Obsessive compulsive disorder is still considered primarily an anxiety disorder, though historically there has always been a question of whether obsessive-compulsive symptoms may be more properly considered psychotic in nature, the so-called schizo-obsessive disorder or subtype. A case is presented here of a middle-aged man with debilitating obsessive-compulsive symptoms of sudden onset in his ...

BACKGROUND Schizotypy is a range of perceptual experiences and personality features related to risk and familial predisposition to psychosis. Despite evidence that schizotypy is related to psychosis vulnerability, very little is known about the expression of schizotypal traits in individuals with a psychotic disorder, and their relationship to clinical symptoms, cognition, and psychosocial func...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder are associated with similar deviations of brain morphometry. AIMS To assess volumetric abnormalities of grey and white matter throughout the entire brain in individuals with schizophrenia or with bipolar disorder compared with the same control group. METHOD Brain scans were obtained by magnetic resonance imaging f...

BACKGROUND Psychotic symptoms may be present in up to 40% of patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we hypothesized that severity of psychotic symptoms would also reflect severity of PTSD symptoms in patients with well-defined psychotic features. METHODS Forty-five Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD but without a primary psychotic disorder diagnosis u...

The identification of individuals at high risk of developing a psychotic disorder has long been a goal of clinicians because it is thought that early treatment of this group may prevent onset of the disorder. However, little is known of predictive factors of psychosis, even within a high-risk group. This study followed up 104 young people thought to be at 'ultra high risk' for schizophrenia and...

AIM To assess retrospectively the clinical effects of typical (fluphenazine) or atypical (olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine) antipsychotics in three open clinical trials in male Croatian war veterans with chronic combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with psychotic features, resistant to previous antidepressant treatment. METHODS Inpatients with combat-related PTSD were treate...

Characterization of patients with both psychotic and mood symptoms, either concurrently or at different points during their illness, has always posed a nosological challenge and this is reflected in the poor reliability, low diagnostic stability, and questionable validity of DSM-IV Schizoaffective Disorder. The clinical reality of the frequent co-occurrence of psychosis and Mood Episodes has al...

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia aggregates in families and accurate diagnoses are essential for genetic studies of schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated whether siblings of patients with schizophrenia can be identified as free of any psychotic disorder using only register information. We also analyzed the emergence of psychotic disorders among siblings of patients with schizophrenia during sev...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to examine the association between serotonin-related gene polymorphisms and bipolar disorder in the Korean population. In addition, we sought to explore the relationship between the clinical characteristics of bipolar patients and serotonin-related gene polymorphisms. METHODS Inpatients with bipolar disorder (n=103) and control subjects (n=86) were g...