In this study, more than 6000 ratings were captured on 106 admissions to a psychiatric intensive care unit. Inter-rater reliability of the scale was found to be satisfactory, and validity against the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale good. Scores were shown to relate to the social organization and treatment methods of the unit. Recovery curves differed significantly by diagnosis, with patients having schizophrenia showing the slowest improvement. From a clinical point of view, the NOIIS can be used to track progress, response to changes in treatment and readiness of the patient for discharge; aids staff deployment; and can be used for clinical audit. For research, the scale can be used in clinical trials of treatment outcomes. (Source: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Many are worried that the latest edition of the psychiatrist's 'bible' labels everyone as ill – but this has an upsideEach edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has a massive impact on psychiatric practice and medical education around the world. The book lists mental disorders and explains how to diagnose them. Seen as a gold standard, it dictates diagnostic practice in mainstream medicine.Every media mention of DSM calls it the "bible" of mental health, and, like the latter, it generates passionate controversy. Proposals for the next edition, due in 2013, have sparked international protest, as DSM-5 looks as if it will lower the threshold of what counts as mental disorder. Critics have argued that new categories lik...

In the 1960s, when author Peggy Kennedy grew up, mental illness was a family secret. It was whispered about, handed off to hospitals, restrained, subjected to electroshock therapy and slews of sedatives and sent back home, when appropriate. Peggy Kennedy knows this all too well because her mother suffered from schizophrenia (her diagnosis was later changed to bipolar disorder) during a time when little was known about the disorder and crude treatment was the only option for reducing symptoms and restoring sanity. Approaching Neverland: A Memoir of Epic Tragedy & Happily Ever After tells the story of Kennedy’s mom and the entire family — her father, two brothers, Glenn and Patrick, and two sisters, Joan and Sue. I read this book in one weekend. Correction: I devoured it. I fell in...

(Source: BMJ Online First)

  NEW YORK, July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc. today announced the results from a Phase Ib/II clinical trial in patients with schizophrenia with ITI-007, the Company's unique, investigational new drug for the treatment of... (Source: Drugs.com - Clinical Trials)

Authors: Kohl MM, Paulsen O Temporally-structured cortical activity in the form of synchronized network oscillations and persistent activity is fundamental for cognitive processes such as sensory processing, motor control, working memory, and consolidation of long-term memory. The roles of fast glutamatergic excitation via AMPA, kainate, and NMDA receptors, as well as fast GABAergic inhibition via GABA(A) receptors, in such network activity have been studied in great detail. In contrast, we have only recently begun to appreciate the roles of slow inhibition via GABA(B) receptors in the control of cortical network activity. Here, we provide a framework for understanding the contributions of GABA(B) receptors in helping mediate, modulate, and moderate different types of physiological and...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

People with schizophrenia are more likely to suffer from hospital-related injuries during admission than other patients, a large scale US study has found. (Source: Nursing Times Breaking News)

Children and adolescents who later develop schizophrenia present with abnormalities of social adjustment and personality that are influenced by a common genetic risk, study findings show. (Source: MedWire News - Psychiatry)

About 1 in 10 people have the potential to develop schizophrenia, but only 1 in 100 actually end up with this devastating illness. The challenge is in knowing why some do and some don't. Drawing from over 25 years of laboratory study, Mark F. Lenzenweger, a distinguished professor of clinical science, neuroscience and cognitive psychology at Binghamton University, thinks that not only does he have the makings of a good response to this troubling question but also how to go about finding those answers... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Patients with schizophrenia show an elevated propensity for emotional disgust in psychological tests, especially in the domains of food and body secretion, research shows. (Source: MedWire News - Psychiatry)

