Recovery in schizophrenia: focus on neurocognitive functioning.

Recovery encompasses symptom remission and functional elements such as cognition, social functioning and quality of life. Personal recovery is also important in illness management to help the person stay on track with treatment and focus on activities unrelated to taking medication that maintain mental health. In the present study we aimed to identify neurocognitive functioning in two clinically stable groups of patients with personal recovery and non-recovered patients.

History and current condition of Russian psychiatry.

Russian psychiatry has a dramatic history, and until now has been at a transitional stage of development. It is facing problems not only common in world psychiatry, but also specific to eastern Europe, in particular Russia. Starting from the beginning of the 1990s, considerable changes have occurred in psychiatry, especially after 1992 when the law on psychiatric care and guarantees of citizens' rights in its provision was adopted.

Remission in schizophrenia: results of cross-sectional with 6-month follow-up period and 1-year observational therapeutic studies in an outpatient population.

Background: A standardized definition of remission criteria in schizophrenia was proposed by the International group of NC Andreasen in 2005 (low symptom threshold for the eight core Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) symptoms for at least 6 consecutive months).

Methods: A cross-sectional study of remission rate, using a 6-month follow-up to assess symptomatic stability, was conducted in two healthcare districts (first and second) of an outpatient psychiatric service in Moscow. The key inclusion criteria were outpatients with an International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10) diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Neurocognitive functioning in drug-naive patients with first episode of psychosis before and after treatment.

Cognitive deficit is a core feature of schizophrenia mostly grasping memory, psychomotor processing, attention, thinking, and executive functioning and is already present in the prodromal phase of the illness and is detected at the onset. Recent studies have been focused on the differentiation of cognitive functioning in relation to the diagnostic categories, which reveal cognitive heterogeneity in schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The study demonstrated that along with changes in the clinical state, specifically, with reduction of psychopathological symptoms, patients with schizoaffective disorders show more positive dynamics with better chances to back up while in schizophrenia the cognitive dysfunction is more defined and less prone to improvement.

Neurocognitive deficit changes in relation to the course of schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders: 5-year follow-up study.

Cognitive deficit is present in most of schizophrenia cases and even better explains functional outcomes then positive and negative symptoms. There have been less consensus regarding the long-term course of cognitive functioning after onset of the illness. In our study we used a neuropsychological test battery based on Luria`s systematic approach in testing of patients at their first episode of schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders and during 5-year follow-up.

Effectiveness of the integrated long-term program of management of patients after first psychotic episode in 5-year follow-up.

The Early Intervention Centre (First episode clinic, FEC) that provides specific service programs to this particular target group of patients with early psychosis opened in November 2000 as a day clinic at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry. To date, FEC programs consistent with the developed model have been established in 30 regions across Russia. 5-year follow-up data are available for 114 patients who received such care in the FEC.

Russian Federation: mental healthcare and reform.

The Russian Federation is a country with an enormous territory, of over 17 million km. Its population is 141.9 million (2010 figure).

Handedness, alexithymia, and focus laterality as risk factors for psychiatric comorbidity in patients with epilepsy.

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of seizure lateralization, handedness, and alexithymia on psychopathology in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. One hundred five patients were included in the study. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist--90 (SCL-90) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-26) were used for psychopathological assessment of patients.

Monotherapy of epilepsy in women: psychiatric and neuroendocrine aspects.

The aim of the present work was to perform a comparative assessment of the efficacy and safety of traditional and contemporary antiepileptic agents in women of reproductive age. The experimental group consisted of 65 patients, of whom 48 had partial epilepsy and 17 had idiopathic generalized epilepsy. A number of issues were addressed in studies of a larger group of patients (110), including both women (65) and men (45).

Focus laterality and interictal psychiatric disorder in temporal lobe epilepsy.

The current study was carried out in order to find the possible associations between foci laterality and kind of prevailed psychopathological disorder in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). One hundred and ten patients with TLE (40 men and 70 women) were included into the study. Among all studied patients the left-focus activity was detected in 67 patients, right-sided foci-in 43 patients.

Chronology and evolution of temporal lobe epilepsy and endocrine reproductive dysfunction in women: relationships to side of focus and catameniality.

The current study was carried out to determine the possible associations between side of focus, catameniality, reproductive dysfunction (RD), and chronology variables for epilepsy and concomitant RD in women. Eighty women of childbearing potential with temporal lobe epilepsy were included in the study. Catamenial epilepsy was observed mainly in women with left-sided foci, and a noncatamenial pattern in women with right-sided foci.

Interface between endocrinology and psychiatry in women with epilepsy: analysis of the relationship with comorbid pathology.

This study was carried out to detect a possible association between endocrine pathology, neurological symptoms, and psychiatric variables in women with epilepsy. One hundred and thirty epileptic women with childbearing potential were recruited into the study. The results obtained showed that catamenial epilepsy was observed mainly in women with reproductive dysfunction and normal thyroid function.

Alcohol-related human losses in Russia in the 1980s and 1990s.

Aims: The estimation of alcohol-related human losses in Russia in the 1980s and 1990s.

Design: The estimation was made by comparing changes in the total number of deaths and in specific categories, and alcohol consumption in Russia during this time.

Setting: The anti-alcohol campaign, launched in 1985, and the market reforms launched in 1992 were associated with large and rapid changes of alcohol-consumption in Russia.

[A combination of cognitive and psychodynamic components in the psychotherapy of somatoform disorders].

Psychological research has identified difficulties in the awareness, verbalization and recognition of emotions in patients with somatoform disorders. Problems in the recognition of emotions are usually labeled as alexithymia. Patients with alexithymic characteristics need a special psychotherapeutic approach, which may be described as follows: The first stage of treatment aims to overcome the alexithymic barrier along with the development of self-monitoring skills for emotional states.

Alcohol-related harm and alcohol consumption in Moscow before, during and after a major anti-alcohol campaign.

Aims: To examine the rates of alcohol-related harm in relation to levels of alcohol consumption before, during and after a major anti-alcohol campaign in Moscow.

Design: Changes in State alcohol sale and alcohol consumption and certain forms of alcohol-related harm were observed as a function of time.

Findings: Following the 1985 anti-alcohol campaign, State alcohol sales decreased by 38.

[The cortical reactions during sensory and motor activities in healthy children and adults and in depression patients].

Studying the visual perception by means of EP recording in the visual and motor cortical areas and cortical reactions during hand movements revealed resemblance of these reactions in children to those in patients with endogenous (cyclophrenia and low-progredient schizophrenia) depressive disorders. In perception, the latency of the early and middle EP components was reduced. An increase in reactivity of the right hemisphere and ipsilateral reactions were induced by the movement.

Clinical picture, dynamics and treatment of reactive depressions in infant.

The authors studied the typology, clinical picture, dynamics and therapy of reactive (psychogenic) depressions in 46 children, aged 1.5-4.5 years.