[Neuroleptic malignant syndrome - unexpected complication in a COVID-19 patient].

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is a life-threatening condition that can be fatal if unrecognized and inadequately treated. This disease is rarely seen in infectious diseases wards. As infectiologists, however, we are confronted with an increasingly broader spectrum of diagnoses and this disease should therefore be considered in any patient taking psychiatric medication who develops the typical symptoms of hyperthermia, rigidity and muscle tremors, autonomic lability and impaired consciousness.

Plasma Levels of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics in Outpatient Care: A Retrospective Analysis.

Purpose: Antipsychotic efficacy in schizophrenia depends on its availability in the body. Although therapeutic outcomes remain still far from satisfactory, therapeutic drug monitoring is not a common part of clinical practice during treatment with long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI AP). The real effectiveness of LAI AP is thus uncertain.

What Does Antidepressant Drug level Monitoring Reveal About Outpatient Treatment and Patient Adherence?

Introduction: The evaluation of plasma levels of antidepressants may improve the treatment outcome. The aim was to verify adherence and adequacy of administered doses of antidepressants among patients hospitalized for inadequate outpatient therapeutic response.

Methods: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or venlafaxine plasma levels were assessed on the first day of hospitalization and after 3 days of controlled administration.

Relationship between rapheal echogenicity and personality as possible markers of a disposition to develop depressive and anxiety disorders.

Early diagnosis of anxiety and depression may be facilitated by the use of neurobiological markers. In depression and panic disorder, transcranial sonography (TCS) has revealed decreased echogenicity of the brainstem raphe (BR). The aim of the present study was to detect whether decreased echogenicity of the BR correlates with personality features described in the five-dimension model, especially neuroticism.

A Comparative Study of Tower of London Scoring Systems and Normative Data.

Objective: Tower of London (ToL) is a planning ability task that includes multiple versions. The original ToL was developed by Shallice together with two scoring systems (ToL-SS). Another two ToL-SS were proposed by Anderson et al.

Hippocampal volume in first-episode schizophrenia and longitudinal course of the illness.

Objectives: Several lines of evidence suggest an adverse effect of psychotic episodes on brain morphology. It is not clear if this relationship reflects the cumulative effect of psychotic outbursts on the gradual progressive reduction of hippocampal tissue or an increased tendency toward psychotic episodes in patients with a smaller hippocampus at the beginning of the illness.

Methods: This is a longitudinal 4-year prospective study of patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES, N = 58).

Psychosis effect on hippocampal reduction in schizophrenia.

Introduction: In schizophrenia, disruption of the neurodevelopmental processes may lead to brain changes and subsequent clinical manifestations of the illness. Reports of the progressive nature of these morphological brain changes raise questions about their causes. The possible toxic effects of repeated stressful psychotic episodes may contribute to the disease progression.