Psychopharmacological Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with affective and cognitive symptoms causing personal distress and reduced global functioning. These have considerable societal costs due to healthcare service utilization.

Objective: Our aim was to assess the efficacy of pharmacological interventions in OCD and clinical guidelines, providing a comprehensive overview of this field.

Predictive factors of overall functioning improvement in patients with chronic schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder treated with paliperidone palmitate and aripiprazole monohydrate.

Background: Long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics can improve medication adherence and reduce hospitalisation rates compared with oral treatments. Paliperidone palmitate (PAL) and aripiprazole monohydrate (ARI) LAI treatments were associated with improvements in global functioning in patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the predictive factors of better overall functioning in patients with chronic schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder treated with PAL and ARI.

Lurasidone: efficacy and safety in the treatment of psychotic and mood disorders.

Lurasidone ([3aR,4S,7R,7aS]-2-[(1R,2R)-2-[4-(1,2-benzisothiazol-3-yl)piperazin-1yl-methyl] cyclohexylmethyl]-hexahydro-4,7-methano-2H-isoindole-1,3-dione hydrochloride; Latuda®) is a novel benzisothiazole, second-generation antipsychotic drug developed by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Corporation in Japan. Similar to other atypical antipsychotics it has a distinctive pharmacodynamic profile, Areas covered: This review updates reported research findings on the efficacy, safety and tolerability of LRSD for treatment of psychotic and major affective disorders, with meta-analyses. Short-term efficacy of LRSD in schizophrenia is supported by several randomized, controlled trials with daily doses of 40-160 mg, yielding relatively modest symptomatic improvements.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Correlates of First-Episode Psychoses during Attentional and Memory Task Performance.

Background: The nature of the alteration of the response to cognitive tasks in first-episode psychosis (FEP) still awaits clarification. We used activation likelihood estimation, an increasingly used method in evaluating normal and pathological brain function, to identify activation changes in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of FEP during attentional and memory tasks.

Methods: We included 11 peer-reviewed fMRI studies assessing FEP patients versus healthy controls (HCs) during performance of attentional and memory tasks.