Coping With My Delusions
One of the common symptoms of my schizophrenia is that, on occasion, I have delusions. I try to do everything I can to manage my symptoms, but I do have a mental illness that has no cure, even though it can be controlled by medication. My delusions are sometimes like stories in my mind often accompanied by pictures and the voices of people I might not have seen for many years. The fact that a delusion involves familiar people or places makes it seems even more real. That is why it took me awhile to accept that these delusions were not based in reality. (Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin)
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - January 22, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Mortality After the First Diagnosis of Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders: A Population-based Retrospective Cohort Study
The objective of this study was to estimate the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) in a population-based cohort of individuals with a first diagnosis of schizophrenia-spectrum psychotic disorder (SSD). The cohort included a population-based sample of individuals with a first diagnosis of SSD based on the first diagnosis occurring during hospitalization or in an outpatient setting between 2007 and 2010 in Ontario, Canada. All patients were followed for 5 years after the first diagnosis. The primary outcome was SMR, including all-cause, suicide-related, accidental, and other causes. Between 2007 and 2010, there were 2382 pat...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - January 18, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Functional Impairments and Theory of Mind Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Meta-analysis of the Associations
The objectives of this meta-analysis were to document and compare the magnitude of the associations between ToM and (1) different domains of functioning (social functioning, productive activities, and instrumental activities of daily living), each assessed separately for functional performance and functional outcome and (2) different aspects of functioning (functional performance and functional outcome) in schizophrenia. Fifty-nine studies (N = 4369) published between 1980 and May 2019 targeting patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder aged between 18 and 65 years old were included. Studies were retrieved fr...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - January 12, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Timing, Distribution, and Relationship Between Nonpsychotic and Subthreshold Psychotic Symptoms Prior to Emergence of a First Episode of Psychosis
AbstractProspective population studies suggest that psychotic syndromes may be an emergent phenomenon —a function of severity and complexity of more common mental health presentations and their nonpsychotic symptoms. Examining the relationship between nonpsychotic and subthreshold psychotic symptoms in individuals who later developed the ultimate outcome of interest, a first episode of psychosis ( FEP), could provide valuable data to support or refute this conceptualization of how psychosis develops. We therefore conducted a detailed follow-back study consisting of semistructured interviews with 430 patients and families...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - January 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Stronger Top-Down and Weaker Bottom-Up Frontotemporal Connections During Sensory Learning Are Associated With Severity of Psychotic Phenomena
AbstractRecent theories in computational psychiatry propose that unusual perceptual experiences and delusional beliefs may emerge as a consequence of aberrant inference and disruptions in sensory learning. The current study investigates these theories and examines the alterations that are specific to schizophrenia spectrum disorders vs those that occur as psychotic phenomena intensify, regardless of diagnosis. We recruited 66 participants: 22 schizophrenia spectrum inpatients, 22 nonpsychotic inpatients, and 22 nonclinical controls. Participants completed the reversal oddball task with volatility manipulated. We recorded n...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - January 6, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Changes in Brain Glutamate on Switching to Clozapine in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia
This study examined individuals with TRS before and 12 weeks after switching from a non-clozapine antipsychotic to treatment with clozapine as part of their normal clinical care. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) measured concentrations, corrected for voxel tissue content, of glutamate (Glucorr), and glutamate plus glutamine (Glxcorr) in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and right caudate nucleus. Symptoms were monitored using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Of 37 recruited patients (27 men, 39.30 years old, 84% clozapine na ïve), 25 completed1H-MRS at both timepoints. 12 weeks of clozapi...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - January 5, 2021 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Corrigendum to: Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk
Corrigendum to “Using Natural Language Processing on Electronic Health Records to Enhance Detection and Prediction of Psychosis Risk” by Irving et al. Schizophr Bull. 2020; doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa126. (Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin)
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 31, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Revisiting Schizophrenia from an Evolutionary Perspective: An Association Study of Recent Evolutionary Markers and Schizophrenia
