Cause-specific life years lost among persons diagnosed with schizophrenia: Is it getting better or worse?
People with schizophrenia have an increased risk of premature mortality compared to the general population. We aimed to quantify which types of causes of death contributed to the excess mortality, and to examine whether there has been an increase in the excess mortality among persons with schizophrenia in the period 1995 to 2015. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 13, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Thomas Munk Laursen, Oleguer Plana-Ripoll, Per Kragh Andersen, John J. McGrath, Anita Toender, Merete Nordentoft, Vladimir Canudas-Romo, Annette Erlangsen Source Type: research

Predictors of social functioning in patients with higher and lower levels of reduced emotional experience: Social cognition, social competence, and symptom severity
Deficits in social functioning in schizophrenia are primarily predicted by negative symptoms, social cognition deficits, and social skills deficits. Here we examine those predictive variables across variations in the severity of reduced emotional experience. We hypothesized that in patients with high symptom severity, factors such as social cognition would have reduced importance for predicting social outcomes. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 13, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Philip D. Harvey, Elizabeth Deckler, L. Fredrik Jarsksog, David L. Penn, Amy E. Pinkham Source Type: research

Social cognitive group treatment for impaired insight in psychosis: A multicenter randomized controlled trial
In this study, we evaluate a new psychosocial intervention ‘REFLEX’ aimed at improving insight in people with schizophrenia. REFLEX focuses on targeting stigma-sensitivity, perspective taking and self-reflection in people with schizophrenia and low insight. Primary objective is to improve insight and subsequently to improve functional outcome and sympto ms. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 12, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: G.H.M. Pijnenborg, A.E. de Vos, M.E. Timmerman, M. Van der Gaag, B.E. Sportel, J. Arends, E.M. Koopmans, L. Van der Meer, A. Aleman Source Type: research

Critical period plasticity-related transcriptional aberrations in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Childhood critical periods of experience-dependent plasticity are essential for the development of environmentally appropriate behavior and cognition. Disruption of critical periods can alter development of normal function and confer risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. While genes and their expression relevant to neurodevelopment are associated with schizophrenia, the molecular relationship between schizophrenia and critical periods has not been assessed systematically. Here, we apply a transcriptome-based bioinformatics approach to assess whether genes associated with the human critical period for visual cortex plastic...
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 12, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Milo R. Smith, Ben Readhead, Joel T. Dudley, Hirofumi Morishita Source Type: research

Psychotic like experiences as part of a continuum of psychosis: Associations with effort-based decision-making and reward responsivity
Research examining psychotic disorders typically involves comparison between individuals with a clinical disorder and healthy controls. However, research suggests that psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations, may exist on a continuum ranging from variation in healthy individuals to diagnosable psychotic disorders. On this continuum, some individuals endorse occasional psychotic like experiences (PLEs) that do not cause sufficient impairment or distress to warrant a clinical diagnosis. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 12, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Julia A. Ermel, Erin K. Moran, Adam J. Culbreth, Deanna M. Barch Source Type: research

More dampened monocytic Toll-like receptor 4 response to lipopolysaccharide and its association with cognitive function in Chinese Han first-episode patients with schizophrenia
In this study, we aimed to detect the monocytic toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) expression under basal and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated conditions in first-episode (FE) Han Chinese patients with schizophrenia, as well as its association with cognitive function. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 12, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Song Chen, Li Tian, Nan Chen, Mei-Hong Xiu, Zhi-Ren Wang, Yue-Chan Wang, Yun-Long Tan, Chuan-Yue Wang Source Type: research

Reward-driven decision-making impairments in schizophrenia
The ability to use feedback to guide optimal decision-making is essential for goal-directed behaviour. While impairments in feedback-driven decision-making have been associated with schizophrenia and depression, this has been examined primarily in the context of binary probabilistic choice paradigms. In real-world decision-making, however, individuals must make choices when there are more than two competing options that vary in the frequency and magnitude of potential rewards and losses. Thus, the current study examined win-stay/lose-shift (WSLS) behaviour on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in order to evaluate the influence ...
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 12, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Sarah Saperia, Susana Da Silva, Ishraq Siddiqui, Ofer Agid, Z. Jeff Daskalakis, Arun Ravindran, Aristotle N. Voineskos, Konstantine K. Zakzanis, Gary Remington, George Foussias Source Type: research

Inflammatory biomarkers in psychosis and clinical high risk populations
In this study we investigated potential contributing inflammatory mechanisms for IL-6 elevation. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 8, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Shannon Delaney, Brian Fallon, Armin Alaedini, Robert Yolken, Alyssa Indart, Tianshu Feng, Yuanjia Wang, Daniel Javitt Source Type: research

