Familial covariation of facial emotion recognition and IQ in schizophrenia.

Alterations in general intellectual ability and social cognition in schizophrenia are core features of the disorder, evident at the illness' onset and persistent throughout its course. However, previous studies examining cognitive alterations in siblings discordant for schizophrenia yielded inconsistent results. Present study aimed to investigate the nature of the association between facial emotion recognition and general IQ by applying genetically sensitive cross-trait cross-sibling design.

Openness to experience shortens duration of untreated psychosis in Serbian clinical population.

Aim: To determine duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders from Serbia and to analyse factors that potentially contribute to the treatment delay, with focus on personality traits.

Methods: Fifty seven patients (males 54.4%; age = 29.

Executive function in treatment-resistant depression before and after electroconvulsive therapy.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine executive functions (EF) in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) before and after bitemporal electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and to evaluate possible associations between the depression severity and executive tasks performances.

Methods: Patients (n = 29), treated with bitemporal ECT, underwent assessment at three time points: baseline, immediately after ECT course and 1 month later. The Stockings of Cambridge (SOC, CANTAB) was used to assess EF: (1) number of problems solved in minimum moves (SOC-P), (2) initial thinking time (SOC-I) and (3) subsequent thinking time (SOC-T).

»Treatment Resistance« Enigma Resolved by Pharmacogenomics - A Case Study of Clozapine Therapy in Schizophrenia.

The introduction of antipsychotic medication in the 1950s forever changed the outlook on the treatment of schizophrenia, although there is still a large proportion of patients who do not reach functional recovery. At least 30% of patients do not respond to clozapine, the tricyclic dibenzodiazepine with complex pharmacological actions, which was proven to be more effective than any other antipsychotic in the treatment of schizophrenia. According to most of the therapeutic guidelines for schizophrenia, clozapine is the third line therapy for patients who did not respond to other antipsychotics.

The role of glucocorticoid receptor phosphorylation in the model of negative affective states.

Objectives: To develop a structural equation model of negative affectivity (NA) that involves interaction of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling, personality dimensions and recent stressful life events.

Methods: Seventy participants - 35 diagnosed with major depression and 35 healthy controls, were enrolled in the study. Morning plasma cortisol levels were determined by chemiluminescent immunometric assays.

Neuroticism and facial emotion recognition in healthy adults.

Aim: The aim of the present study was to examine whether healthy individuals with higher levels of neuroticism, a robust independent predictor of psychopathology, exhibit altered facial emotion recognition performance.

Methods: Facial emotion recognition accuracy was investigated in 104 healthy adults using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR). Participants' degree of neuroticism was estimated using neuroticism scales extracted from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory.

Identifying gene-environment interactions in schizophrenia: contemporary challenges for integrated, large-scale investigations.

Recent years have seen considerable progress in epidemiological and molecular genetic research into environmental and genetic factors in schizophrenia, but methodological uncertainties remain with regard to validating environmental exposures, and the population risk conferred by individual molecular genetic variants is small. There are now also a limited number of studies that have investigated molecular genetic candidate gene-environment interactions (G × E), however, so far, thorough replication of findings is rare and G × E research still faces several conceptual and methodological challenges. In this article, we aim to review these recent developments and illustrate how integrated, large-scale investigations may overcome contemporary challenges in G × E research, drawing on the example of a large, international, multi-center study into the identification and translational application of G × E in schizophrenia.

Metabolic issues in psychotic disorders with the focus on first-episode patients: a review.

Before the onset of the illness, future schizophrenia patients do not weigh more comparing to their peers. However, during the later course of the illness, obesity is twice as prevalent as in general public, afflicting the half of schizophrenia patient population. There is a list of potential factors that contribute to this, including lifestyle, dietary habits, unsatisfactory monitoring of physical health etc, but nowadays side effects of antipsychotic medication become the most prominent concern when weight gain and metabolic issues in psychosis are addressed.

Phosphorylation of leukocyte glucocorticoid receptor in patients with current episode of major depressive disorder.

The impaired glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling has long been considered one of the cornerstones in understanding the pathophysiology of depression. Since the phosphorylation of GR is very important for GR function, in this study we investigated whether GR phosphorylation at serine 211 (pGR-S211) and serine 226 (pGR-S226) is altered in patients with current episode of major depressive disorder (MDD). Particularly, in 30 MDD patients and 35 controls we assessed the levels of nuclear total GR (tGR), pGR-S211 and pGR-S226 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) using Western blot technique, along with plasma cortisol concentrations from the same blood samples.