Acquisition and extinction of active avoidance compulsive-like behavior in mice.

Approximately 90% of adults have ever experienced obsessions, yet less than 3% of them develop OCD. It is hypothesized that excessive fear of negative events contributes to OCD onset and development, which is related to the individual differences in psychopathology and neurophysiology associated with OCD among those who experience obsessions. To explore the hypothesis, this study examined if a fear-inducing aversive footshock could induce compulsive-like lever-pressing behavior in mice, the effects of extinction treatments on the compulsive-like behavior, and how the expression of tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) in the amygdala would be regulated.

Enzymatic activity of palmitoyl-protein thioesterase-1 in serum from schizophrenia significantly associates with schizophrenia diagnosis scales.

Genome-wide association studies have confirmed that schizophrenia is an inheritable multiple-gene mental disorder. Longitudinal studies about depression, first episode psychosis (FEP) and acute psychotic relapse have mostly searched for brain imaging biomarkers and inflammatory markers from the blood. However, to the best of our knowledge, the association between enzymatic activities with diagnosis or prediction of treatment response in people with schizophrenia has barely been validated.