Self-Transformation at the Boundary of Religious Conversion and Psychosis.

The relationship between religious conversion, as a form of spiritual emergency, and psychosis is one of the fundamental issues at the meeting point of theology and clinical psychology. In the present study, we assessed 53 individuals referred to a psychiatry center with the initial diagnosis of a psychotic episode by focusing on the clinical diagnosis (psychosis vs. spiritual emergency), subjective experiences (basic symptoms), and neuropsychological functions.

Erratum: Uniting the neurodevelopmental and immunological hypotheses: Neuregulin 1 receptor ErbB and Toll-like receptor activation in first-episode schizophrenia.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML version of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Uniting the neurodevelopmental and immunological hypotheses: Neuregulin 1 receptor ErbB and Toll-like receptor activation in first-episode schizophrenia.

Current pathophysiological models of schizophrenia focus on neurodevelopmental and immunological mechanisms. We investigated a molecular pathway traditionally linked to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis (neuregulin 1 - ErbB), and pathogen-associated pattern recognition receptors associated with the immune hypothesis (Toll-like receptors, TLRs). We recruited 42 first-episode, drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia and 42 matched healthy control subjects.

Different drinking motives, different adverse consequences? Evidence among adolescents from 10 European countries.

Introduction And Aim: This study, which builds on previous research demonstrating that drinking motives are associated with adverse consequences, investigates the associations between drinking motives and non-alcohol-attributed adverse consequences and disentangles alcohol-related and direct effects.

Design And Method: On the basis of a sample of 22 841 alcohol-using 13- to 16-year-olds (50.6% female) from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Wales, structural equation models were used to estimate direct and indirect effects.

Reduced volumes of the CA1 and CA4-dentate gyrus hippocampal subfields in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Introduction There is evidence for hippocampal dysfunctions in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which may contribute to neuropsychiatric impairments. However, fine structural alterations of the hippocampus have not been investigated in SLE. Methods We measured the volume of hippocampal subfields in 18 SLE patients and 20 healthy control individuals matched for age, gender, and education.

Antipsychotics influence Toll-like receptor (TLR) expression and its relationship with cognitive functions in schizophrenia.

Increasing evidence suggests that altered immune functions are related to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Relatively little information is available on Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which are implicated in the recognition of molecular patterns associated with pathogens and internal cellular damage signals. By using immunophenotyping and flow cytometry, we investigated TLRs in CD14+ monocytes, CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (T), and CD3+CD4+CD25+ activated T cells (T) in 35 drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia before and after an 8-week period of antipsychotic treatment with risperidone or olanzapine.

A single dose of L-DOPA changes perceptual experiences and decreases latent inhibition in Parkinson's disease.

Despite the well-known neuropsychiatric side effects of dopaminergic medications, the possible subjective psychotomimetic effects of a single dose of L-DOPA in newly diagnosed, drug-naïve patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are not known. To investigate this question, we used a visual search task for latent inhibition (LI), the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) scale, and visual analog scales for psychotomimetic effects (perception, relaxation, and dysphoria) in 28 de novo PD patients before (off) and after (on) the adminstration of L-DOPA and in 25 matched healthy control individuals. Results revealed increased LI in PD-off and decreased LI in PD-on relative to the control subjects.

Modern health worries - the dark side of spirituality?

Modern health worries (MHWs) are widespread in modern societies. MHWs were connected to both negative and positive psychological characteristics in previous studies. The study aimed to investigate the relationships among intuitive-experiential information processing style, spirituality, MHWs, and psychological well-being.

Christianity and Schizophrenia Redux: An Empirical Study.

This paper explores the relationship among schizophrenia, spirituality, and Christian religiosity. We interviewed 120 patients with schizophrenia and 120 control individuals (74.2 % of individuals with self-reported Christian religions).

Drift diffusion model of reward and punishment learning in schizophrenia: Modeling and experimental data.

In this study, we tested reward- and punishment learning performance using a probabilistic classification learning task in patients with schizophrenia (n=37) and healthy controls (n=48). We also fit subjects' data using a Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) of simple decisions to investigate which components of the decision process differ between patients and controls. Modeling results show between-group differences in multiple components of the decision process.

