergic system, we performed a [F]4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-[2-(N-2-pirydynyl)-p-luorobenzamido]-ethyl-piperazine PET study in 19 schizophrenic patients treated with either aripiprazole, which has a partial agonist activity at 5-HT1A receptors, or second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) (olanzapine or risperidone), which do not demonstrate such property. We used a simplified reference tissue model to generate parametric images of [F]MPPF-binding potential (BPND). A significant reduction of [F]MPPF BPND was found in treated schizophrenic patients compared to age- and sex-matched healthy subjects.

Visual-perceptual abilities in healthy controls, depressed patients, and schizophrenia patients.

Previous studies have suggested a right hemineglect in schizophrenia, however few assessed possible visual-perceptual implication in this lateralized anomaly. A manual line bisection without (i.e.

Summer birth and deficit schizophrenia in Tunisia.

Summer birth has been associated with the deficit Schizophrenia syndrome, while DSM-IV schizophrenia is associated with winter birth. We confirm these monthly differences in a Tunisian sample of patients with schizophrenia, with a summer birth peak (n=34 deficit patients) and an expected winter birth peak (n=46 non-deficit patients).

Pseudoneglect in schizophrenia: a line bisection study with cueing.

Introduction: Numerous authors have reported the existence of lateralised abnormalities towards the right side in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: In the present study, a manual line bisection task was used to assess the existence of a visuospatial bias in patients with schizophrenia as compared to healthy subjects and left unilateral neglect patients. In addition, we used a local cueing paradigm (consisting of a number placed on the right, on the left, or at both ends of the line).

Serotonergic response to stress: a protective factor against abnormal dopaminergic reactivity in schizophrenia?

In a double-blind-crossover-study, 10 patients with schizophrenia, 10 of their unaffected siblings and 9 healthy controls randomly received metabolic stressor and placebo. A significant HVA plasma elevation in response to stress was found in siblings whose response was intermediate to that of patients and controls. Only siblings additionally displayed an exaggerated 5HIAA response.

Abnormalities of auditory event-related potentials in students with high scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire.

Some auditory event-related potential (ERP) abnormalities characterize both patients with schizophrenia and subjects with schizotypal personality disorder. It was therefore hypothesized that subjects from the community with schizotypal traits might also present ERP abnormalities. In this study, we compared auditory ERP latencies and amplitudes in 13 subjects with high (H-SPQ) and 12 subjects with low (L-SPQ) scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), selected from 198 Tunisian students.

Exaggerated leftward bias in the mental number line of patients with schizophrenia.

Several visuo-motor tasks can be used to demonstrate biases towards left hemispace in schizophrenic patients, suggesting a minor right hemineglect. Recent studies in neglect patients used a new number bisection task to highlight a lateralized defect in their visuo-spatial representation of numbers. To test a possible lateralized representational deficit in schizophrenia, we used the number bisection task in 11 schizophrenic patients compared to 11 healthy controls.

Autism and developmental delay: a comparative clinical study in very young children using IBSE scale.

Objective: This study improves the knowledge of early autistic symptomatology and research concerning (i) the significant differences in the behaviors of children with autistic disorder (AD) and children with a developmental delay (DD), and (ii) the influence of the cognitive delay on symptomatology.

Method: Two groups of 20 young children (7-42 months) were compared: children with AD, and those with DD. The groups were paired by chronological and developmental age.

Source monitoring deficits in hallucinating compared to non-hallucinating patients with schizophrenia.

In two source memory tests, hallucinating patients with schizophrenia (N=30), compared to non-hallucinating (N=31), are impaired in recognizing internal self-generated items and misattribute them to an external event. They are not impaired in recognizing events from two internal sources. Results support a selective source-monitoring deficit in the occurrence of auditory hallucinations.

[Wiscosin card sorting task in patients with schizophrenia and thier siblings].

Objective: This study's first objective was to confirm that patients with schizophrenia and their nonmentally ill siblings share the same impaired executive function when compared to healthy control subjects. The second objective was to study the relation between Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST) performance and the persistence and severity of clinical symptoms, as well as different clinical dimensions.

Method: Ninety subjects were involved in this study, divided in 3 groups of 30 each: one group of patients with schizophrenia, one group of their siblings, and a control group.

Low frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation improves source monitoring deficit in hallucinating patients with schizophrenia.

Auditory hallucinations have been associated with a disruption in monitoring one's own speech suggesting an autonoetic agnosia in schizophrenia. This deficit can be measured by a source monitoring task. Low frequency transcranial magnetic stimulations (rTMS) applied to the left temporoparietal cortex can inhibit cortical areas involved both in autonoetic agnosia (which means 'the inability to identify self-generated mental events') and in auditory hallucinations (AH) phenomena.

Facial expression and sex recognition in schizophrenia and depression.