Prevalence, course and psychosis-predictive value of negative symptoms in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is one of the highest known risk factors for schizophrenia and recent findings have highlighted the clinical relevance of ultra-high risk (UHR) criteria in this population. However, studies in other at-risk populations have shown that the presence of negative symptoms (NS) is also of clinical relevance in predicting transition to psychosis. The present study examined in detail the presence and course of NS in 22q11DS, as well as their value in predicting transition to psychosis. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 7, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Maude Schneider, Marco Armando, Frauke Schultze-Lutter, Maria Pontillo, Stefano Vicari, Martin Debban é, Stephan Eliez Source Type: research

Preliminary data indicating a connection between stress-induced prefrontal dopamine release and hippocampal TSPO expression in the psychosis spectrum
Prolonged stress can cause neuronal loss in the hippocampus resulting in disinhibition of glutamatergic neurons proposed to enhance dopaminergic firing in subcortical regions including striatal areas. Supporting this, imaging studies show increased striatal dopamine release in response to psychosocial stress in healthy individuals with low childhood maternal care, individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) and patients with schizophrenia. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is connected to the hippocampus and a key region to control neurochemical responses to stressful stimuli. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 6, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Christin Schifani, Sina Hafizi, Huai-Hsuan Tseng, Cory Gerritsen, Miran Kenk, Alan A. Wilson, Sylvain Houle, Pablo M. Rusjan, Romina Mizrahi Source Type: research

Motor cortical plasticity in schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation – Electromyography studies
Several lines of investigations converge upon aberrant synaptic plasticity as a potential pathophysiological characteristic of schizophrenia. In vivo experiments using neuromodulatory perturbation techniques like Transcranial Magnetic and Direct Current Stimulation (TMS& tDCS) have been increasingly used to measure ‘motor cortical plasticity’ in schizophrenia. A systematic quantification of cortical plasticity and its moderators in schizophrenia is however lacking. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 6, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Urvakhsh Meherwan Mehta, Milind Vijay Thanki, Jaya Padmanabhan, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Matcheri S. Keshavan Source Type: research

Altered functional connectivity between sub-regions in the thalamus and cortex in schizophrenia patients measured by resting state BOLD fMRI at 7T
The thalamus is a small brain structure that relays neuronal signals between subcortical and cortical regions. Abnormal thalamocortical connectivity in schizophrenia has been reported in previous studies using blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) performed at 3T. However, anatomically the thalamus is not a single entity, but is subdivided into multiple distinct nuclei with different connections to various cortical regions. We sought to determine the potential benefit of using the enhanced sensitivity of BOLD fMRI at ultra-high magnetic field (7T) in exploring thalamo-cortical connectivity in schiz...
Source: Schizophrenia Research - November 5, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Jun Hua, Nicholas I.S. Blair, Adrian Paez, Ann Choe, Anita D. Barber, Allison Brandt, Issel Anne L. Lim, Feng Xu, Vidyulata Kamath, James J. Pekar, Peter C.M. van Zijl, Christopher A. Ross, Russell L. Margolis Source Type: research

Changes in insight over the first 24  months of treatment in schizophrenia spectrum disorders
While insight in schizophrenia improves with treatment, significant impairments often persist. The degree of persistence is not well characterised. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - October 29, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Lebogang Phahladira, Laila Asmal, Sanja Kilian, Bonginkosi Chiliza, Frederika Scheffler, Hilmar K. Luckhoff, Stefan du Plessis, Robin Emsley Source Type: research

Reduced frontal slow wave density during sleep in first-episode psychosis
Sleep disturbances are commonly reported in psychotic patients and often contribute to the manifestation and severity of their symptoms. Slow waves characterize the deepest stage of NREM sleep, and their occurrence is critical for restorative sleep. Slow wave abnormalities have been reported in patient with schizophrenia, especially when experiencing an exacerbation of psychosis. However, their presence and delineation, with an emphasis on topography, in first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) have not yet been characterized. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - October 27, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Rachel E. Kaskie, Kathryn M. Gill, Fabio Ferrarelli Source Type: research

Neuropsychological functioning in early and chronic stages of schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder
Neuropsychological impairment is common in schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder. It has been hypothesized that the pathways leading to impairment differ between disorders. Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is believed to result largely from atypical neurodevelopment, whereas bipolar disorder is increasingly conceptualized as a neuroprogressive disorder. The current investigation tested several key predictions of this hypothesis. (Source: Schizophrenia Research)
Source: Schizophrenia Research - October 26, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Margo W. Menkes, Kristan Armstrong, Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Stephan Heckers, Neil D. Woodward Source Type: research