OBJECTIVES Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) support the translation of research evidence into clinical practice. Key health questions in CPGs ensure that recommendations will be applicable to the clinical context in which the guideline is used. The objectives of this study were to identify CPGs for the pharmacological treatment of first-episode schizophrenia; assess the quality of these guid...

OBJECTIVE There has been a convergence of models describing schizophrenia as a disconnection syndrome, with a focus on the temporal connectivity of neural activity. Synchronous gamma-band (40-Hz) activity has been implicated as a candidate mechanism for the binding of distributed neural activity. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate "gamma synchrony" in first-episod...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to explore differences in links between negative symptoms and neurocognitive deficits in adolescent and adult patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by positive and negative symptoms, reduced emotional expression, excitatory status, and poor cognitive ability. The severity of negative symptoms in patients wit...

BACKGROUND General practitioners (GPs) have an important role in the care of patients with chronic schizophrenia and of those in the early phases of this disorder. AIMS To obtain information about the number of patients in the early and chronic stages of schizophrenia seen in general practice; the needs and attitudes of GPs, their diagnostic knowledge concerning early phases of schizophrenia ...

BACKGROUND The relationship between cognition and age at onset of schizophrenia is largely unknown. AIMS To compare cognitive deficits in individuals with youth-onset and late-onset schizophrenia with those in adults with first-episode schizophrenia. METHOD Twenty-nine databases (including EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO) were searched from 1980 to 2008. Selected publications had to include he...

OBJECTIVE The corpus callosum, the largest white matter tract in the brain, is a midline structure associated with the formation of the hippocampus, septum pellucidum, and cingulate cortex, which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Corpus callosum shape deformation, therefore, may reflect a midline neurodevelopmental abnormality. METHOD Corpus callosum area and shape we...

BACKGROUND The shape of the corpus callosum may differ in schizophrenia, although no study has compared first-episode with established illness. AIMS To investigate the size and shape of the corpus callosum in a large sample of people with first-episode and established schizophrenia. METHOD Callosal size and shape were determined using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging on 76 patient...

CONTEXT Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is frequent, involves multiple domains, and is enduring. Numerous recent clinical trials have suggested that second-generation antipsychotic medications significantly enhance cognition in schizophrenia. However, none of these studies included healthy controls undergoing repeated testing to assess the possibility that improvements might reflect simpl...