The research of the glutamatergic system in schizophrenia has advanced with the use of non-competitive antagonists of glutamate NMDA receptors (phencyclidine, ketamine, and dizocilpine), which change both human and animal behaviour and induce schizophrenia-like manifestations. Models based on both acute and chronic administration of these substances in humans and rats show phenomenological vali...

In schizophrenia, brain-wide alterations have been identified at the molecular and cellular levels, yet how these phenomena affect cortical circuit activity remains unclear. We studied two mouse models of schizophrenia-relevant disease processes: chronic ketamine (KET) administration and Df(16)A+/-, modeling 22q11.2 microdeletions, a genetic variant highly penetrant for schizophrenia. Local fie...

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish late-life schizophrenia from senile dementia because elderly patients with schizophrenia can present in chronic remission and show gradual cognitive decline with aging. We aimed to elucidate the semiological characteristics of late-life chronic schizophrenia. Three patients aged between 60 and 66 years who were admitted to our hospital were included in t...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of Atorvastatin on negative symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia. The study was a prospective, double-blind, 6-week trial. Forty patients participated in the study; 19 patients were assigned to the Atorvastatin group as well as 21 patients to the placebo group. For assessing negative signs, we used Scale for the Assessment of Negative...

Introduction: The caregivers of persons with chronic psychiatric disability experience considerable amount of burden leading to a poor quality of life (QoL). Aim: The aim of the present study was to assess the QoL of caregivers of persons with mental retardation and compare them with caregivers of persons with chronic schizophrenia. Method: The sample comprised of 30 caregivers of patients with...

BACKGROUND The aim was to examine the agreement and differences between ICD-10 and DSM-IV in the classification of functional psychoses. SAMPLING AND METHODS In a sample of 218 first-hospitalised patients, ICD-10 diagnoses were compared with DSM-IV diagnoses. Functional psychoses of both diagnostic systems were classified into the four diagnostic groups schizophrenia, transient/episodic psych...

ABSTRACT Background: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that associated with daily life and social function deterioration could be accompanied cognitive deficits. Meanwhile, hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) the increasing homocysteine (Hcy) level which might one of biological factor in schizophrenia. In recent study healthy subjects, it was known there correlation between total Hcy function. ...

BACKGROUND Emerging evidence implicates white matter (WM) abnormalities in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in the presentation of WM abnormalities in the existing studies. The object of this study was to evaluate WM integrity in a large sample of patients with first-episode (FE) and chronic schizophrenia in comparison to matched control groups....

Schizophrenia is a chronic disease which affects 1% of world population and represents major public health issue. It often associated with severe persistent lack awareness the disorder. Our prospective study was carried out at psychiatric service Mohammed VI Academic Medical Center in Marrakech on 100 patients hospitalized between August 2012 February 2013, for schizophrenia diagnosed according...

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive remediation (CR) is effective for improving various cognitive deficits in adult patients with schizophrenia. Although reports of brain plasticity in older adults and the service needs for chronic patients with schizophrenia are increasing, very few randomized controlled trials of CR have been conducted in middle-aged or older inpatients...