1,721,031 research outputs found
Genomics and epigenomics in novel schizophrenia drug discovery: translating animal models to clinical research and back
No full textIntroduction: Schizophrenia is a major psychiatric disorder that afflicts about 1% of the world's population, falling into the top 10 medical disorders causing disability. Existing therapeutic strategies have had limited success; they have poor effects on core cognitive impairment and long-term disability. They are also burdened by relevant side effects. Although new antipsychotic medications have been launched in the past decades, there has been a general lack of significant innovation over the past 60 years. This lack of significant progress in the pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia is a reflection of the complexity and heterogeneity of its etiopathogenetic mechanisms. Areas covered: In this article, the authors briefly review genetic models of schizophrenia, focusing on examples of how new therapeutic strategies have been developed from them. They report on the evidence of epigenetic alterations in schizophrenia and their relevance to pharmacological studies. Further, they describe the implications of epigenetic mechanisms in the etiopathogenesis of the disease and the effects of current antipsychotic drugs on epigenetic processes. Finally, they provide their perspective of using epigenetic drugs for treating schizophrenia. Expert opinion: Current genetic and epigenetic studies are finally shedding light on the biomolecular mechanisms linked to the core pathogenetic alterations in schizophrenia, rather than just their symptoms. These advancements in the understanding of the physiopathology of schizophrenia provide exciting new perspectives for treatments. Indeed, the possibility of looking directly at the biomolecular level allows us to bypass the age-old issues of animal studies pertaining to their questionable validity as behavioral models
Editorial: Psychotic experiences, social cognition and pragmatic communication in the psychosis continuum
Full text linkCriteria for symptom remission revisited: a study of patients affected by schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders
No full textBackground: This study aims to compare severity criteria defined by the Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group (RSWGcr) with other criteria in relation to functional and neurocognitive outcome. Methods: 112 chronic psychotic outpatients were examined. Symptomatic remission according to RSWGcr was compared with the outcome achieved using criteria based on PANSS Positive and Negative Scales (PANSS-PNScr) and the entire PANSS (PANNS-TScr). Results: Remission rates were 50%, 35% and 23% respectively at RSWGcr, PANSS-PNScr and PANNS-TScr; functional remission rates were 32%, 42% and 54%. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and ROC analysis demonstrated the superiority of PANSS-PNScr in identifying patients with higher functional and cognitive outcomes. Regression analysis showed a significant predictive effect of PANSS-TScr on functioning. General linear model analyses demonstrated significantly higher mean scores at PSP and BACS for patients remitted according to PANSS-TScr. Conclusion: The use of more restrictive severity criteria of remission seems to be associated with improved identification of truly remitted patients
Eyes wide open: A systematic review of the association between insomnia and aggression in forensic contexts
No full textSleep quality has been highlighted as a significant predictor of violent behavior through lifespan and across pathologies and a causal link has also been suggested. Despite the high prevalence of insomnia and its potential impact as a modifiable risk factor for aggressive behavior, a comprehensive synthesis of the literature is lacking. We aimed to systematically review the published works exploring the role of sleep in aggressive behaviors, especially focusing on forensic contexts. We performed a systematic review searching the electronic databases PubMed and Scopus through December 2020 and selected articles that compared sleep of offenders and controls and articles that studied the association between sleep and aggression. Ten articles were selected: 2 compared sleep in offenders and controls and 8 studied the association between sleep and aggression. Offenders showed worse sleep features than control both objectively and subjectively measured. Sleep quality was associated with aggression, but sleep quantity was less studied. Sleep seems to have a prominent role in aggressive behaviors but studies concerning this topic are few; samples and methods were highly heterogeneous and most studies were cross-sectional. Future studies are needed to clarify the association between sleep disturbances and aggression, adopting a more systematized approach. Sleep assessment and treatment and might be particularly useful, especially in high-risk populations
'Theory' of mind impairment in patients affected by schizophrenia and in their parents
No full text"Theory of mind" (ToM) is the ability to judge the mental states of the self and others. It is currently considered as a part of the broader concept of social cognition, known to influence the social behaviour of patients affected by schizophrenia. Recently it has been hypothesized that the impairment of ToM is a trait that can be detected both in patients with schizophrenia and in non-psychotic relatives of patients, but it still not clear what the contribution of the familial patterns of cognitive impairment is. The aim of this study is to assess parental impairments of ToM performance considering the effects of the neurocognitive abilities known to be impaired in their first-degree relatives and to influence ToM in schizophrenic patients. Patients, their parents and control trios were assessed with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Symbol Coding Task and the ToM Picture Sequencing Task. The ANCOVA analysis on 47 trios including a schizophrenic offspring and 47 healthy trios showed a statistically significant Poorer performance of patients and their parents in comparison to control trios at Symbol Coding Task and ToM task. Moreover a regression analysis showed that the neuropsychological abilities tested were significant predictors of ToM performance only in patients. Results confirm a ToM impairment among parents of patients with schizophrenia that is not directly correlated to other aspects of neurocognitive functioning. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved."Theory of mind" (ToM) is the ability to judge the mental states of the self and others. It is currently considered as a part of the broader concept of social cognition, known to influence the social behaviour of patients affected by schizophrenia. Recently it has been hypothesized that the impairment of ToM is a trait that can be detected both in patients with schizophrenia and in non-psychotic relatives of patients, but it still not clear what the contribution of the familial patterns of cognitive impairment is. The aim of this study is to assess parental impairments of ToM performance considering the effects of the neurocognitive abilities known to be impaired in their first-degree relatives and to influence ToM in schizophrenic patients. Patients, their parents and control trios were assessed with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Symbol Coding Task and the ToM Picture Sequencing Task. The ANCOVA analysis on 47 trios including a schizophrenic offspring and 47 healthy trios showed a statistically significant Poorer performance of patients and their parents in comparison to control trios at Symbol Coding Task and ToM task. Moreover a regression analysis showed that the neuropsychological abilities tested were significant predictors of ToM performance only in patients. Results confirm a ToM impairment among parents of patients with schizophrenia that is not directly correlated to other aspects of neurocognitive functioning. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Patterns of evidence integration in schizophrenia and delusion
No full textPrevious studies documented a bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) in
patients affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with some discrepant
findings on its relationship with delusions. In order to further investigate the
patterns of evidence integration in schizophrenia and delusion, we recruited 40
deluded and non-deluded patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy control
subjects. Participants were administered the BADE test, which consisted of 30
delusion-neutral scenarios, each one progressively described by three subsequent
disambiguating statements and providing four types of interpretation to rate for
plausibility; at every additional evidence presentation, participants were asked
to adjust their ratings. In contrast to previous works, patients displayed both a
BADE and a bias against confirmatory evidence (BACE) relative to healthy
subjects, as they reduced plausibility ratings on incorrect interpretations and
increased plausibility ratings on correct interpretation significantly less over
trial progress. Moreover, BACE and BADE measures showed to discriminate
differentially control from schizophrenia participants and delusional from
non-delusional patients
Antipsychotics, metabolic syndrome and schizophrenia: investigating the role of SREBF polymorphisms
No full textCOMT Val158Met polymorphism and antipsychotic treatment interaction on cognitive remediation outcomes in schizophrenia
No full textEffect of COMT functional polymorphism on bias against disconfirmatory evidence in schizophrenia
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