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PubMed1994

Striatal dopamine receptor binding in epileptic psychoses.

In order to study the nature of dopaminergic activity in epileptic psychoses we investigated striatal dopamine receptor binding in 14 patients with epilepsy. Seven of the patients were acutely psychotic when studied, having recently developed a periictal schizophreniform psychosis. The remaining patients were not psychotic. All patients were scanned using single photon emission tomography (SPET) with 123I-IBZM, a specific dopamine D2 receptor ligand. A region of interest analysis was performed. Comparison of mean basal ganglia to occipital cortex activity ratios in the two groups demonstrated significantly reduced specific binding of 123I-IBZM to striatal D2 receptors in the psychotic patients compared to those without psychosis.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Are schizophrenia and affective disorder related?: the problem of schizoaffective disorder and the discrimination of the psychoses by signs and symptoms.

Schizophrenia and affective disorder are separately classified. Schizoaffective disorder has been considered a variant of these, or representing several diseases. Some hypothesize a psychosis continuum. One test of these contrasting views involves discriminating the psychoses by their classic symptoms. We used discriminant function analyses to assess the ability of systematically recorded psychopathology to distinguish 167 DSM-III schizophrenics from 74 affectives. We divided the schizophrenics into chronic and schizoaffective subgroups. We discriminated chronic schizophrenics from affectives, but schizoaffectives overlapped both groups. Schizoaffective/unipolars were like chronic schizophrenics, and schizoaffective/bipolars were like affectives. However, these discriminations also substantially overlapped, and among non-affective positive features formal thought disorder was best at discrimination. Our findings do not fully support the present classification system, and suggest that its emphasis on hallucinations and delusions is overvalued.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Markers in psychoses: studies from India.

Genetic considerations are important in studying the pathogenesis of the psychoses. There are few reports from India, however, which have pursued a "biological marker" approach to functional illness of this type. A review of such few studies as do exist is presented to add to contemporary knowledge in the area. Recommendations are also made for evolving newer research strategies.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1986

The biology of folate in depression: implications for nutritional hypotheses of the psychoses.

Folate deficiency is a common occurrence in psychiatric disorders, whether organic or functional, particularly in depressive illness. We have shown that folate deficiency is a common association of depressive symptoms in a variety of settings including primary endogenous or non-endogenous depression, and in alcoholic, lithium-treated and anorexic patients. Possible pathogenetic mediating mechanisms for this association are methylation and hydroxylation and the implications for nutritional hypotheses of the psychoses are discussed. We suggest that folate deficiency, with or without deficiencies of other nutritional factors such as monoamine precursors, vitamins B6, B12 and C, may predispose to or aggravate psychiatric disturbances, particularly depression and a model for these interactions is proposed.

Anorexia Nervosa↗
PubMed1987

Integrated viral genes as potential pathogens in the functional psychoses.

According to the retrovirus-transposon hypothesis, psychosis is due to the expression of a pathogenic sequence (a "virogene") integrated in the genome and either inherited from an affected or predisposed parent or acquired in the course of reproduction by a genetic rearrangement (e.g. a transposition or the generation of a tandem repeat). The psychoses are viewed as a continuum extending from unipolar through bipolar and schizo-affective disorder to schizophrenia with increasing severity of defect, movement along this continuum occurring by such genetic rearrangements. The locus at which these changes take place is envisaged as related to the genetic determinants of cerebral lateralisation (the "cerebral dominance gene") the interaction between potential pathogen and growth factor gene having possible growth enhancing effects. Such beneficial effects may have ensured the survival of this "hot-spot" in the genome.

Diseases in Twins↗
PubMed1979

Are schizoaffective psychoses heterogeneous? Results of a genetic investigation, II.

150 schizoaffective probands and their 1029 first-degree relatives were examined in search of the heterogeneity of the disorder. The sample of probands was split by several criteria. Among the various subgroups the morbidity risk of relatives was analysed as an external criterion for heterogeneity. Female relatives show a higher risk for affective disorders that male relatives. This is true for relatives of male and female index patients. Schizophrenia is equally frequent in male and female relatives. Schizoaffective psychoses take an intermediate position. The further analysis included the following characteristics of the probands: age at first episode, number of episodes, psychopathological subtypes (affective, schizophrenic, undifferentiated: manic, non-manic). None of these criteria proved to distinguish subgroups significantly, therefore, the search for heterogeneity was negative, although some results show a trend to the expected direction.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

On the physical properties of red cell ghost membranes in the affective disorders and psychoses. A fluorescence polarization study.