Background: Impaired facial expression recognition in schizophrenia patients contributes to abnormal social functioning and may predict functional outcome in these patients. Facial expression processing involves individual neural networks that have been shown to malfunction in schizophrenia. Whether these patients have a selective deficit in facial expression recognition or a more global impairment in face processing remains controversial.

Effects of emotion and identity on facial affect processing in schizophrenia.

We used facial affect labeling and matching tasks to study effects of (1) emotion and (2) identity on facial affect processing in patients with remitted schizophrenia (n=30) compared with healthy controls (n=30). The patients (1) had a specific deficit for labeling facial affects of sadness and anger but not happiness, disgust and fear; they (2) performed as well as controls in matching facial affects in one face but were impaired in matching facial affects in two different faces. The patients' impairment in facial affect processing may be emotion-specific.

Slow transcranial magnetic stimulation can rapidly reduce resistant auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

Background: Almost a quarter of patients with schizophrenia present with resistant auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), a phenomenon that may relate to activation of brain areas underlying speech perception. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at 1 Hz reduces cortical activation, and recent results have shown that 1-Hz left temporoparietal rTMS may reduce AVH. The aim of this study was to replicate recent data and investigate whether low-frequency rTMS with a high total stimulation number delivered in a shorter 5-day block produces similar benefit.

Hidden cardiac lesions and psychotropic drugs as a possible cause of sudden death in psychiatric patients: a report of 14 cases and review of the literature.

Objective: To confirm the hypothesis that psychotropic drugs, especially neuroleptics, lithium, and antidepressants, are implicated as a cause of unexpected sudden death in psychiatric patients because of their cardiotoxicity, especially when hidden cardiac lesions are present.

Method: We performed a full pathological examination of 14 psychiatric patients who unexpectedly and suddenly died between 1980 and 1999.

Results: Neuroleptics were involved in 13 instances, antidepressants in 9, and anxiolytics in 5.

[Validation of the French version of the Raine schizotypal personality questionnaire in a population of Tunisian students].

Schizotypal personality disorder is considered as a marquer of schizophrenia proneness. In opposition at other self report measures of schizotypal personality disorder, the "Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire" (SPQ) developed by Raine, assesses all nine features of this disorder. The aims of this study is to present the validation on the French version of the SPQ on Tunisian student sample.

Left temporoparietal transcranial magnetic stimulation in treatment-resistant schizophrenia with verbal hallucinations.

Left temporoparietal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) reportedly diminishes verbal hallucinations. A 21-year-old schizophrenic man, who had killed his mother in the belief that she was a demon, failed to respond to combined treatment with a variety of antipsychotic agents. His persistent hallucinations consisted of two voices (God and the Devil).

Fluvoxamine versus fluoxetine in major depressive episode: a double-blind randomised comparison.

A double-blind, multinational study was conducted to compare the efficacy and safety of fluvoxamine and fluoxetine in outpatients with major depressive episode; 184 patients were randomised to fluvoxamine (100 mg/day) or fluoxetine (20 mg/day) for 6 weeks. Both drugs were effective and there were no statistically significant differences between them in the area under the curve of change from baseline in the Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD) total score. However, the percentage of HAMD responders (>or= 50% decrease in HAMD total score) at week 2, the clinical global improvement severity of illness score at week 2 and the depression subscale of the irritability, depression and anxiety scale at weeks 1, 2 and 4, all showed significant advantages for fluvoxamine.

Validity of the depressive dimension extracted from principal component analysis of the PANSS in drug-free patients with schizophrenia.

Depressive symptoms frequently occur during the course of schizophrenia. This study explored the relationships between the schizophrenia symptomatology and three measures of depression. Eighty-one drug-free inpatients with acute schizophrenia were assessed with the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS), the Calgary depression scale for schizophrenia (CDSS), and the Hamilton rating scale for depression (HAM-D).

Gaze direction determination in schizophrenia.

It has been proposed that an impairment in gaze determination is responsible for the paranoid symptoms reported in schizophrenia. To address this, we examined the gaze discrimination system in schizophrenia. Thirty-two patients suffering from schizophrenia (20 patients with persecutory delusions and 12 patients without such delusions) were compared to 32 control subjects on two specific tasks.

Ratings of different olfactory judgements in schizophrenia.

We assessed the influence of schizophrenia on different olfactory tasks. Forty patients with schizophrenia (20 males and 20 females) and 40 control subjects (20 males and 20 females) were tested. The experiment included two sessions.

Exploring imagined movements in patients with schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate impairments indicative of an inability to accurately monitor internally generated images. Motor imagery measures the ability to generate internal images of intended but not executed motor movements. Ten patients with schizophrenia completed actual and imagined versions of a pointing task with a well defined speed-accuracy trade-off function.

Cannabis use correlates with schizotypal personality traits in healthy students.

The literature suggests that cannabis use and schizotypal traits both constitute risk factors for the later development of schizophrenia. However, their interrelationships remain to be evaluated. The present study examined the association between cannabis use and schizotypal traits in 232 healthy students who ranged in age from 18 to 25 years.