Potential impact on mental health in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia - clozapine augmentation with long-acting parenteral antipsychotics: a case series.

Introduction: The rate of pharmacoresistance among in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia is around 30%. Clozapineis the drug of choice for these patients; however, an adequate response to treatment doesn't always occur. One of the possible augmentation approaches, specifically for non-adherent patients, is the administration of long-acting parenteral antipsychotics.

Selected neuroendocrine factors as potential molecular biomarkers of early non-affective psychosis course in relation to treatment outcome: A pilot study.

The aim of this pilot study was to find whether the dysregulation of neuroendocrine biomarker signaling pathways in the first episode of non-affective psychosis is a predictive factor of treatment outcome. Patients with the first episode of non-affective psychosis (N = 29) were examined at admission, at discharge, and at follow-up (N = 23). The biomarkers included serum aldosterone, cortisol, free thyroxine, thyroid stimulating hormone, and prolactin.

A preliminary choroid plexus volumetric study in individuals with psychosis.

The choroid plexus (ChP) is part of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, regulating brain homeostasis and the brain's response to peripheral events. Its upregulation and enlargement are considered essential in psychosis. However, the timing of the ChP enlargement has not been established.

Rationale and study design of a trial to assess TMS addon alue for the amelioration of negative symptoms of schizophrenia (RADOVAN).

Background: Schizophrenia is a severe and often difficult to treat psychiatric illness. In many patients, negative symptoms dominate the clinical picture. Meta-analysis has suggested moderate, but significant effects of high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) on these symptoms.

Brain Connectivity and Symptom Changes After Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder.

Objectives: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an innovative method in the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We hypothesized that prefrontal rTMS in patients with BPD leads to improved BPD symptoms and that these effects are associated with brain connectivity changes.

Methods: Fourteen patients with BPD received 15 sessions of individually navigated prefrontal rTMS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Hemodynamic and white blood cells parameters in patients with first-episode psychosis: a pilot longitudinal study.

Objective: Patients with schizophrenia are at higher risk of cardiovascular (CVS) related mortality. Close attention is being paid to the clinical utility of readily available CVS markers.

Methods: A pilot one-year longitudinal study in inpatients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) was carried out to determine markers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction (monocyte- and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios) and basal blood pressure, pulse, and derived hemodynamic parameters (PP: pulse pressure; RPP: rate pressure product; and MAP: mean arterial pressure).

Emotional Awareness in Schizophrenia Is Associated With Gray Matter Volume of Right Precuneus.

We assessed the relationship between emotional awareness (e.g., the ability to identify and differentiate our own feelings and feelings of others) and regional brain volumes in healthy and in schizophrenia groups.

The association of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) with hippocampal volume in schizophrenia: a preliminary MRI study.

Matrix metalloproteinases 9 (MMP9) are enzymes involved in regulating neuroplasticity in the hippocampus. This, combined with evidence for disrupted hippocampal structure and function in schizophrenia, has prompted our current investigation into the relationship between MMP9 and hippocampal volumes in schizophrenia. 34 healthy individuals (mean age = 32.

Influence of dose, gender, and cigarette smoking on clozapine plasma concentrations.

Introduction: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of clozapine is a very useful method for verifying both the correct intake and the interindividual variability of its metabolism, thereby avoiding the risk of toxicity. The purposes of this paper were to discover how many patients using clozapine in common clinical practice have clozapine plasma concentration (PC) levels in the proposed reference range and to identify factors that influence clozapine PC levels.

Methods: Our study included 100 inpatients (diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder) taking standard doses of clozapine (100-700 mg/day).

Aldosterone and aldosterone/cortisol ratio is higher in serum of long-term compared to first episode schizophrenia patients: A pilot study.

We have previously shown that patients with severe depressive episode exhibit higher aldosterone concentrations compared to those with moderate depressive episode. The present study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that circulating concentration of aldosterone reflect the clinical state in patients with schizophrenia. The sample consisted of 36 hospitalized patients (25 men, 11 women) with the first episode or long-term course of schizophrenia.

Efficacy and Safety of Intensive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is customarily applied on a daily basis for prolonged periods of time for the treatment of psychiatric diseases. The process is demanding in terms of staff and patient time, and the onset of the effect is slow. Recently, intensive rTMS protocols have been introduced in which stimulation is applied to the same area more than once a day with a higher than standard number of pulses.

Risperidone increases the cortical silent period in drug-naive patients with first-episode schizophrenia: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

Objectives: Schizophrenia is accompanied by impaired cortical inhibition, as measured by several markers including the cortical silent period (CSP). It is thought that CSP measures gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors B (GABA) mediated inhibitory activity. But the mutual roles of schizophrenia as a disease and the drugs used for the treatment of psychosis on GABA mediated neurotransmission are not clear.

Hippocampal volume in first-episode schizophrenia and longitudinal course of the illness.

Objectives: Several lines of evidence suggest an adverse effect of psychotic episodes on brain morphology. It is not clear if this relationship reflects the cumulative effect of psychotic outbursts on the gradual progressive reduction of hippocampal tissue or an increased tendency toward psychotic episodes in patients with a smaller hippocampus at the beginning of the illness.

Methods: This is a longitudinal 4-year prospective study of patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES, N = 58).

Predictive Motor Timing and the Cerebellar Vermis in Schizophrenia: An fMRI Study.

Abnormalities in both time processing and dopamine (DA) neurotransmission have been observed in schizophrenia. Time processing seems to be linked to DA neurotransmission. The cognitive dysmetria hypothesis postulates that psychosis might be a manifestation of the loss of coordination of mental processes due to impaired timing.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces cigarette consumption in schizophrenia patients.

Introduction: High-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) seemed to decrease tobacco consumption and craving in nicotine-dependent people without psychiatric disorder or otherwise healthy people. Even if the prevalence of cigarette smoking in schizophrenia patients is high and estimated to be between 45% and 88%, this technique has not been systematically studied in this indication in schizophrenia yet.

The Aim Of The Study: The aim of this study was to test the ability of high-frequency (10Hz) rTMS over the left DLPFC to decrease cigarette consumption in schizophrenia patients.

A detailed analysis of the effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on negative symptoms of schizophrenia: a double-blind trial.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of rTMS not only on the general severity of negative schizophrenia symptoms, but also particularly on their individual domains, such as affective flattening or blunting, alogia, avolition or apathy, anhedonia, and impaired attention.

Methods: Forty schizophrenic male patients on stable antipsychotic medication with prominent negative symptoms were included in the study. They were divided into two groups: 23 were treated with active and 17 with placebo rTMS.

Dynamics of neurological soft signs and its relationship to clinical course in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

The aim of the study was to assess the dynamics of neurological soft signs (NSS) over four years from the clinical onset of schizophrenia, depending on the clinical course of the disease, and to evaluate the relationship of NSS to symptomatic dimensions in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Sixty-eight patients with first-episode schizophrenia were included in the trial. The clinical status was assessed using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at the same time as the neurological examination, at admission to the hospital for first-episode schizophrenia and at a check-up examination four years later.

Does repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation have a positive effect on working memory and neuronal activation in treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Objective: The objective of the study was to find out whether, under the conditions of a double-blind, placebo coil controlled study, high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the left prefrontal cortex will show positive effects on working memory with simultaneous assessment of respective changes in neuronal activation.

Results: Stimulation treatment led to a reduction of seriousness of negative schizophrenia symptoms in both comparative groups. However, mutual comparison of real (n=19) and sham (n=11) rTMS, respectively, has shown that the effect of real rTMS was statistically significantly higher compared with placebo stimulation.