The Role of Medical Comorbidity in the Rapid Psychiatric Readmission of Patients With Schizophrenia-spectrum Disorders.

Objective: Inpatient admissions are common for individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and difficulty transitioning from the hospital to the community results in these individuals being at high risk for hospital readmissions. Thus, psychotic disorders account for high rates of rapid readmission within 30 days of discharge. Increasing evidence highlights the role of comorbid medical conditions, such as circulatory and metabolic problems, in contributing to early readmission rates for these patients.

Comorbid Cannabis and Tobacco Use Disorders in Hospitalized Patients with Psychotic-Spectrum Disorders.

Objective: Individuals with psychotic-spectrum disorders use tobacco and cannabis at higher rates than the general population and individuals with other psychiatric disorders, which may contribute to increased rates of medical problems and mortality. The present study examined whether individuals with psychosis and comorbid tobacco and/or cannabis use disorders exhibit differing clinical characteristics in terms of their sociodemographic, mental health, substance use, physical health, and medication use patterns. Elucidation of these profiles, and determining their relative severity, has important implications for treatment, including offering more targeted interventions based on type of comorbidity pattern.

Attentional biases and trauma status: Do psychotic-like experiences matter?

Objective: In a large undergraduate sample, we explored whether attentional biases were similar between individuals reporting positive psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) with a history of traumatic life events (TLEs) compared with individuals with a TLE history alone.

Method: Participants completed the Emotional Stroop Task, and self-report questionnaires of TLEs and PLEs.

Results: Although reaction time (RT) to physical, sexual, emotional, and overall trauma words was associated with TLEs, only RT to physical abuse and overall trauma words remained significantly associated with TLE status after controlling for age, race, and neutral word RT.

Complex Polypharmacy in Patients With Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders Before a Psychiatric Hospitalization: Prescribing Patterns and Associated Clinical Features.

Background: Current evidence-based guidelines provide unclear support for many common polypharmacy practices in schizophrenia. Excessive or complex polypharmacy (≥4 psychotropics) has been studied in patients with bipolar disorder, but not in schizophrenia to date.

Methods: We conducted a digital medical record data extraction of 829 patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed as having schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Traumatic life event exposure and psychotic-like experiences: A multiple mediation model of cognitive-based mechanisms.

Several cognitive mechanisms have been proposed to account for the relationship between exposure to traumatic life events (TLEs) and the entire psychosis spectrum. However, only few of these mechanisms have been empirically tested and those that have been tested have not considered multiple mechanisms simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to examine whether perceived stress, dissociation, negative self-schemas, negative other-schemas, and/or external locus of control mediated the association between TLEs and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs).

The association between traumatic life events and psychological symptoms from a conservative, transdiagnostic perspective.

Exposure to traumatic life events (TLEs) is strongly linked to the onset and exacerbation of an array of psychological sequelae. While studies yield minimal evidence of specificity for one disorder emerging in the aftermath of TLEs versus another, most studies do not adopt a conservative approach in controlling for multiple psychological symptoms linked to TLEs. The present study explored the association between TLEs and eight psychological constructs before and after adjusting for concurrent symptomatology in a diverse sample of 2342 undergraduates.

Attenuated Positive Psychotic Symptoms in Relation to Cigarette Smoking in a Nonclinical Population.

Introduction: This study explored the association between cigarette smoking and attenuated positive psychotic symptoms in a young adult nonclinical sample.

Methods: Undergraduates (N = 930), aged 18-35 years (26.3% male), completed a battery of self-report measures assessing subthreshold psychotic symptoms, cigarette smoking behavior/dependence, and drug use.

Diagnosis and neurocognitive profiles in first-episode non-affective psychosis patients.

This study explored whether there are distinguishable neurocognitive profiles in diagnostic subgroups of first-episode non-affective psychosis (FEP) patients. Four hundred and eighty-seven individuals with diagnoses of non-affective psychosis disorders were evaluated 6 months after first contact with psychiatric services. Individuals with schizophrenia (n = 257), schizophreniform (n = 141), brief psychotic disorder (n = 54), and psychosis not otherwise specified (n = 35) were compared on baseline neuropsychological variables using analyses of variance and covariance with potential clinical, premorbid, and sociodemographic confounders.

Anxiety mediates the association between cannabis use and attenuated positive psychotic symptoms.

Cannabis use has been associated with a continuum of psychotic experiences. However, it is unclear whether mood and anxiety symptoms account for increases in attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APPS) among cannabis users. We predicted that depression and anxiety symptoms would mediate the relation between cannabis use and APPS, and between cannabis use and endorsement of eight or more distressing APPS (D-APPS), a potentially more clinically meaningful group.

Stress sensitivity mediates the relationship between traumatic life events and attenuated positive psychotic symptoms differentially by gender in a college population sample.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether stress sensitivity mediates the relationship between traumatic life events and total attenuated positive psychotic symptoms, as well as the relationship between traumatic life events and endorsement of 8 or more attenuated positive psychotic symptoms as distressing (a threshold that has been associated with higher risk for psychosis in clinical groups). Participants (n = 671, aged 17-35, 29% male) were college students who were administered the Prodromal Questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Life Events Checklist. Bootstrapping results indicated that stress sensitivity significantly mediated the relationships between traumatic life events and the number of attenuated positive psychotic symptoms endorsed and between traumatic life events and those who endorsed 8 or more distressing attenuated positive psychotic symptoms.