Membrane order was measured in the erythrocyte ghost membranes of DSM-III schizophreniform disorder (SF), DSM-III schizophrenic (SCZ) and DSM-III manic (bipolar) (M) patients and a group of age- and sex-matched controls. Fluorescence polarization with the probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene was used to determine the steady-state fluorescence anisotropy (rs). The SF group showed a significant increase in rs (delta rs = 0.037) from the control group. Although the means were not significantly different, 3 of 8 Ms and 5 of 8 SCZs also had rs values greater than the highest control value. Thermotropic behavior of the membranes was evaluated over the range of 40 to 20 degrees C. No difference among groups in membrane enthalpy was detected. Thus, the differences in rs appear to be associated with differences in entropy. Phosphatidylcholine (PC) levels, which were known to be abnormal in these patients, were compared with the rs values. A significant (P less than 0.001, r = -0.63) linear correlation between rs and membrane PC levels was observed. Overall these data further support the view that unusual membrane biophysical factors may occur with high frequency in the psychoses and affective disorders.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Post-partum psychoses and the dexamethasone suppression test.

The hypothesis that post-partum psychoses are predominantly mixed affective disorders was tested by administering the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) to seven puerperal psychotics, six puerperal depressives and comparison groups of non-puerperal psychotic and depressed women. The hypothesis received support from the finding that two-third of the puerperal patients had positive DSTs versus one-third of similar non-puerperal patients. An 80% rate of positive DSTs in 19 normal women 5 days post-partum, however, suggested this was an invalid interpretation of this finding, particularly as the majority of these tests returned to normal when repeated several weeks later.

Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale↗
PubMed1980

Horizontal and vertical pursuit eye movements, the oculocephalic reflex, and the functional psychoses.

Sixteen schizophrenic patients, 16 manic-depressive patients, and 14 nonpatient control subjects were tested for horizontal and vertical smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) and the oculocephalic reflex. All patients with impaired horizontal pursuit also displayed disrupted vertical pursuit, suggesting that a common mechanism underlies these abnormalities. The oculocephalic reflex was intact in 96% of the subjects whether or not pursuit was disrupted, suggesting that the locus of the eye movement disorder in psychosis may be cortical. For horizontal pursuit, there were significant differences between schizophrenics and nonpatient controls, and between manic depressives and nonpatient controls, but not between schizophrenics and manic depressives, suggesting that the SPEM disruption occurs with significant prevalence in major functional psychoses and not only in schizophrenia.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1991

Electroencephalographic sleep and cerebral morphology in functional psychoses: a preliminary study with computed tomography.

We investigated the association between cerebral morphology as revealed by computed tomography and sleep polysomnographic findings in patients with functional psychoses. The third ventricle-brain ratios, caudate ratios, and anterior horn ratios were significantly negatively associated with sleep maintenance and were positively correlated with rapid eye movement (REM) latency. When the effects of illness severity were covaried out, the relation between REM latency and anterior horn ratios remained significant. Disturbances in sleep in some patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders may be related to dysfunction of forebrain structures, and may be similar to those seen in dementia.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Political change and course of affective psychoses: Berlin 1989-90.

In this study, the political change associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 was examined as a shared life event for the population of West Berlin. Its influence on the course of affective psychoses was studied in 67 patients in long-term treatment. Recurrences from November 1989 to March 1990 were compared with the same period 1 year before. While patients with bipolar affective psychosis did not show a difference in recurrences between the two periods, patients with unipolar depression had a significantly better and those with schizoaffective psychosis a significantly worse course of illness after November 1989 than in the year before.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗
PubMed1993

Cellular immunity, HLA-class I antigens, and family history of psychiatric disorder in endogenous psychoses.

We found an increased lymphocyte proliferation after stimulation with an antigen "cocktail" in 49 schizophrenic patients and 37 patients suffering from affective psychosis, compared with 45 healthy control subjects. On the basis of this and other findings such as increased numbers of CD3+ and CD4+ cells, an increased ratio of CD4+/CD8+ cells, and a reduced level of suppressor cell activity in schizophrenia and endogenous depression, we investigated the influence of the human leukocyte antigen-Class I (HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C) system on the altered immune function and evaluated the relationship to immune function of a family history of psychiatric disorders. A cluster analysis of cases with regard to the HLA-Class I antigens was first performed in a group of 133 healthy control subjects, and two immunogenetically different clusters were found; then 86 patients (49 schizophrenics, 37 affective psychoses) for whom immune functional data were available were assigned to the two HLA-I clusters that had been determined in the control subjects. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) showed no differences in immune function between the two clusters. With respect to the cluster assignment and the family history of psychiatric diseases, a two-way ANOVA revealed significant differences in the lymphocyte response to the antigen cocktail, in the number of CD8+ cells, and in one suppressor cell assay. When patients were compared by ANOVA on the basis of family history of psychiatric disorder, patients with a positive family history showed a significantly higher number of CD4+ cells and a higher CD4+/CD8+ ratio. Moreover, certain HLA genes, especially HLA-A1, HLA-B8, HLA-B16, and HLA-C2 seemed to be related to the immune function and/or to the immune function and the family history.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Biological correlates of slow wave sleep deficits in functional psychoses: 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Deficits in slow wave sleep (SWS) are consistently seen in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. However, the pathophysiological significance of this finding is uncertain. In 19 patients with psychotic illness, sleep and 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies were carried out before the patients began medication treatment. Polysomnographic studies were carried out in 2-3 consecutive nights. MRS studies were performed with a surface coil and a depth-resolved pulse sequence focusing on the dorsal prefrontal cortex. Phosphomonoesters were correlated with visually scored delta and Stage 4 sleep, as well as with automated delta wave counts. An inverse relation was also seen between negative symptoms scores and SWS. The association between decreases brain anabolic processes (reflected by decreased PME) and decreased SWS may be related either to processes of accelerated aging or to developmentally mediated alterations in cortical synaptic pruning, postulated to underlie the pathophysiology of functional psychoses.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Motor asymmetry, a neurobiologic abnormality in the major psychoses.

