The potential role of high or low birthweight as risk factor for adult schizophrenia.

Objective: Obstetric complications may be an important factor in the development of schizophrenia. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of these complications in the development of schizophrenia in adult life, with particular attention to the potential role of birth weight.

Method: We carried out a case-control study, comprising schizophrenics and patients with diseases of the schizophrenia spectrum as cases, and their healthy male brothers as controls.

Neurological soft signs and cerebral measurements investigated by means of MRI in schizophrenic patients.

Neurophysiologic research has shown a Neurological Soft Sign (NSS) characteristic prevalence in schizophrenic patients, and correlations between NSS and the most frequently cerebral alterations. The aim of this study was to investigate, by means of MRI, the quantitative alterations of cortical and subcortical structures and their correlation with NSS in a sample of schizophrenic patients. Linear measures of lateral ventricular (Evans ratio), third ventricular (Third Ventricular Width), hippocampal (Interuncal Index) and cerebellar (Verm Cerebellar Atrophy) atrophy were made on magnified MR images of 33 patients with a DSM IV diagnoses of chronic schizophrenia.

Excess in the spring and deficit in the autumn in birth rates of male schizophrenic patients in Italy: potential role of perinatal risk factors.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether there were different seasonal variations of births in an Italian population of patients with schizophrenia, with other psychotic disorders, and with personality disorders than in the general population.

Methods: Birth dates of 1270 patients admitted to one university psychiatric unit in Rome between 1990 and 2003, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, other psychotic disorder (OPD) and personality disorder/cluster A (PD) were analyzed according to seasonal variation.

Results: A significant excess of births in spring (with a peak in May) and a deficit in autumn (with a trough in October) was found in the sample of male schizophrenics (n = 506).

Assessment of subjective stress in video display terminal workers.

Stress assessment in the workplace has been focused on its environmental, psychological and biological aspects. We carried out an evaluation of the subjective components of stress in a working population of 60 subjects employed in a large Public Service, 30 Video Display Terminal (VDT) workers (15 men and 15 woman) and 30 office-workers not assigned to VDT (15 men and 15 woman), by using the "Rapid Stress Assessment Scale": a short questionnaire of easy administration in work environment. VDT workers of both sexes showed higher total stress score vs.

[Psychiatry and psychiatrists in the U.S.A. cinema].

United States cinema motion pictures from the beginning of 20th century to the present are characterized by massive use of sterotypes to represent psychiatrist's image, as well as psychiatric treatment and inpatients psychiatric facilities. Representation tends to undergo considerable changes between psychiatric different historical periods. Psychiatric disorders also are commonly depicted in movies, often in a not realistic way.

Neurologic soft signs in schizophrenic patients treated with conventional and atypical antipsychotics.

Neurologic soft signs (NSS) are considered a somatic feature associated with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) that are present in neuroleptic-treated, as well as untreated or first-episode patients. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and severity of NSS in groups of schizophrenic patients treated with either a conventional neuroleptic medication, haloperidol (n = 37), or atypical antipsychotic medications, risperidone (n = 19), clozapine (n = 34), and olanzapine (n = 18). NSS were assessed with the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES), whereas extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), which occur more commonly with conventional neuroleptic treatment, were evaluated using the Simpson-Angus Scale.

Deficit of executive functions in schizophrenia: relationship to neurological soft signs and psychopathology.

Cognitive deficits and neurological soft signs (NSS) have frequently been reported in schizophrenic patients and they both appear related to prominent negative symptoms. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between deficit of executive functioning, assessed by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), NSS and psychopathological dimensions of schizophrenia in order to address the issue of whether a typology of schizophrenic patients may be identifiable by clinical, neurological and neuropsychological features. A sample of 26 male schizophrenic patients was divided, on the basis of the performance on the WCST, into two subgroups ('good performers' and 'poor performers') that were compared for the prevalence and severity of NSS, assessed by the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES), and for the psychopathological features, assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).

Reduction of night/day difference in melatonin blood levels as a possible disease-related index in schizophrenia.

Objective: Aim of this study was to verify if a simple index as night-day plasma MLT level variation is able to confirm the existing data on circadian melatonin alterations in schizophrenia and if a relationship to disease itself instead of the actual clinical state can be suggested.

Setting And Design: Ten consecutively admitted male schizophrenic inpatients were examined.

Methods: The blood samples for melatonin were collected at 3.

A double-blind, randomized parallel-group, efficacy and safety study of intramuscular S-adenosyl-L-methionine 1,4-butanedisulphonate (SAMe) versus imipramine in patients with major depressive disorder.

S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe) is a natural substance which constitutes the most important methyl donor in transmethylation reactions in the central nervous system. Several clinical trials have shown that SAMe possesses an antidepressant activity. This multicentre study was carried out to confirm both efficacy and safety of SAMe in the treatment of major depression.

Efficacy and tolerability of oral and intramuscular S-adenosyl-L-methionine 1,4-butanedisulfonate (SAMe) in the treatment of major depression: comparison with imipramine in 2 multicenter studies.

Background: S-Adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), a natural compound, is the most important methyl donor in the central nervous system. In several clinical trials, SAMe showed antidepressant activity.

Objective: Two multicenter studies were conducted in patients with a diagnosis of major depressive episode [baseline score on the 21-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) >or=18] to confirm the efficacy and safety of SAMe in the treatment of major depression.

Reduced pineal volume in male patients with schizophrenia: no relationship to clinical features of the illness.

Several investigations have suggested pineal gland abnormalities in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. The pineal volume on brain magnetic resonance imaging scans was calculated in 15 male schizophrenic inpatients and in 16 matched control subjects. The statistical comparison found a significant difference of pineal gland volume between schizophrenics and controls (P = 0.

Paroxetine versus amitriptyline in patients with recurrent major depression: A double-blind trial.

Introduction: Long-term exposure to antidepressants is required to prevent relapses and recurrences in patients with recurrent major depression. Furthermore, a good pharmacological compliance is the key to successful long-term treatment. Since the early phases of a treatment influence long-term compliance and compliance is adversely affected by poorly tolerated treatments, efficacy and tolerability of paroxetine and amitryptiline over 12 weeks were compared as an introduction to the issue of long-term compliance to these two agents.