P50 suppression deficits and psychopathology in Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: Numerous studies have reported P50 gating deficits in schizophrenia, though with mixed results. Moreover, few studies have explored the association between P50 gating deficits and psychopathology in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. In the present study, we investigated the P50 auditory sensory gating patterns and their correlations with clinical symptoms in a large sample of Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia.

Smoking, MATRICS consensus cognitive battery and P50 sensory gating in a Han Chinese population.

Background: The effects of smoking on cognitive performance have long been studied, with mixed results. P50 sensory gating has been used as endophenotype for studying nicotinic systems genetics, and P50 gating deficits have been reported to be a sensitive biomarker for cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. This study examined the inter-relationship between P50 suppression, cognitive function, and smoking in a healthy Han Chinese population, which has not been reported before.

Visual scanning of emotional faces in schizophrenia.

This study investigated eye movement differences during facial emotion recognition between 101 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 101 controls. Independent of facial emotion, patients with schizophrenia processed facial information inefficiently; they showed significantly more direct fixations that lasted longer to interest areas (IAs), such as the eyes, nose, mouth, and nasion. The total fixation number, mean fixation duration, and total fixation duration were significantly increased in schizophrenia.

Impaired prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle in Chinese patients with first-episode, medication-naïve schizophrenia.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia have prominent abnormality in information processing that can be observed by measures of prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle reflex and PPI deficits have been considered as a candidate endophenotypic marker of schizophrenia. However, there has been little information on PPI and related measures in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. The research was to explore the deficits of acoustic startle reflex that might exist in Chinese patients with schizophrenia.

Ventral medial prefrontal functional connectivity and emotion regulation in chronic schizophrenia: a pilot study.

People with schizophrenia exhibit impaired social cognitive functions, particularly emotion regulation. Abnormal activations of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) during emotional tasks have been demonstrated in schizophrenia, suggesting its important role in emotion processing in patients. We used the resting-state functional connectivity approach, setting a functionally relevant region, the vMPFC, as a seed region to examine the intrinsic functional interactions and communication between the vMPFC and other brain regions in schizophrenic patients.

Dysfunction in different phases of working memory in schizophrenia: evidence from ERP recordings.

The present study combined a time-locked paradigm and high-time-resolution event-related potential (ERP) recordings to examine different phases of working memory, including early visual processing and late memory-related processes of encoding, maintenance, and retrieval, in 67 adults with schizophrenia and 46 healthy controls. Alterations in ERP components were correlated with task performance. Patients performed significantly worse in the working memory task than healthy subjects, although all subjects' accuracy exceeded 80%.

Chinese psychiatrists views on global features of CCMD-III, ICD-10 and DSM-IV.

Objective: To survey psychiatrists' opinions about psychiatric classification in China, and provide information and suggestions for developing a new version of classificatory system.

Method: The questionnaire about psychiatry classification written by Professor Graham Mellsop, New Zealand, was translated and modified into Chinese. An anonymous field survey of 380 psychiatry professionals was undertaken in Beijing.

REMOVED: Association between the BDNF C270T polymorphism and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

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Decreased BDNF in serum of patients with chronic schizophrenia on long-term treatment with antipsychotics.

Accumulating evidence suggests BDNF as a molecule involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. To examine the BDNF levels and the relationship between BDNF levels and psychopathology in patients with schizophrenia, 81 physically healthy patients with schizophrenia were compared with 45 age-, sex- matched normal controls. The psychopathology of patients were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).

[Psychological and physical presentations of severe acute respiratory syndrome].

Objective: To study the relation between psychological symptoms and physical parameters in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) at different stages of the disease.

Methods: Physical parameters such as SCL-90, chest CT, T lymphocytes and subset and SaO2 were studied in 29 SARS patients at three different stages (initial stage, serious stage, rehabilitating stage).

Results: Patients with SARS showing severe psychological symptoms constituted about 41% (group I) and patients with SARS showing mild psychological symptoms (group II) constituted about 59%.

[Psychiatric and central nervous system involvement in Sjogren's syndrome].

Objective: To study psychiatric features and the manifestations of central nervous system involvement in Chinese patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (PSS).

Methods: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was used to study 27 PSS female patients and 57 healthy women. The results from two groups were compared.