AbstractThe persistence of schizophrenia in human populations at a high prevalence and with a large heritability estimate despite reduced fertility and increased mortality rate is a Darwinian paradox. This may be likely if the genomic components that predispose to schizophrenia are also advantageous for the acquisition of important human traits, such as language and cognition. Accordingly, an emerging group of genomic markers of recent evolution in humans, namely human accelerated regions (HARs), since our divergence from chimpanzees, are gaining importance for neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia. We hypoth...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 22, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Healthcare Costs, School Performance, and Health-related Quality of Life in Adolescence Following Psychotic Experiences in Preadolescence: A Longitudinal Cohort Study
In conclusion, PEs are important in mental health screening of preadolescents and identify a group of young people with increased healthcare service-use throughout adolescence and who report poorer HRQoL in adol escence, over and above parent-rated general psychopathology of their child. (Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin)
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 21, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Testing the Independent and Joint Contribution of Exposure to Neurodevelopmental Adversity and Childhood Trauma to Risk of Psychotic Experiences in Adulthood
In conclusion, children with neurodevelopmental adversity, in particular those with developmental impairment, are more likely to be exposed to trauma. This new etiological understanding of psychosis suggests that PE may be partially modifiable through reducing exposure to peer bullying, especially in children with developmental impairment. (Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin)
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 17, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Kraepelin ’s Final Views on Dementia Praecox
AbstractIn 1921, at the age of 65, 6 years after completing the final edition of his textbook, 22 years after first proposing the concept of dementia praecox (DP), and 1 year before retiring from clinical work, Emil Kraepelin completed the last edition of his “Introduction to Clinical Psychiatry,” which contained a mini-textbook for students, 10 pages of which were devoted to DP. This work also included a series of new detailed case histories, 3 of which examined DP. This neglected text represents a distillation of what Kraepelin judged, near the end of his long career, to be the essential features of DP. The relevant ...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 15, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Overcoming Rest –Task Divide—Abnormal Temporospatial Dynamics and Its Cognition in Schizophrenia
In conclusion, reduced rest/ prestimulus–task modulation in schizophrenia provides novel insight into the neuronal mechanisms that connect task-related changes to cognitive abnormalities and psychopathological symptoms. (Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin)
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 11, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Exploring a Safety Signal of Antipsychotic-Associated Pneumonia: A Pharmacovigilance-Pharmacodynamic Study
AbstractAn association between antipsychotic drugs and pneumonia has been demonstrated in several studies; however, the risk for pneumonia caused by specific antipsychotics has not been extensively studied. The underlying mechanism is still unknown, and several receptor mechanisms have been proposed. Therefore, using a combined pharmacovigilance-pharmacodynamic approach, we aimed to investigate safety signals of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antipsychotics for reporting pneumonia and the potential receptor mechanisms involved. A disproportionality analysis was performed to detect a signal for reporting “...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 8, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Reduced Insulin-Like Growth Factor Family Member Expression Predicts Neurogenesis Marker Expression in the Subependymal Zone in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
AbstractThe generation of inhibitory interneurons from neural stem cells in the subependymal zone is regulated by trophic factors. Reduced levels of trophic factors are associated with inhibitory interneuron dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in psychiatric disorders, yet the extent to which altered trophic support may underpin deficits in inhibitory interneuron generation in the neurogenic niche remains unexplored in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We determined whether the expression of ligands, bioavailability-regulating binding proteins, and cognate receptors of 4 major trophic factor families (in...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 4, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research

Epigenetic Age Acceleration Was Delayed in Schizophrenia
In this study, we employed 3 “epigenetic clock” methods to quantify the epigenetic age of a large sample size of whole blood (1069 samples from patients with schizophrenia vs 1264 samples from unaffected controls) and brain tissues (500 samples from patients with schizophrenia vs 711 samples from unaffected controls). We ob served significant positive correlations between epigenetic age and chronological age in both blood and brain tissues from unaffected controls and patients with schizophrenia, as estimated by 3 methods. Furthermore, we observed that epigenetic age acceleration was significantly delayed in schizophre...
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin - December 3, 2020 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research