Polygenic and Polyenvironment Interplay in Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorder and Affective Psychosis; the EUGEI First Episode Study.

Background: Multiple genetic and environmental risk factors play a role in the development of both schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and affective psychoses. How they act in combination is yet to be clarified.

Methods: We analyzed 573 first episode psychosis cases and 1005 controls, of European ancestry.

The impact of schizophrenia genetic load and heavy cannabis use on the risk of psychotic disorder in the EU-GEI case-control and UK Biobank studies.

Background: The association between cannabis and psychosis is established, but the role of underlying genetics is unclear. We used data from the EU-GEI case-control study and UK Biobank to examine the independent and combined effect of heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia polygenic risk score (PRS) on risk for psychosis.

Methods: Genome-wide association study summary statistics from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort were used to calculate schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder (CUD) PRS for 1098 participants from the EU-GEI study and 143600 from the UK Biobank.

Cannabis use and cognitive biases in people with first-episode psychosis and their siblings.

Background: Cannabis use and familial vulnerability to psychosis have been associated with social cognition deficits. This study examined the potential relationship between cannabis use and cognitive biases underlying social cognition and functioning in patients with first episode psychosis (FEP), their siblings, and controls.

Methods: We analyzed a sample of 543 participants with FEP, 203 siblings, and 1168 controls from the EU-GEI study using a correlational design.

The effect of polygenic risk score and childhood adversity on transdiagnostic symptom dimensions at first-episode psychosis: evidence for an affective pathway to psychosis.

Childhood adversity is associated with various clinical dimensions in psychosis; however, how genetic vulnerability shapes the adversity-associated psychopathological signature is yet to be studied. We studied data of 583 First Episode Psychosis (FEP) cases from the EU-GEI FEP case-control study, including Polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder (MDD-PRS), bipolar disorder (BD-PRS) and schizophrenia (SZ-PRS); childhood adversity measured with the total score of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ); and positive, negative, depressive and manic psychopathological domains from a factor model of transdiagnostic dimensions. Genes and environment interactions were explored as a departure from a multiplicative effect of PRSs and total CTQ on each dimension.

[Precision psychiatry and neuroimaging: Towards improved treatment success in psychosis].

Background: In the future, clinicians might use information about neurobiological processes, obtained through imaging techniques, to guide personalized prevention and intervention strategies for psychosis and related disorders. However, this requires more knowledge about these individuals’ brain function.

Aim: To advance the current knowledge on neurobiological processes in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and individuals at increased risk of these disorders.

The association of tobacco smoking and metabolite levels in the anterior cingulate cortex of first-episode psychosis patients: A case-control and 6-month follow-up H-MRS study.

Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent among patients with psychosis and associated with worse clinical outcomes. Neurometabolites, such as glutamate and choline, are both implicated in psychosis and tobacco smoking. However, the specific associations between smoking and neurometabolites have yet to be investigated in patients with psychosis.

Mentalization based treatment for a broad range of personality disorders: a naturalistic study.

Background: Several studies have observed that mentalization-based treatment (MBT) is an effective treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD), but its effectiveness for other personality disorders (PDs) has hardly been examined. Additionally, the evidence supporting the claim that MBT improves mentalizing capacity is scarce. The present study examined whether (i) patients with a broad range of PDs enrolled in an MBT program would improve on several outcome measures (ii) mentalizing capacity would improve over time; (iii) patients with BPD would improve more than those with non-borderline PDs.

The contribution of cannabis use to the increased psychosis risk among minority ethnic groups in Europe.

Background: We examined whether cannabis use contributes to the increased risk of psychotic disorder for non-western minorities in Europe.

Methods: We used data from the EU-GEI study (collected at sites in Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) on 825 first-episode patients and 1026 controls. We estimated the odds ratio (OR) of psychotic disorder for several groups of migrants compared with the local reference population, without and with adjustment for measures of cannabis use.

Endocannabinoid levels in plasma and neurotransmitters in the brain: a preliminary report on patients with a psychotic disorder and healthy individuals.

