Studies of established schizophrenia have consistently found that cognitive function predicts social and clinical outcomes. The findings from first-episode studies have been more variable, with only some studies reporting predictive relationships. We tested the possibility that an index of general cognitive ability, IQ, may be a more sensitive and reliable predictor of outcome in first-episode ...

It is well known that neurobehavioral deficits are associated with schizophrenia. Little is known, however, about whether these disturbances becomes more severe over the course of the illness. In the present study, 101 patients with schizophrenia, of whom 45 were first-episode cases, performed pursuit eye tracking tasks. A subset of 60 of these patients, including 27 first-episode cases, were a...

BACKGROUND Early improvement with treatment is thought to be important in patients with first-episode schizophrenia, yet a valid definition is still outstanding. AIMS To develop a valid definition of early improvement and test its predictive validity regarding response and remission. METHOD We examined 188 in-patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Early improvement was defined as improv...

The stability of neuropsychological performance in schizophrenia and its relationship to clinical change was contrasted between 60 patients with schizophrenia (30 first-episode, 30 previously treated) and 38 healthy controls using a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and clinical scales administered at intake and at a 19-month follow-up. Consistent with the neurodevelopmental model of sch...

OBJECTIVE Research suggests that the normal left-greater-than-right angular gyrus volume asymmetry is reversed in chronic schizophrenia. The authors examined whether angular gyrus volume and asymmetry were abnormal in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. METHOD Magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained from 14 inpatients at their first hospitalization for psychosis and 14 normal co...

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs on brain levels of glutamate plus glutamine in early-stage first-episode schizophrenia. PARTICIPANTS Sixteen patients (eight males, eight females; aged 30 ± 11 years) completed the study. METHODS We used administered 6 months of atypical antipsychotic drugs and used proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to evalua...

We describe a case of delusional psychosis that was terminated by neurosurgical removal of a large arachnoid cyst. The patient was suffering his first psychotic episode and had symptoms typical of schizophrenia. The case underscores the importance of considering that an arachnoid cyst can induce psychopathological symptoms, even those of schizophrenia. Indeed, such symptoms may be the cyst's on...

Clozapine remains the treatment of choice in refractory schizophrenia despite its various requirement to prescribe, such as mandatory blood monitoring program and various metabolic complication. Currently, clozapine is recommended only after two failed adequate antipsychotics trials. We report a case of a successful early clozapine trial in the treatment of first-episode schizophrenia patient, ...

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is associated with various abnormalities in the immune system including elevated levels of Interleukin-18 (IL-18), a potent inflammatory cytokine in T-helper 1 (Th1) responses. The aim of this study was to assess the clinical significance of serum IL-18 levels in various stages of schizophrenia. METHODS We measured serum IL-18 levels using a sandwich enzyme-linked imm...

CONTEXT Whether psychoses associated with schizophrenia and affective disorder represent manifestations of different disorders or the same disorder is an important but unresolved question in psychiatry. Results of previous volumetric magnetic resonance imaging investigations indicate that gray matter volume reductions in neocortical regions may be specific to schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE To simul...