The higher prevalence of schizophrenia in children of schizophrenics than in the general population has generated an interest in pinpointing those behaviors that may precede the disorder and serve as an index of vulnerability to the disorder. Signs of neurobehavioral dysfunction in areas of neurocognitive functioning and social behavior have been found in school-age children of schizophrenic pa...

A randomized trial of acute psychiatric care was conducted to compare home-based interventions with standard care. The setting of the study was a comprehensive urban psychiatric service in London. Sixteen of the 172 patients in the study had schizophrenia--11 in standard care (SC) and 5 in community care (CC). Care for patients with schizophrenia was, on average, twice as expensive as care for ...

Enhancement of semantic priming effects (hyperpriming) has been well documented in schizophrenic patients (Minzenberg et al. 2002 ). In a previous study, we demonstrated that hyperpriming was related to a more pronounced requirement to inhibit unrelated information ( ). On the other hand, several authors have suggested that hyperpriming could reflect enhanced spreading of semantic Lecardeur et ...

BACKGROUND Previous studies of oculomotor dysfunction in schizophrenia have tended to concentrate on abnormalities of smooth pursuit eye tracking in chronic medicated patients. We report the results of a study of smooth pursuit, reflexive and antisaccade performance in drug naive and antipsychotic treated first-episode schizophrenic patients. METHODS Smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements ...

BACKGROUND Loosening of associations and thought disruption are key features of schizophrenic psychopathology. Alterations in neural networks underlying this basic abnormality have not yet been sufficiently identified. Previously, we demonstrated that spatio-temporal clustering of magnetic brain responses to pictorial stimuli map categorical representations in temporal cortex. This result has o...

BACKGROUND The neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate have been implicated in the prefrontal dysfunction associated with schizophrenic illness. Studies suggest that the D1 subclass of dopamine receptor and the N-methyl-D-aspartate subclass of glutamate receptor are involved in this prefrontal dysfunction. These 2 receptors regulate, in opposing directions, the amount of phosphorylated activat...

Aim. The aim of the study was to compare working memory and executive function capacity in early-onset schizophrenic subjects with later-onset patients, who became ill in adulthood, in the first years of disease and also to assess the level of possible cognitive dysfunctions in the two groups of schizophrenic patients in partial remission of psychopathological symptoms. Method. 25 adolescent sc...

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia treatment has been debated at length and presently pharmacological treatment is being advocated as the most beneficial for patients. However, research has shown contradictory results regarding the suitability of pharmacological treatment for certain groups of schizophrenia patients. METHODS The present review discusses results from the literature indicating good outco...

There are several infectious agents in the environment that can cause persistent infections in the host. They usually cause their symptoms shortly after first infection and later persist as silent viruses and bacteria within the body. However, these chronic infections may play an important role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome (TS). We investigated the distribution o...

BACKGROUND Not only the prevalence, but also the progress of metabolic abnormalities in schizophrenic patients is of importance for treatment planning and policy making. However, there have been very few prospective studies of metabolic disturbance in schizophrenic patients. This study aimed to assess the progress of metabolic abnormalities in Thai individuals with schizophrenia by estimating t...