Neurological soft signs discriminate schizophrenia from bipolar disorder.

Background: Although neurological soft signs have been consistently described in patients with schizophrenia, their diagnostic specificity is not well clarified.

Methods: To test the hypothesis that neurological soft signs are specifically related to schizophrenia, we examined 305 subjects (patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, n=167; patients with bipolar I disorder, n=88; controls, n=50). Neurological soft signs were assessed using the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES).

Atypical antipsychotics and polydipsia: a cause or a treatment?

Primary polydipsia (PP) is a frequent complication that affects many chronic schizophrenic inpatients. Due to possible lethal consequences, for example, hyponatremia, coma and death, it's fundamental for the physician achieving early diagnosis and treating this condition. The first step is identifying polydipsia by clinical, biochemical and pharmacological means.

Neurological soft signs and cerebral measurements investigated by means of MRI in schizophrenic patients.

Neurophysiologic research has shown a Neurological Soft Sign (NSS) characteristic prevalence in schizophrenic patients, and correlations between NSS and the most frequently cerebral alterations. The aim of this study was to investigate, by means of MRI, the quantitative alterations of cortical and subcortical structures and their correlation with NSS in a sample of schizophrenic patients. Linear measures of lateral ventricular (Evans ratio), third ventricular (Third Ventricular Width), hippocampal (Interuncal Index) and cerebellar (Verm Cerebellar Atrophy) atrophy were made on magnified MR images of 33 patients with a DSM IV diagnoses of chronic schizophrenia.

Excess in the spring and deficit in the autumn in birth rates of male schizophrenic patients in Italy: potential role of perinatal risk factors.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether there were different seasonal variations of births in an Italian population of patients with schizophrenia, with other psychotic disorders, and with personality disorders than in the general population.

Methods: Birth dates of 1270 patients admitted to one university psychiatric unit in Rome between 1990 and 2003, with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, other psychotic disorder (OPD) and personality disorder/cluster A (PD) were analyzed according to seasonal variation.

Results: A significant excess of births in spring (with a peak in May) and a deficit in autumn (with a trough in October) was found in the sample of male schizophrenics (n = 506).

Neurologic soft signs in schizophrenic patients treated with conventional and atypical antipsychotics.

Neurologic soft signs (NSS) are considered a somatic feature associated with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) that are present in neuroleptic-treated, as well as untreated or first-episode patients. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and severity of NSS in groups of schizophrenic patients treated with either a conventional neuroleptic medication, haloperidol (n = 37), or atypical antipsychotic medications, risperidone (n = 19), clozapine (n = 34), and olanzapine (n = 18). NSS were assessed with the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES), whereas extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), which occur more commonly with conventional neuroleptic treatment, were evaluated using the Simpson-Angus Scale.

Deficit of executive functions in schizophrenia: relationship to neurological soft signs and psychopathology.

Cognitive deficits and neurological soft signs (NSS) have frequently been reported in schizophrenic patients and they both appear related to prominent negative symptoms. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between deficit of executive functioning, assessed by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), NSS and psychopathological dimensions of schizophrenia in order to address the issue of whether a typology of schizophrenic patients may be identifiable by clinical, neurological and neuropsychological features. A sample of 26 male schizophrenic patients was divided, on the basis of the performance on the WCST, into two subgroups ('good performers' and 'poor performers') that were compared for the prevalence and severity of NSS, assessed by the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES), and for the psychopathological features, assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).