"Schizophrenia past clozapine": reasons for clozapine discontinuation, mortality, and alternative antipsychotic prescribing.

Introduction: The clinical records of 190 patients with schizophrenia who discontinued clozapine between 1990 and 2012 in the county of Northamptonshire were examined, in an attempt to answer the following questions. Why do patients stop clozapine? What do physicians prescribe as an alternative? What is the mortality in this patient group?

Methods: Patients' data were extracted using their electronic records, then analysed using descriptive statistical methods.

Results: Non-compliance with treatment, or with the mandatory white blood cell monitoring, was the most common reason (55.

Temporal lobe volume changes in people at high risk of schizophrenia with psychotic symptoms.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has demonstrated abnormalities of brain structure, particularly of the temporal lobes, in schizophrenia. These are thought to be neurodevelopmental in origin, but when they become evident is unknown.

Aims: To determine if temporal lobe volumes reduce during the development of symptoms of schizophrenia in initially well people at high risk of this disorder.

Neuropsychological change in young people at high risk for schizophrenia: results from the first two neuropsychological assessments of the Edinburgh High Risk Study.

Background: Studies of groups of individuals who have a genetically high risk of developing schizophrenia, have found neuropsychological impairments that highlight likely trait markers of the schizophrenic genotype. This paper describes the change in neuropsychological function and associations with psychiatric state of high risk participants during the first two assessments of the Edinburgh High Risk Study.

Methods: Seventy-eight high risk participants and 22 normal controls, age and sex matched completed two neuropsychological assessments 18 months to 2 years apart.

Sustained attention in young people at high risk for schizophrenia.

Background: Sustained attention has been found to be impaired in individuals suffering from schizophrenia and their close relatives. This has led to the hypothesis that impaired sustained attention is an indicator of vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Methods: The Edinburgh High Risk Study used the Continuous Performance Test-Identical Pairs version (CPT-IP) to assess sustained attention in 127 high risk participants, 30 controls and 15 first-episode schizophrenic patients.

Brain structure, genetic liability, and psychotic symptoms in subjects at high risk of developing schizophrenia.

Background: Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in patients with schizophrenia has consistently demonstrated several abnormalities. These are thought to be neurodevelopmental in origin, as they have also been described in first episode cases, although there may be a progressive component. It is not known at which point in development these abnormalities are evident, nor to what extent they are genetically or environmentally mediated.