Antipsychotic dopamine D affinity and negative symptoms in remitted first episode psychosis patients.

Negative symptoms can be an integral part of schizophrenia spectrum pathology and can be secondary to other psychotic symptoms or caused by antipsychotic medication. As antipsychotic drugs differ in their affinity to dopamine receptors and some antipsychotics have partial agonistic effects, antipsychotic drugs are expected to vary in their ability to cause negative symptoms. The association between negative symptoms and antipsychotic medication divided into partial agonists, or antagonists with high or low D affinity was assessed in 310 remitted first episode psychosis (FEP) patients.

Psychiatrists effect on positive symptom severity and daily functioning during pharmacotherapy for first-episode psychosis patients.

Clinical outcomes after a first-episode of psychosis (FEP) are heterogeneous. Many patient-related factors such as gender and comorbidity have been studied to predict symptomatic outcomes. However, psychiatrist-related factors such as prescription behaviour and gender have received little attention.

Cross-sectional association between metabolic parameters and psychotic-like experiences in a population-based sample of middle-aged and elderly individuals.

Background: Metabolic alterations are often found in patients with clinical psychosis early in the course of the disorder. Psychotic-like experiences are observed in the general population, but it is unclear whether these are associated with markers of metabolism.

Methods: A population-based cohort of 1890 individuals (mean age 58.

Activated PI3Kδ syndrome, an immunodeficiency disorder, leads to sensorimotor deficits recapitulated in a murine model.

The phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) family plays a major role in cell signaling and is predominant in leukocytes. Gain-of-function (GOF) mutations in the gene lead to the development of activated PI3Kδ syndrome (APDS), a rare primary immunodeficiency disorder. A subset of APDS patients also displays neurodevelopmental delay symptoms, suggesting a potential role of in cognitive and behavioural function.

Longitudinal clinical and functional outcome in distinct cognitive subgroups of first-episode psychosis: a cluster analysis.

Background: Cognitive deficits may be characteristic for only a subgroup of first-episode psychosis (FEP) and the link with clinical and functional outcomes is less profound than previously thought. This study aimed to identify cognitive subgroups in a large sample of FEP using a clustering approach with healthy controls as a reference group, subsequently linking cognitive subgroups to clinical and functional outcomes.

Methods: 204 FEP patients were included.

Changes in peripheral blood compounds following psychopharmacological treatment in drug-naïve first-episode patients with either schizophrenia or major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis.

Background: This meta-analysis on peripheral blood compounds in drug-naïve first-episode patients with either schizophrenia or major depressive disorder (MDD) examined which compounds change following psychopharmacological treatment.

Methods: The Embase, PubMed and PsycINFO databases were systematically searched for longitudinal studies reporting measurements of blood compounds in drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia or MDD.

Results: For this random-effects meta-analysis, we retrieved a total of 31 studies comprising 1818 schizophrenia patients, and 14 studies comprising 469 MDD patients.

Simvastatin Augmentation for Patients With Early-Phase Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders: A Double-Blind, Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) are associated with increased inflammatory markers, both in brain and periphery. Augmentation with drugs that lower this pro-inflammatory status may improve clinical presentation. Simvastatin crosses the blood-brain barrier, has anti- inflammatory and neuroprotective effects and reduces metabolic syndrome.

The search for an autoimmune origin of psychotic disorders: Prevalence of autoantibodies against hippocampus antigens, glutamic acid decarboxylase and nuclear antigens.

The etiology of psychotic disorders is still unknown, but in a subgroup of patients symptoms might be caused by an autoimmune reaction. In this study, we tested patterns of autoimmune reactivity against potentially novel hippocampal antigens. Serum of a cohort of 621 individuals with psychotic disorders and 257 controls were first tested for reactivity on neuropil of rat brain sections.

Cognitive functioning throughout adulthood and illness stages in individuals with psychotic disorders and their unaffected siblings.

Important questions remain about the profile of cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders across adulthood and illness stages. The age-associated profile of familial impairments also remains unclear, as well as the effect of factors, such as symptoms, functioning, and medication. Using cross-sectional data from the EU-GEI and GROUP studies, comprising 8455 participants aged 18 to 65, we examined cognitive functioning across adulthood in patients with psychotic disorders (n = 2883), and their unaffected siblings (n = 2271), compared to controls (n = 3301).

Comparing psychotic experiences in low-and-middle-income-countries and high-income-countries with a focus on measurement invariance.

Background: The prevalence of psychotic experiences (PEs) is higher in low-and-middle-income-countries (LAMIC) than in high-income countries (HIC). Here, we examine whether this effect is explicable by measurement bias.

Methods: A community sample from 13 countries ( = 7141) was used to examine the measurement invariance (MI) of a frequently used self-report measure of PEs, the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), in LAMIC ( = 2472) and HIC ( = 4669).

Prednisolone versus placebo addition in the treatment of patients with recent-onset psychotic disorder: a trial design.

