Negative schizophrenia

The study aimed to assess Rivastigmine augmentation on positive and negative symptoms (PNSs), general psychopathology, and quality of life in patients with chronic Schizophrenia. A double-blind, parallel-design, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 60 schizophrenia patients was conducted. Intervention group received rivastigmine 3 mg/day + Treatment as Usual (TAU) and the control group: TAU + placebo. Negative and positive symptoms, general psychopathology; and quality of life were measured using Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) and Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA)...

Quetiapine hemifumarate (QF) delivery to the CNS via conventional formulations is challenging due to poor solubility and lower oral bioavailability (9 %). Similarly, many other second-generation antipsychotics, such as olanzapine, clozapine, and paliperidone, have also shown low oral bioavailability of <50 %. Hence, the present work was intended to formulate QF-loaded biodegradable PLGA-NPs with appropriate surface charge modification through poloxamer-chitosan and investigate its targeting potential on RPMI-2650 cell lines to overcome the limitations of conventional therapies...

BACKGROUND: Increased risk for somatic comorbidity in individuals with schizophrenia has been well established. In addition, psychiatric patients with somatic illnesses are more likely to have more psychiatric readmissions. Increased burden of treatment related to chronic somatic comorbidities may be associated with lower adherence to psychiatric medication. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 275 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. A general practitioner performed a complete physical health checkup for all participants, including a complete medical examination and laboratory tests...

AIM: Manipulation of the intestinal microbiome and supplying vitamin D can attenuate psychiatric symptoms in schizophrenic patients. The current study tried to evaluate the effects of probiotic/vitamin D supplementation on the cognitive function and disease severity of schizophrenic patients. METHODS: In the present study, 70 patients (aged 18-65) with schizophrenia were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated to the placebo (n = 35) and intervention (probiotic supplements+400 IU vitamin D, n = 35) groups...

Reward processing is impaired in people with schizophrenia, which may begin in the clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis period. The Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task has been important in understanding the neural correlates of reward processing deficits in various psychiatric disorders. Previous research has found that CHR individuals have an imprecise mental representation of rewards, which leads to a diminished differentiation between rewards, though this has not been observed behaviorally. A total of 19 CHR individuals and 20 controls were given a novel variant of the MID task, designed to examine how modulating reward context may impact responses to reward cues, a process often referred to as "adaptive coding...

Clozapine has become a widely popular and effective medication in the treatment of refractory schizophrenia and refractory bipolar disorder. Although the use of clozapine proves to be an effective resort, it has to be closely monitored due to its narrow therapeutic range and multiple dangerous adverse effects. In rare cases, clozapine has been known to cause an antagonistic myoclonic jerk that leads to knee buckling. Here, we present the case of a 29-year-old female who is being treated for schizoaffective disorder, bipolar, manic type, who reported two instances of knee buckling associated with falls while taking clozapine...

INTRODUCTION: Results of retrospective studies examining the relationship between prolactin increasing antipsychotics and incident breast cancer have been inconsistent. This study assessed the association between use of high prolactin increasing antipsychotics (HPD) and the incidence of breast cancer using best practices in pharmacoepidemiology. METHODS: Using administrative claims data from the MarketScan Medicaid database, schizophrenia patients initiating antipsychotics were identified...

Affiliation is both an antecedent and a consequence of emotional mimicry (i.e. imitating a counterpart's emotional expression). Thus, interacting with a disliked partner can decrease emotional mimicry, which in turn can further decrease liking. This perpetuating circle has not been investigated in the context of mental health stigma yet. The present study tested the influence of the label "schizophrenia" on liking, interpersonal closeness, and emotional mimicry. In an online experiment ( n  = 201), participants recruited from the general population saw several videos of actors displaying emotional expressions...

INTRODUCTION: Negative symptoms (NS) include asociality, avolition, anhedonia, alogia, and blunted affect and are linked to poor prognosis. It has been suggested that they reflect two different factors: diminished expression (EXP) (blunted affect and alogia) and amotivation/pleasure (MAP) (anhedonia, avolition, asociality). The aim of this article was to examine potential sex differences among first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and analyze sex-related predictors of two NS symptoms factors (EXP and MAP) and functional outcome...

BACKGROUND: Altered intestinal permeability and low-grade chronic inflammation disrupt the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (microbiota-gut-brain axis), probably playing a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. However, studies assessing the microbiota-gut-brain axis are inconsistent. This article describes the rationale, objectives, protocol, and presents descriptive results for a new project. METHODS: The sample of this study came from an observational, cross-sectional and multisite study including four centers in Spain (PI17/00246) recruiting adult patients with DSM-5 schizophrenia-spectrum disorders at any stage of the disease...

