Schizoaffective Disorder

Emotion perception (EP) is impaired in schizophrenia, is stable across clinical state, resistant to antipsychotic treatment and linked to symptom severity. Given its pervasive nature, there is a need to quantitatively examine whether this dysfunction impacts functional outcomes. We used a meta-analytic strategy to combine results from several studies and examine synthesized effect sizes.|A Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology standard was used to extract data following a PubMed and PsychInfo search. Studies reporting correlations between measures of EP and functional outcomes in schizophrenia spectrum disorders were selected. The impact of potential methodological (task type), demographic (sex, age, race, education, marital status) and clinical (age of onset, duration of illness, setting, symptoms, anti-psychotic medication) moderators on effect sizes were examined.|Twenty-five studies met inclusion criteria and included 1306 patients who were 37 years old, with 12

Inhibition of return (IOR) is a phenomenon that involves inhibited or delayed orienting to previously cued locations in favor of attending to novel locations. To date, research on IOR in patients with schizophrenia has generated mixed, and seemingly conflicting, results. Some researchers report patients with schizophrenia exhibit blunted or delayed IOR, while other researchers report normal IOR, in terms of time course and magnitude. This meta-analysis summarizes the literature that has employed an IOR task in patients with schizophrenia and with controls while focusing upon a procedural feature, the use of a cue back to fixation, between the cue and target that is known to be important when executive control has been hampered in non-clinical populations. Fifteen experiments were located yielding a total sample of 362 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 285 controls. Using a meta-analytic approach, results of the present analyses show that patients with

To clarify the efficacy and tolerability of bupropion sustained release (SR) for the treatment of cigarette smoking in people with schizophrenia.|The first study is a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 32 outpatients from the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. From May 2003 to July 2007, clinically stable people with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day and who were interested in quitting smoking or cutting down were recruited for participation. All participated in a 9-week support group and were randomly assigned to receive 12 weeks of bupropion SR or placebo. The primary outcome measure was 4 weeks' sustained abstinence over the last 4 study weeks. Secondary outcome measures included decrease in smoking behavior and change in symptoms, neuropsychological performance, and side effects. In the second study, we performed an electronic literature search of MEDLINE in September 2008. Articles in

Our aim in this article is 2-fold: first, to examine the mid-term to long-term data on efficacy, from controlled and naturalistic and other studies, in order to determine if they are consistent with the quantitative meta-analyses of mostly short-term, randomized controlled trials Our second (and most important) aim is to use these and other data to provide guidance about the potential relationship of these differences among antipsychotics to the individual patient's own experience with antipsychotic drugs in the process of shared decision-making with the patients and their significant others.|A search of PubMed, Embase, and PsychINFO was conducted for articles published in English between January 1, 1999, and April 2011, using the search terms double-blind AND randomized AND olanzapine AND (ziprasidone OR risperidone OR quetiapine OR haloperidol OR fluphenazine OR perphenazine OR aripiprazole).|Studies with a duration 3 months or longer, including patients with schizophrenia or

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates the survival and growth of neurons, and influences synaptic efficiency and plasticity. Several studies report reduced peripheral (blood) levels of BDNF in schizophrenia, but findings are inconsistent. We undertook the first systematic review with meta-analysis of studies examining blood BDNF levels in schizophrenia compared with healthy controls, and examined potential effects of age, gender and medication. Included are individual studies of BDNF blood (serum or plasma) levels in schizophrenia (including schizoaffective disorder, or first episode psychosis), compared with age-matched healthy controls, obtained by electronic Medline and Embase searches, and hand searching. The decision to include or exclude studies, data extraction and quality assessment were completed by two independent reviewers. The initial search revealed 378 records, of which 342 were excluded on reading the Abstract, because they did not examine BDNF blood levels

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are frequently claimed to be brief, less severe and qualitatively different from those in schizophrenia, hence the term 'pseudohallucinations'. AVH in BPD may be more similar to those experienced by healthy individuals, who experience AVH in a lower frequency and with a more positive content than AVH in schizophrenia. In this study the phenomenology of AVH in BPD patients was compared to that in schizophrenia and to AVH experienced by non-patients.|In a cross-sectional setting, the phenomenological characteristics of AVH in 38 BPD patients were compared to those in 51 patients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and to AVH of 66 non-patients, using the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS).|BPD patients experienced AVH for a mean duration of 18 years, with a mean frequency of at least daily lasting several minutes or more. The ensuing distress was high. No differences in the

The objective of the study was to investigate affective symptoms and pharmacological treatment in bipolar I disorder patients, and to test whether self-rated symptoms could predict hospital admissions during a 12-month follow-up period.|A total of 231 outpatients with clinical bipolar I disorder were recruited. The clinical diagnoses were reassessed by a semi-structured interview. Twenty-four patients (10%) was reclassified as bipolar disorder type II or schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type). Medication status was recorded and symptoms were assessed with the self-rating scale AS-18. Patients were prospectively followed for 12 months and hospitalizations during that time were recorded.|More than half (60%) rated themselves as normothymic. Mixed affective symptoms were more common than either depressive or manic/hypomanic symptoms. The admission rate during 1 year of follow-up was 13% (95% C.I. 8-17%). Patients which at baseline rated themselves high in either mania or in depression

Although dementia praecox or schizophrenia has been considered a unique disease entity for more than a century, definitions and boundaries have changed and its precise cause and pathophysiology remain elusive. Despite uncertain validity, the construct of schizophrenia conveys useful clinical and etiopathophysiologic information. Revisions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Diseases seek to incorporate new information about schizophrenia and include elimination of subtypes, addition of psychopathological dimensions, elimination of special treatment of Schneiderian "first-rank" symptoms, better delineation of schizoaffective disorder, and addition of a new category of "attenuated psychosis syndrome".

Suicide is the leading cause of death in schizophrenia. An association between suicidal behavior and both higher and lower cognitive ability in schizophrenia has been reported. To clarify this relationship, we investigated whether the relationship between suicidality and neurocognition varied according to differences in suicidal ideation and behavior.|Three hundred and ten patients with DSM-IV diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were categorized based on patient and staff interviews as either non-suicide attempters, non-attempters expressing suicidal ideation, single suicide attempters, or multiple suicide attempters. These groups were compared on a neuropsychological battery examining current general cognitive ability, episodic and working memory, and attentional control.|Neuropsychological performance in those with a history of suicidal ideation (n=63), and those who had made one suicide attempt (n=48) was comparable. Together, these groups outperformed patients

Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a are event-related potentials that index deviance detection and the orienting response, respectively. We have previously shown that the MMN/P3a complex is impaired in patients with schizophrenia and affective spectrum psychoses, which suggests that it may index a common pathophysiology and argues against the purported specificity in schizophrenia. Further research is warranted to determine whether patients with bipolar-spectrum disorders show similar impairments in these biomarkers.|We assessed patients aged 15-30 years with early schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder), early bipolar-spectrum disorders (bipolar I or II, with and without psychotic features) and healthy, matched controls. We acquired MMN/P3a amplitudes during a 2-tone, auditory paradigm with 8% duration deviants. Clinical, psychosocial and neuro psychological assessments were also undertaken.|We included 20 patients with

Patients who satisfied any of the following criteria on the basis of automated records of physician diagnosis and visits were excluded: diagnosis of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder dur- ing ... bipolar disorder

Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Second edition.

Patients who satisfied any of the following criteria on the basis of automated records of physician diagnosis and visits were excluded: diagnosis of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder during the