Background: The symptom severity of a substantial group of schizophrenia patients (30-40%) does not improve through pharmacotherapy with antipsychotic medication, indicating a clear need for new treatment options to improve schizophrenia outcome. Meta-analyses, genetic studies, randomized controlled trials, and post-mortem studies suggest that immune dysregulation plays a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Some anti-inflammatory drugs have shown beneficial effects on the symptom severity of schizophrenia patients.

Altered peripheral blood compounds in drug-naïve first-episode patients with either schizophrenia or major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis.

Importance: Schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are associated with increased risks of immunologic disease and metabolic syndrome. It is unclear to what extent growth, immune or glucose dysregulations are similarly present in these disorders without the influence of treatment or chronicity.

Objective: To conduct a meta-analysis investigating whether there are altered peripheral growth, immune or glucose metabolism compounds in drug-naïve first-episode patients with schizophrenia or MDD compared with controls.

To continue or not to continue? Antipsychotic medication maintenance versus dose-reduction/discontinuation in first episode psychosis: HAMLETT, a pragmatic multicenter single-blind randomized controlled trial.

Background: Antipsychotic medication is effective for symptomatic treatment in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. After symptom remission, continuation of antipsychotic treatment is associated with lower relapse rates and lower symptom severity compared to dose reduction/discontinuation. Therefore, most guidelines recommend continuation of treatment with antipsychotic medication for at least 1 year.

Increased serum levels of leptin and insulin in both schizophrenia and major depressive disorder: A cross-disorder proteomics analysis.

We investigated whether there are similar serum alterations in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD). We investigated serum analytes in two epidemiological studies on schizophrenia (N = 121) and MDD (N = 1172) versus controls. Serum analytes (N = 109) were measured with a multi-analyte profiling platform and analysed using linear regression models, adjusted for site, age, gender, ethnicity, anti-inflammatory agents, smoking, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and adjusted for multiple comparisons.

Drug discovery for psychiatric disorders using high-content single-cell screening of signaling network responses ex vivo.

There is a paucity of efficacious new compounds to treat neuropsychiatric disorders. We present a novel approach to neuropsychiatric drug discovery based on high-content characterization of druggable signaling network responses at the single-cell level in patient-derived lymphocytes ex vivo. Primary T lymphocytes showed functional responses encompassing neuropsychiatric medications and central nervous system ligands at established (e.

Longitudinal evidence for a relation between depressive symptoms and quality of life in schizophrenia using structural equation modeling.

Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia often report a low quality of life (QoL). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether we could replicate a cross-sectional model by Alessandrini et al. (2016, n = 271) and whether this model predicts QoL later in life.

Multimodel inference for biomarker development: an application to schizophrenia.

In the present study, to improve the predictive performance of a model and its reproducibility when applied to an independent data set, we investigated the use of multimodel inference to predict the probability of having a complex psychiatric disorder. We formed training and test sets using proteomic data (147 peptides from 77 proteins) from two-independent collections of first-onset drug-naive schizophrenia patients and controls. A set of prediction models was produced by applying lasso regression with repeated tenfold cross-validation to the training set.

Patterns of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and social functioning in schizophrenia; a replication study.

Research has found that Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms (OCS) in schizophrenia are associated with either more or less negative symptoms and either better or poorer cognitive functioning. In order to explain these contradictory results, (Lysaker et al., 2004), performed a cluster analysis resulting in 2 OCS positive (OCSpos) clusters, one with higher functioning (HF) and one with poorer functioning (PF) compared to 2 OCS negative (OCSneg) clusters.

The characteristics of psychotic features in bipolar disorder.

Background: In a large and comprehensively assessed sample of patients with bipolar disorder type I (BDI), we investigated the prevalence of psychotic features and their relationship with life course, demographic, clinical, and cognitive characteristics. We hypothesized that groups of psychotic symptoms (Schneiderian, mood incongruent, thought disorder, delusions, and hallucinations) have distinct relations to risk factors.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study of 1342 BDI patients, comprehensive demographical and clinical characteristics were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I) interview.

An experience sampling study on the ecological validity of the SWN-20: Indication that subjective well-being is associated with momentary affective states above and beyond psychosis susceptibility.

Subjective well-being (SWB) is associated with treatment adherence and symptom outcome in people with psychotic disorders. Also, it is associated with psychosis susceptibility and it is partly hereditable. The SWN-20 is a widely used tool to assess subjective well-being in patients; it was also found to be suitable for assessing SWB in healthy populations.

The role of cognitive functioning in the relationship between childhood trauma and a mixed phenotype of affective-anxious-psychotic symptoms in psychotic disorders.

Cognitive impairments in patients with psychotic disorder have been associated with poor functioning and increased symptom severity. Furthermore, childhood trauma (CT) exposure has been associated with worse cognitive functioning as well as co-occurrence of affective-anxious-psychosis symptoms or a 'mixed phenotype of psychopathology' (MP), which in turn is associated with greater symptom severity, and poor functioning. This study aims to evaluate if cognition could be associated with CT/MP.