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OBJECTIVES: This study aims to understand the caregiving experiences of family caregivers of people with schizophrenia in a community. DESIGN: A qualitative study based on phenomenological analysis was conducted through in-depth interviews. SETTING: This study was carried out from May to June 2023 in two community health service centres in urban Beijing, China. PARTICIPANTS: We selected 16 family caregivers for interviews using purposive sampling method...

Antipsychotic drug treatment for schizophrenia (SZ) can alter brain structure and function, but it is unclear if specific regional changes are associated with treatment outcome. Therefore, we examined the effects of antipsychotic drug treatment on regional grey matter (GM) density, white matter (WM) density, and functional connectivity (FC) as well as associations between regional changes and treatment efficacy. SZ patients (n = 163) and health controls (HCs) (n = 131) were examined by structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) at baseline, and a subset of SZ patients (n = 77) were re-examined after 8 weeks of second-generation antipsychotic treatment to assess changes in regional GM and WM density...

Background: While numerous studies have compared symptoms of major depressive episodes (MDEs) associated with bipolar disorder (BD; i.e., bipolar depression) versus major depressive disorder (MDD; i.e., unipolar depression), little is known about this topic in youth. We compared MDE symptoms in youth with BD with youth with suspected BD who have similar clinical and familial characteristics aside from having BD. Methods: MDE symptoms based on Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children (K-SADS) Depression Rating Scale items for the most severe past episode were compared in youth, ages 13-21 years, with BD ( n  = 208) versus suspected BD ( n  = 165)...

BACKGROUND: Paying attention to the needs of patients with psychiatric disorders has recently come into focus. Failure to meet the needs of patients can affect their quality of life. This study aimed to determine the main areas of the needs of patients with severe psychiatric disorders and evaluate their relationship with the quality of life. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 174 patients with severe mental illness who were referred to Iran Psychiatric Hospital for hospitalization or outpatient treatment were enrolled in this study (68 with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, 106 with bipolar disorder type 1)...

Existing work indicates that there is unmet need for care in those at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. However, research on the factors that drive treatment seeking behaviors in this population is limited. Further, it is unknown how help-seeking behavior in CHR individuals compares to those seen in mood disorders, who have a higher rate of treatment seeking behavior. Participants (n = 559) completed an assessment of their intent to seek mental health treatment, attenuated psychosis-risk symptoms, and psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses...

BACKGROUND: Gamma-band activity has been the focus of considerable research in schizophrenia. Discrepancies exist regarding the integrity of the early auditory gamma-band response (EAGBR), a stimulus-evoked oscillation, and its relationship to symptoms in early disease. Variability in task design may play a role. This study examined sensitivity of the EAGBR to stimulus intensity and its relation to symptoms and functional impairments in the first-episode schizophrenia spectrum (FESz)...

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit sex differences in various aspects, and patients with SCZ have a high prevalence of internet addiction (IA). However, sex differences in IA among patients with SCZ mostly remain unstudied, particularly in Chinese adolescent patients with SCZ. This study investigated sex differences in prevalence, risk factors, and clinical correlates of IA among Chinese adolescent patients with SCZ. METHODS: A total of 706 adolescent patients with SCZ were enrolled in this study using a cross-sectional design and a convenience sampling method...

The aim of this study is to compare ecologically-valid measure (the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test, CAMPROMPT) and laboratory measure (eye-tracking paradigm) in assessing prospective memory (PM) in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs). In addition, eye-tracking indices are used to examine the relationship between PM and other cognitive domains in SSDs patients. Initially, the study sample was formed by 32 SSDs patients and 32 healthy control subjects (HCs) who were matched in sociodemographic profile and the performance on CAMPROMPT...

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Persistent auditory verbal hallucinations (pAVHs) and olfactory identification impairment are common in schizophrenia (SCZ), but the neuroimaging mechanisms underlying both pAVHs and olfactory identification impairment are unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether pAVHs and olfactory identification impairment in SCZ patients are associated with changes in cortical thickness. STUDY DESIGN: In this study, cortical thickness was investigated in 78 SCZ patients with pAVHs (pAVH group), 58 SCZ patients without AVHs (non-AVH group), and 83 healthy controls (HC group) using 3T magnetic resonance imaging...