[Psychosomatic concept of hyperthyroidism-Graves type--behavioral and biochemical characteristics].

Introduction: In this study we test the hypothesis that specific behavioral and biochemical vulnerabilities characterize individuals with hyperthyroidism-Graves type, one of the classically cited "psychosomatic disorders".

Material And Methods: The sample included 24 subjects with Graves disease and 34 controls. All participants were evaluated for personality and temperament characteristics and for platelet MAO activity.

Plasma homocysteine levels in young male patients in the exacerbation and remission phase of schizophrenia.

High levels of homocysteine (Hcy) were suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Recent investigations have shown that treatment with folic acid, vitamin B-12 and pyridoxine are effective in reducing Hcy levels while concomitantly reducing the score of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients. In addition to the availability of nutrients (mainly folate, vitamins B6 and B12), plasma Hcy concentrations are dependent on complex metabolic regulation that could be disrupted in schizophrenia.

Baseline temperature in an animal model of schizophrenia: long-term effects of perinatal phencyclidine administration.

Phencyclidine (PCP), a dissociative anaesthetic, acts as a noncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. PCP is a psychostimulant capable of producing both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, including cognitive dysfunction in normal humans. Perinatal phencyclidine administration to rats has been widely accepted as an animal model of schizophrenia.

[Executive functions in young patients with unipolar depression].

Neuropsychological deficits associated with unipolar depression are seen in a broad range of cognitive domains. Executive deficits may be prominent in depression. Investigation of executive functions in younger adult patients with unipolar depression has been the focus of our study.

[Panic disorder--psychobiological aspects of personality dimensions].

Introduction: Attempts to understand the underlying mechanisms of association between psychological factors and panic disorder have been mostly based on psychodynamic description. Evidence of the importance of serotonergic (5-HT) system in panic disorder (PD), however, has substanti ally increased in recent years.

Objective: The objective of our study was to determine whether there was a specific personality profile of panic disorder patients and how it was related to possible neurobiological mechanisms underlying personality dimensions.

[Neuropsychological profile of patients with bipolar depression in remission].

Aim: To determine if the patients with bipolar affective disorder, after the depressive phase, would exhibit cognitive impairment in remission.

Methods: Twenty-three euthymic patients with bipolar disorder were matched, on a case-by-case basis, to twenty-one healthy subjects in the control group, for the presence of the symptoms of depression. The patients and the control group were tested with a battery of neuropsychological tests.

Carbamazepine for acute psychosis with EEG abnormalities.

Aim: To investigate the efficacy of carbamazepine as adjuvant drug therapy in acute paranoid psychosis with associated EEG abnormalities, compared to sole antipsychotic treatment.

Methods: Eleven medication-naive patients, diagnosed with acute paranoid psychosis with associated EEG abnormalities, were divided into two treatment groups: sole fluphenazine group, with flexible dosing of 5-10 mg/day (n=6), and carbamazepine group (n=5) with the addition of carbamazepine (600 mg/day) to fluphenazine treatment. Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), and EEG were assessed on the baseline and after 6 weeks of treatment.

The effects of fluoxetine on cognitive functions in animal model of Alzheimer's disease.

Cognitive impairment is the hallmark of progressive neurodegenerative process observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Acetylcholine (Ach) deficiency is considered to be one of major factors underlying cognitive dysfunction in AD. Several lines of evidence suggest that sigma receptor ligands can elevate Ach extracellular levels in prefrontal cortex rat brain.

[Correlation of neurodevelopmental disorders in schizophrenia].

Contemporary aetiopathogenetic considerations, based on neuro-imaging, genetic and developmental neurobiology studies, suggest neurodevelopmental origin of schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence including structural abnormalities on in vivo brain imaging, the excess of prenatal and obstetric complications and the association of congenital and minor physical anomalies with schizophrenia, strongly indicate the neurodevelopmental pathogenesis of schizophrenia. On the other hand, controversial concept of psychotic continuum suggests schizophrenia and depression sharing the same genetic contribution to the pathogenesis.

[Volumetric analysis of gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid space in schizophrenia].

Schizophrenia is characterized by diffuse brain abnormalities, some of them involving volumes of three intracranial compartments: gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Novel methods, such as Statistical Parametrical Mapping, provide an automated means of comparing structural features across high quality MRI scans and the measurement based on the principles of voxel based morphometry. For the purposes of the present study, we selected sex balanced group of young adults with recent onset illness to assess the effects of the illness on the volumes of compartments and also to minimize the effects of chronicity, medication, sex and aging.

Substrate kinetics of erythrocyte membrane Na,K-ATPase and lipid peroxides in schizophrenia.

Previous studies have shown decreased erythrocyte membrane (EM) Na,K-ATPase activity in chronic patients suffering from schizophrenia (SCH). There are no data about changes at the onset of psychosis and enzyme kinetics. Increased lipid peroxidation could be responsible for alterations in Na,K-ATPase activity.