Synchronous rhythms represent a core mechanism for sculpting temporal coordination of neural activity in the brain-wide network. This review focuses on oscillations in the cerebral cortex that occur during cognition, in alert behaving conditions. Over the last two decades, experimental and modeling work has made great strides in elucidating the detailed cellular and circuit basis of these rhythms, particularly gamma and theta rhythms. The underlying physiological mechanisms are diverse (ranging from resonance and pacemaker properties of single cells to multiple scenarios for population synchronization and wave propagation), but also exhibit unifying principles. A major conceptual advance was the realization that synaptic inhibition plays a fundamental role in rhythmogenesis, either in an i...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

This study compared the occurrence of EPS in outpatient schizophrenia patients with (DD group; n= 36) and without PAS abuse (SCZ group; n = 41) as well as in nonschizophrenia PAS abusers undergoing detoxification [substance use disorder (SUD) group; n = 38]. Psychiatric symptoms were measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Calgary Depression Scale for schizophrenia. Extrapyramidal symptoms were evaluated with the Extrapyramidal Symptoms Rating Scale and the Barnes Akathisia Scale. SUD diagnoses were complemented with urine drug screenings. We found that DD patients exhibited significantly more parkinsonism than SCZ patients. Our subanalyses revealed that cocaine and alcohol abuse/dependence was responsible for the increase in parkinsonism in DD patients. Additionall...

Psychopathology 2010;43:327–333 (DOI:10.1159/000319402) (Source: Karger Publishers)

Long before our nervous system is able to see, smell, touch, hear or speak, the earliest neurons that make it up must be precisely guided to the proper layers in the developing brain. Exactly how this early neuron migration happens has been elusive, but a better understanding of it could lead to insight into myriad developmental problems, including autism and schizophrenia. New research identifies a gene that works behind-the-scenes to control a closely related adhesion gene that helps keep young neurons on the right track. (Source: The Rockefeller University Newswire)

MicroRNAs, short stretches of RNA that silence genes, have already been linked to cancer, heart disease and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. New research by Rockefeller University scientists suggests microRNAs are also involved in regulating the motivation to consume cocaine, a finding that could ultimately lead to new ways of combating addictive diseases in humans. (Source: The Rockefeller University Newswire)

(Source: Schizophrenia Research)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Source: DARE Area: Evidence > Disease Focused Reviews CRD Summary: This review investigated the clinical use of add-on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine to improve memory performance in schizophrenia. The authors concluded that there was no clear evidence on whether acetylcholinesterase inhibitors should be prescribed for memory enhancement in patients with schizophrenia. There were several methodological issues with the review that suggested the authors' conclusions may not be reliable. CRD Commentary: The inclusion criteria appeared wider than the objectives of the review and were unclear with regard to intervention and study design. The authors searched for published and unpublished data in all languages, reducing the possibility of publication a...

Source: DARE Area: Evidence > Disease Focused Reviews CRD Summary: This review investigated the clinical use of add-on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine to improve memory performance in schizophrenia. The authors concluded that there was no clear evidence on whether acetylcholinesterase inhibitors should be prescribed for memory enhancement in patients with schizophrenia. There were several methodological issues with the review that suggested the authors' conclusions may not be reliable. CRD Commentary: The inclusion criteria appeared wider than the objectives of the review and were unclear with regard to intervention and study design. The authors searched for published and unpublished data in all languages, reducing the possibility of publication a...

Source: DARE Area: Evidence > Disease Focused Reviews CRD Summary: This review investigated the clinical use of add-on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine to improve memory performance in schizophrenia. The authors concluded that there was no clear evidence on whether acetylcholinesterase inhibitors should be prescribed for memory enhancement in patients with schizophrenia. There were several methodological issues with the review that suggested the authors' conclusions may not be reliable. CRD Commentary: The inclusion criteria appeared wider than the objectives of the review and were unclear with regard to intervention and study design. The authors searched for published and unpublished data in all languages, reducing the possibility of publication a...

Conclusions As in healthy cohorts, the brains of people with schizophrenia exhibit a functional anatomical distinction between the states of truthfulness and deceit. Furthermore, this distinction pertains even in the presence of delusions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (Source: Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health)