Off-label intranasal oxytocin use in adults is associated with increased amygdala-cingulate resting-state connectivity.

Intranasally administered oxytocin gained popularity as a hormone facilitating trust, cooperation, and affiliation. However, the long-term consequences of oxytocin use are not known. Given that intensive media attention and advertisements of the "love hormone" might lead to a new form of misuse, we conducted an online survey and identified 41 individuals with oxytocin misuse.

Acute response to psychological trauma and subsequent recovery: no changes in brain structure.

We used magnetic resonance imaging to study brain structure in acute stress disorder (ASD) following a psychological trauma and after 4 weeks in remission. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry and FreeSurfer analysis of the hippocampal formation and amygdala revealed no structural changes in ASD (n=75) compared with trauma-exposed individuals without ASD (n=60) and community controls (n=60). These results suggest that ASD, in contrast to posttraumatic stress disorder, is not characterized by structural brain alterations.

Low-grade inflammation disrupts structural plasticity in the human brain.

Increased low-grade inflammation is thought to be associated with several neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by decreased neuronal plasticity. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between structural changes in the human brain during cognitive training and the intensity of low-grade peripheral inflammation in healthy individuals (n=56). A two-month training (30 min/day) with a platformer video game resulted in a significantly increased volume of the right hippocampal formation.

Blood biomarkers of depression track clinical changes during cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Background: Results from convergent genomics indicated new peripheral biomarkers for mood states. We sought to investigate the clinical utility of the BioM-10 Mood Panel, a peripheral biomarker set of low vs. high mood states, in the diagnosis of major depressive episode and to monitor the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

Expression of Toll-Like Receptors in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and response to cognitive-behavioral therapy in major depressive disorder.

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to the inflammatory mechanisms of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the present study was to investigate pro-inflammatory pathways related to the "leaky gut" hypothesis of MDD, which is based on the putative intestinal translocation of Gram-negative bacteria and a subsequent abnormal immune response mediated by the Toll-Like Receptor-4 (TLR-4) pathway. 50 patients with first-episode MDD and 30 healthy control subjects participated in the study.

Development of a non-invasive polysomnography technique for dogs (Canis familiaris).

Recently dogs (Canis familiaris) have been demonstrated to be a promising model species for studying human behavior as they have adapted to the human niche and developed human-like socio-cognitive skills. Research on dog behavior, however, has so far almost exclusively focused on awake functioning. Here we present a self-developed non-invasive canine polysomnography method that can easily be applied to naive pet dogs.

Social influence on associative learning: double dissociation in high-functioning autism, early-stage behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Most of our learning activity takes place in a social context. I examined how social interactions influence associative learning in neurodegenerative diseases and atypical neurodevelopmental conditions primarily characterised by social cognitive and memory dysfunctions.

Methods: Participants were individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA, n = 18), early-stage behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD, n = 16) and Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 20).

Changes in FKBP5 expression and memory functions during cognitive-behavioral therapy in posttraumatic stress disorder: a preliminary study.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by hyperarousal, flashbacks, avoidance, and memory dysfunctions. Although psychotherapy improves the clinical symptoms, its effect on memory has not been explored. In addition, there is no information about gene expression changes related to hippocampal functions.

Neuregulin 1-induced AKT and ERK phosphorylation in patients with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and intellectual disability associated with obstetric complications.

Animal models of fragile X syndrome (FXS) suggest the impairment of the intracellular AKT messenger system, which is activated by neuregulin 1 (NRG1), a key regulator of neurodevelopment. We investigated NRG1-induced activation of the AKT and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) systems by the measurement of the phosphorylated AKT/ERK to total AKT/ERK ratio in peripheral B lymphoblasts of patients with FXS, IQ-matched controls with intellectual disability (obstetric complications, preterm birth, perinatal hypoxia, and low birth weight), and typically developed healthy participants. Results revealed that patients with FXS displayed decreased AKT but normal ERK activation after the administration of NRG1.