A century after Kraepelin, clinical scientists still debate whether the major functional psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar illness, are separate disease entities or fall on opposite ends of a spectrum of severe psychopathology. In a study of control of hand-muscle force, patients with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder exhibited opposite asymmetries, with greater right-hand dyscontrol in schizophrenia, and greater left-hand dyscontrol in bipolar disorder. This suggests that there is greater pathological involvement of the dominant hemisphere in schizophrenia and of the non-dominant hemisphere in bipolar disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Perspectives in chemotherapy of schizophrenic psychoses.

1. The treatment of schizophrenic symptoms has not the same efficacy in acute and chronic phases of the disease and on the various target symptoms of schizophrenia. 2. The ideal antipsychotic drug might have different properties, sometimes contradictory, to be effective both on paranoid and hebephrenic symptoms which seem to be a mirror image of the same disorder. 3. Basic perspectives in the chemotherapy of schizophrenic psychoses must be founded on better methodological considerations in clinical trials, on a better use of antipsychotic drugs with the help of pharmacokinetic data and computerized EEG and also on new neurochemical findings. 4. Recent data on the mode of action of neuroleptics open up new therapeutic classes of drugs. Such are GABA-like drugs and, more recently, beta-blockers.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1979

Psychopharmacological perspectives in childhood psychoses.

1. Neuroleptic drugs are still widely employed in childhood psychoses, but new experiences on a large number of cases in this field, have shown the usefullness of antidepressive drugs, either alone or associated with neuroleptics, also when depressive symptoms are not clearly evident. 2. This peculiar aspect, still noticed in pathological situations of less gravity, calls again attention to childhood depression and to the difficulty of identifying it. 3. The problem is developed and discussed as follows: a. The psychopathological features regarded from the psychodynamic point of view; b. The neurofunctional background in various ages; c. The pharmacodynamic characteristics of the drugs; d. The good results with lithium treatment in several cases allow the authors to outline some clinical pictures as well as biochemical markers as to recognize endogenous depression in childhood.

Antidepressive Agents↗
PubMed1996

Explaining sex differences in course and outcome in the functional psychoses.

We addressed the following three questions: (i) are there sex differences in outcome in the functional psychoses?, (ii) what is their effect size, and which variables mediate the effect of sex on outcome?, (iii) is the effect of sex diagnosis-specific? In a prospective study of 166 patients with recent onset psychosis, we established that 4-year outcome was more favourable for women. Female patients more often had a remitting illness course (OR = 3.0; 95% CI: 1.5-5.9), were living independently 14% (4-24%) more of the time, had less evidence of negative symptoms over the follow-up period (OR = 0.3; 0.2-0.7) and were more likely to be employed at follow-up (3.6; 1.8-7.6). The findings did not appear diagnosis-specific, although the sample size was small to test for interaction with diagnostic category. Baseline occupational and social adjustment, clinical expression of illness and age and type of onset explained up to 60% of the sex effect. The processes underlying these factors mediate the effect of sex on outcome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The Brief Motor Scale (BMS) for the assessment of motor soft signs in schizophrenic psychoses and other psychiatric disorders.

Subtle motor impairment is an important aspect of neurological soft signs (NSS) which are frequently found in psychiatric patients-particularly schizophrenic patients. On the basis of data collected in previous studies using two different NSS scales, the most reliable and discriminative signs of motor impairment were identified to construct a brief 10-item rating scale. Subsequently, the new scale was applied to a sample of subacute patients with schizophrenic psychoses (N = 82) and healthy controls (N = 33). Factor analysis identified two factors which were labeled "motor coordination" and "motor sequencing". Both the total score and the subscores showed high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. There were highly significant group differences on the total score and the subscores as well as on each individual task. The scale has high sensitivity (84.1%) and specificity (87.9%) indicating that it may provide an effective instrument for the screening of subjects with neurodysfunction as well as for monitoring motor dysfunction in the clinical course of psychiatric disorders.

Adolescent↗