Systematic comparison of duration of untreated illness versus duration of untreated psychosis in relation to psychopathology and dysfunction in the Cavan-Monaghan first episode psychosis study (CAMFEPS).

This study systematically compared duration of untreated illness (DUI) with duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in prediction of impairment at first-episode psychosis and investigated the extent to which these relationships are influenced by premorbid features. The Cavan-Monaghan First Episode Psychosis Study ascertained cases of first-episode psychosis in rural Ireland via all routes to care with limited variations in socioeconomic milieu. Cases were evaluated for DUI and DUP and assessed clinically for psychopathology, neuropsychology, neurology, insight and quality of life, together with premorbid features.

Systematic epidemiological and clinical comparisons across all 12 DSM-IV psychotic diagnoses in the Cavan-Monaghan First Episode Psychosis Study (CAMFEPS).

Background: Research on psychotic illness is loosening emphasis on diagnostic stringency in favour of including a more dimensionally based conceptualization of psychopathology and pathobiology. However, to clarify these notions requires investigation of the full scope of psychotic diagnoses.

Methods: The Cavan-Monaghan First Episode Psychosis Study ascertained cases of first episode psychosis across all 12 DSM-IV psychotic diagnoses via all routes to care: public, private or forensic; home-based, outpatient or inpatient.

Functional outcome and service engagement in major depressive disorder with psychotic features: comparisons with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder in a 6-year follow-up of the Cavan-Monaghan First Episode Psychosis Study (CAMFEPS).

Objective: While long-term outcome following a first psychotic episode is well studied in schizophrenia (SZ), schizoaffective disorder (SA), and bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder with psychotic features (MDDP) has received less investigation. This study compares MDDP with SZ, SA, and BD at 6-year follow-up.

Methods: At 6 years after a first psychotic episode, follow-up data on psychopathology, functioning, quality of life, and service engagement were obtained for 27 cases of MDDP in comparison to 60 SZ, 27 SA, and 35 BD.

Epidemiological and clinical characterization following a first psychotic episode in major depressive disorder: comparisons with schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder in the Cavan-Monaghan First Episode Psychosis Study (CAMFEPS).

While recent research on psychotic illness has focussed on the nosological, clinical, and biological relationships between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, little attention has been directed to the most common other psychotic diagnosis, major depressive disorder with psychotic features (MDDP). As this diagnostic category captures the confluence between dimensions of psychotic and affective psychopathology, it is of unappreciated heuristic potential to inform on the nature of psychotic illness. Therefore, the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of MDDP were compared with those of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder within the Cavan-Monaghan First Episode Psychosis Study (n = 370).

Frontonasal dysmorphology in bipolar disorder by 3D laser surface imaging and geometric morphometrics: comparisons with schizophrenia.

Any developmental relationship between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia engenders continuing debate. As the brain and face emerge in embryological intimacy, brain dysmorphogenesis is accompanied by facial dysmorphogenesis. 3D laser surface imaging was used to capture the facial surface of 13 male and 14 female patients with bipolar disorder in comparison with 61 male and 75 female control subjects and with 37 male and 32 female patients with schizophrenia.

Chitinase-3-like 1 (CHI3L1) gene and schizophrenia: genetic association and a potential functional mechanism.

Background: Gene expression data and association analyses in two Chinese samples implicate chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1), a cellular survival gene, in schizophrenia susceptibility.

Methods: We tested whether the association data are robust to replication in a Caucasian schizophrenia sample and performed a comprehensive investigation of common genetic variation at the locus.

Results: In a sample of 375 case and 812 control subjects we identified significant association with the same risk allele at the promoter single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated in the original study (rs10399805; p = .

Dysbindin (DTNBP1) and the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1 (BLOC-1): main and epistatic gene effects are potential contributors to schizophrenia susceptibility.

Background: The DTNBP1 gene, encoding dysbindin, has been strongly implicated in schizophrenia (SZ) susceptibility by a series of independent genetic association and gene expression studies. Among its known functions, dysbindin is part of a protein complex, termed the biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1 (BLOC-1), the molecular components of which might be involved in the regulation of vesicular trafficking and dendrite branching.

Methods: A systematic investigation of the other seven BLOC-1 genes (MUTED, PLDN, CNO, SNAPAP, BLOC1S1, BLOC1S2, and BLOC1S3) for evidence of association with SZ was undertaken in a sample of 373 SZ cases and 812 control subjects.

Three-dimensional laser surface imaging and geometric morphometrics resolve frontonasal dysmorphology in schizophrenia.

Background: Although a role for early developmental disturbance(s) in schizophrenia is postulated, it has proved difficult to identify hard, biological evidence. The brain and face emerge in embryologic intimacy, such that in neurodevelopmental disorders, brain dysmorphogenesis is accompanied by facial dysmorphogenesis.

Methods: Three-dimensional (3D) laser surface imaging was used to capture the facial surface of patients and control subjects in 37 male and 32 female patients who satisfied DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia in comparison with 58 male and 34 female control subjects.

Epidemiology of first-episode psychosis: illustrating the challenges across diagnostic boundaries through the Cavan-Monaghan study at 8 years.

The epidemiology of first-episode psychosis is poorly understood because of the paucity of systematic studies, yet it constitutes the fundamental basis for understanding the disorder and the foundations on which clinical, biological, therapeutic, and long-term outcome studies are built. A particular need is to clarify the diagnostic breadth of first-episode psychosis and, on this basis, to undertake systematic comparisons across representative populations of the psychoses, to include comparisons with first-episode mania. Considered here is the new generation of prospective studies that may be able to inform in some way on these issues.