BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The superiority of atypical antipsychotics (also known as second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs)) over typical antipsychotics (first generation antipsychotics (FGAs)) for negative symptom control in schizophrenic patients is widely debated. The objective of this study was to characterize the time course of the scores of the 3 subscales (positive, negative, general) of...

BACKGROUND Lifestyle moderate-intensity physical activity can lower the risk of over twenty chronic health conditions, whilst inactivity reduces daily functioning and physical health of individuals living with schizophrenia. This study conducted in 2014 examines the effect of structured walking participation on QOL, psychosocial functioning and symptoms in Hospital Permai, one of the largest ps...

BACKGROUND The dogma of a delayed onset of antipsychotic treatment effects has been maintained over the past decades. However, recent studies have challenged this concept. We therefore performed an analysis of the onset of antipsychotic treatment effects in a sample of acutely decompensated patients with schizophrenia. METHODS In this observational study, 48 inpatients with acutely decompensa...

BACKGROUND Brain structure appears to alter after antipsychotic administration, but it is unknown whether these alterations are associated with improvement of psychopathology in patients with schizophrenia. In this study, the authors explore this relationship. METHOD Altogether, 66 first-episode, drug-naive patients with schizophrenia and 23 well-matched healthy controls underwent brain magne...

Leptin plays an important role in the modulation of the dopaminergic system and has recently been implicated in schizophrenia. There have been conflicting reports on leptin levels in schizophrenia; as well as on the association between leptin levels and clinical symptoms. Therefore, this study aims to examine (i) leptin levels in schizophrenia relative to control, and (ii) the relationship betw...

CONTEXT Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are a prominent feature of the illness, and frequently remain refractory to treatment. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), along with its sulfated form, DHEA-S, is an important circulating neurosteroid with several vital neurophysiological functions, including the regulation of neuronal excitability and function. OBJECTIVE Since the administration of DHEA...

Objective: Increased risk for arrhythmias and the association between arrhythmogenic markers symptom severity in antipsychotic-free patients with schizophrenia are understudied. We evaluated changes P-wave dispersion (PWD), corrected QT interval (QTc), QTc (QTcd), JT (JTc), JTc (JTcd), Tpeak-Tend (Tp-e), Tp-e/QT ratio. Method: Fifty-six who were at least 1 month 56 age- gendermatched healthy co...

INTRODUCTION Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder is a major determinant of disability. This study explored the relationships among cognitive functioning, clinical symptoms, overall functionality, and demographic characteristics. METHODS This was a post hoc analysis of a 52-week, prospective, randomized, double-blind study (N=323) comparing 2 doses of risperidone...

OBJECTIVE This 52-week randomized, double-blind, flexible-dose, multicenter study evaluated the overall effectiveness (as measured by treatment discontinuation rates) of olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone in patients early in the course of psychotic illness. METHOD Patients were randomly assigned to treatment with olanzapine (2.5-20 mg/day), quetiapine (100-800 mg/day), or risperidone (0...

Lack of hard clinical endpoints is an essential problem in schizophrenia research. Disease state and treatment outcomes are measured using rating scales, e.g. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). However, the PANSS score cannot always differentiate between placebo and drug treatment, even for established antipsychotics. The goal of this study was to identify the individual items of PAN...