Background: Interactions between the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and neurotransmitter systems might mediate the risk of developing a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD). Consequently, we investigated in patients with SSD and healthy controls (HC) the relations between (1) plasma concentrations of two prototypical endocannabinoids (N-arachidonoylethanolamine [anandamide] and 2-arachidonoylglycerol [2-AG]) and (2) striatal dopamine synthesis capacity (DSC), and glutamate and y-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). As anandamide and 2-AG might reduce the activity of these neurotransmitters, we hypothesized negative correlations between their plasma levels and the abovementioned neurotransmitters in both groups.

Cannabis use as a potential mediator between childhood adversity and first-episode psychosis: results from the EU-GEI case-control study.

Background: Childhood adversity and cannabis use are considered independent risk factors for psychosis, but whether different patterns of cannabis use may be acting as mediator between adversity and psychotic disorders has not yet been explored. The aim of this study is to examine whether cannabis use mediates the relationship between childhood adversity and psychosis.

Methods: Data were utilised on 881 first-episode psychosis patients and 1231 controls from the European network of national schizophrenia networks studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study.

The association between clinical, sociodemographic, familial, and environmental factors and treatment resistance in schizophrenia: A machine-learning-based approach.

Background: Prediction of treatment resistance in schizophrenia (TRS) would be helpful to reduce the duration of ineffective treatment and avoid delays in clozapine initiation. We applied machine learning to identify clinical, sociodemographic, familial, and environmental variables that are associated with TRS and could potentially predict TRS in the future.

Study Design: Baseline and follow-up data on trait(-like) variables from the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) study were used.

Diverging effects of mentalization based treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia: an explorative comparison.

Introduction: There is robust evidence that both patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) display mentalizing difficulties. Less is known however about differences in the way mentalization based treatment (MBT) impacts mentalizing capacity in SCZ and BPD patients. This study compares the impact of MBT on mentalizing capacity in individuals with SCZ and BPD.

Consider the hubris syndrome for inclusion in our classification systems.

Successful leaders are at risk of developing exaggerated pride, contempt for others, and a diminished sense of reality. The ancient Greeks feared this syndrome and called it hubris. Although certain contemporaneous leaders show signs of hubris and pose a great danger, the hubris syndrome does not yet figure in our classification systems.

The risk of psychosis for transgender individuals: a Dutch national cohort study.

Background: The stressful minority position of transgender persons may result in a high risk of psychosis. Conflicting data suggest that the observed risk depends on setting of recruitment. We assessed the relative risk of non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD) in a large, representative cohort of transgender persons.

The relationship between genetic liability, childhood maltreatment, and IQ: findings from the EU-GEI multicentric case-control study.

This study investigated if the association between childhood maltreatment and cognition among psychosis patients and community controls was partially accounted for by genetic liability for psychosis. Patients with first-episode psychosis (N = 755) and unaffected controls (N = 1219) from the EU-GEI study were assessed for childhood maltreatment, intelligence quotient (IQ), family history of psychosis (FH), and polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (SZ-PRS). Controlling for FH and SZ-PRS did not attenuate the association between childhood maltreatment and IQ in cases or controls.

Synergistic effects of childhood adversity and polygenic risk in first-episode psychosis: the EU-GEI study.

Background: A history of childhood adversity is associated with psychotic disorder, with an increase in risk according to the number of exposures. However, it is not known why only some exposed individuals go on to develop psychosis. One possibility is pre-existing polygenic vulnerability.

The association between reasons for first using cannabis, later pattern of use, and risk of first-episode psychosis: the EU-GEI case-control study.

Background: While cannabis use is a well-established risk factor for psychosis, little is known about any association between reasons for first using cannabis (RFUC) and later patterns of use and risk of psychosis.

Methods: We used data from 11 sites of the multicentre European Gene-Environment Interaction (EU-GEI) case-control study. 558 first-episode psychosis patients (FEPp) and 567 population controls who had used cannabis and reported their RFUC.