Publications by authors named "Maria Paz Garcia-Portilla"

Background: Emerging evidence suggests a potential association between "leaky gut syndrome" and low-grade systemic inflammation in individuals with psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. Gut dysbiosis could increase intestinal permeability, allowing the passage of toxins and bacteria into the systemic circulation, subsequently triggering immune-reactive responses. This study delves into understanding the relationship between plasma markers of intestinal permeability and symptom severity in schizophrenia.

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Article Synopsis
  • Maternal stress during pregnancy can influence the health of offspring, raising the risk for neuropsychiatric disorders through changes in placental DNA methylation.
  • The study examined the effects of maternal stress on DNA methylation of cortisol-regulating genes (NR3C1, FKBP5, HSD11B2) using placental samples from 45 mother-infant pairs divided by stress exposure levels.
  • Results indicated that higher maternal cortisol in early pregnancy was linked to specific DNA methylation changes in the NR3C1 and FKBP5 genes, but no direct connection to newborn neurodevelopment was established, underscoring the need for more research on placental epigenetics.
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The role of the oral microbiome in mental health has recently been appreciated within the proposed oral-brain axis. This study examined the structure and composition of the salivary microbiome in a large-scale population-based cohort of individuals reporting mental health symptoms (n = 306) compared to mentally healthy controls (n = 164) using 16S rRNA sequencing. Mental health symptoms were evaluated using validated questionnaires and included depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with accompanying periodontal outcomes.

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The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) is the most widely used rating scale to assess psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and other primary psychoses. However, a definitive consensus regarding its dimensional structure remains elusive. The present work aims to determine the number of dimensions of the scale through a network analysis approach in a sample of individuals experiencing first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorder (FE-SSD) with minimal or no prior exposure to antipsychotic treatment.

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Background: Functional recovery remains a core clinical objective for patients with bipolar disorder (BD). Sociodemographic, clinical, and neurocognitive variables are associated with long-term functional impairment, yet the impact of sex differences is unclear. Functional remediation (FR) is a validated intervention aimed at achieving functional recovery in BD.

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Background: Maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) has been repeatedly associated with negative offspring's emotional outcomes. The dysregulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis has emerged as the main underlying physiological mechanism.

Objective: To explore the association between maternal CM and newborns' physiological and neurobehavioral stress responses, considering the role of perinatal maternal depression and bonding.

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Functioning is a fundamental dimension across all aspects of life, frequently compromised or reduced in individuals with schizophrenia. However, the lack of a commonly agreed definition of functioning in schizophrenia makes it difficult to apply this concept in clinical practice. In this document, we make a detailed analysis of the literature to identify and define functioning and describe how it can be used in clinical practice today.

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Background: Cognitive impairment is a widespread feature of schizophrenia, affecting nearly 80 % of patients. Prior research has linked the anticholinergic burden of psychiatric medications to these cognitive deficits. However, the impact of the anticholinergic burden from medications for physical morbidity remains underexplored.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A study compared DNA methylation profiles between excellent responders to Li and non-responders, identifying 130 differentially methylated positions and linking them to several genes associated with Li response, particularly in the GSK3β pathway.
  • * Despite finding a specific methylation pattern that may predict Li response, no significant differences in age acceleration were observed between responders and non-responders, suggesting more research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms.
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Background: One of the challenges of psychiatry is the staging of patients, especially those with severe mental disorders. Therefore, we aim to develop an empirical staging model for schizophrenia.

Methods: Data were obtained from 212 stable outpatients with schizophrenia: demographic, clinical, psychometric (PANSS, CAINS, CDSS, OSQ, CGI-S, PSP, MATRICS), inflammatory peripheral blood markers (C-reactive protein, interleukins-1RA and 6, and platelet/lymphocyte [PLR], neutrophil/lymphocyte [NLR], and monocyte/lymphocyte [MLR] ratios).

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Introduction: Neutrophil/lymphocyte (NLR), monocyte/lymphocyte (MLR), and platelet/lymphocyte (PLR) ratios, and systemic inflammatory index (SII) represent peripheral markers of inflammation associated with different severe mental disorders.

Material And Methods: In this study, these parameters were analyzed in a sample of 622 participants [197 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), 154 with bipolar disorder (BD), 176 with schizophrenia (SCH), and 95 healthy controls (HC)]. Sociodemographic and clinical data of patients were recorded.

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Background: Altered intestinal permeability and low-grade chronic inflammation disrupt the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (microbiota-gut-brain axis), probably playing a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. However, studies assessing the microbiota-gut-brain axis are inconsistent. This article describes the rationale, objectives, protocol, and presents descriptive results for a new project.

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant mental health challenges, particularly for vulnerable populations, including non-binary gender individuals. The COMET international study aimed to investigate specific risk factors for clinical depression or distress during the pandemic, also in these special populations.

Methods: Chi-square tests were used for initial screening to select only those variables which would show an initial significance.

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Background: The prevalence of medical illnesses is high among patients with psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed to investigate multi-comorbidity in patients with psychiatric disorders in comparison to the general population. Secondary aims were to investigate factors associated with metabolic syndrome and treatment appropriateness of mental disorders.

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Introduction: Although there is evidence that higher cognitive reserve (CR) is a protective factor and it has been related to better prognosis, there have been no studies to date that have explored the CR level and its impact in clinical, neurocognitive and lifestyle outcomes according to the stage of the disease: early stage of psychosis (ESP) or chronic schizophrenia (SCZ).

Material And Methods: A total of 60 patients in the ESP and 225 patients with SCZ were enrolled in the study. To test the predictive capacity of CR for each diagnostic group, a logistic regression analysis was conducted.

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Background: Depression during pregnancy is a common complication that can negatively affect fetal health and birth outcomes. Cortisol is believed to be a key mediator of this association. Although pregnancy entails a natural increase in cortisol levels, preclinical depression could alter its circadian rhythm, producing excessively high overall diurnal cortisol levels that might be harmful for the fetus and future offspring development.

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Introduction: Bipolar disorder (BD) has been reconceptualised as a progressive disorder that develops from mild to severe presentations. An empirical staging model - the Empirically Developed Clinical Staging Model for BD (EmDe-5) - was developed in a previous study. This study aims to further validate that model using a larger and more representative Spanish sample.

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Background: People with schizophrenia and predominant negative symptoms (PNS) present a different clinical and functional profile from those without such symptomatology. Few studies have examined the risk factors and the incidence of PNS in first-episode schizophrenia patients (FES) and differentiating by sex. This study aims to assess prevalence, demographic and clinical characteristics related to PNS from early stages and to study if there are sex-specific features in terms of developing PNS.

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Background: Since research in schizophrenia mainly focuses on deficits and risk factors, we need studies searching for high-functioning protective factors. Thus, our objective was to identify protective (PFs) and risk factors (RFs) separately associated with high (HF) and low functioning (LF) in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: We collected information (sociodemographic, clinical, psychopathological, cognitive, and functional) from 212 outpatients with schizophrenia.

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The early psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown is greater in people with mental disorders. This study explored the differences in the psychological impact on people with an anxiety disorder by sex in Spain.

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Purpose: To examine efficacy and safety of paliperidone palmitate (PP) 6-month (PP6M) vs PP3-month (PP3M) long acting injectable (LAI) in patients with schizophrenia from European sites previously stabilized on PP3M or PP1-month (PP1M).

Methods: This post-hoc subgroup analysis used data from a global phase-3 double-blind (DB) randomized non-inferiority study (NCT03345342). Patients were randomized (2:1, respectively) to receive dorsogluteal injections of PP6M (700 mg eq.

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