Risk of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders among siblings and parents of probands with psychotic or affective disorders: A population-based study
This study examined the risk of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders among siblings and parents of patients affected with major psychiatric disorders. In this large population-based case-control study, 17,895 siblings and parents of 7671 hospitalized subjects with a diagnosis of narrowly defined schizophrenia (SZ), broadly defined SZ, schizoaffective disorder (SAD), bipolar disorder (BD) or unipolar depression (UD) were identified from the Israeli Psychiatric Hospitalization Registry and compared to 71,580 age and gender-matched controls from the Israeli Population Registry. (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 21, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dina Popovic, Shira Goldberg, Daphna Fenchel, Or Frenkel, Abraham Reichenberg, Rinat Yoffe, Michael Davidson, Mark Weiser Source Type: research
Cortical control of aggression: GABA signalling in the anterior cingulate cortex
Reduced top-down control by cortical areas is assumed to underlie pathological forms of aggression. While the precise underlying molecular mechanisms are still elusive, it seems that balancing the excitatory and inhibitory tones of cortical brain areas has a role in aggression control. The molecular mechanisms underpinning aggression control were examined in the BALB/cJ mouse model. First, these mice were extensively phenotyped for aggression and anxiety in comparison to BALB/cByJ controls. Microarray data was then used to construct a molecular landscape, based on the mRNAs that were differentially expressed in the brains ...
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 20, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Amanda Jager, Houshang Amiri, Natalia Bielczyk, Sabrina van Heukelum, Arend Heerschap, Armaz Aschrafi, Geert Poelmans, Jan K. Buitelaar, Tamas Kozicz, Jeffrey C. Glennon Source Type: research
DNA methylation of APBA3 and MCF2 in borderline personality disorder: Potential biomarkers for response to psychotherapy
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe and complex mental disease associated with high suicidal tendencies and hospitalization rates. Accumulating evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms are implicated in the etiology of BPD. A recent epigenome-wide study identified several novel genes which are epigenetically dysregulated in BPD. Those genes include APBA3 and MCF2. Psychotherapy such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), an established treatment for BPD, provides an excellent setting to investigate environmental influences on epigenetic mechanisms in order to identify biomarkers for disease status and the...
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 20, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Nora Knoblich, Friederike Gundel, Christof Br ückmann, Julia Becker-Sadzio, Christian Frischholz, Vanessa Nieratschker Source Type: research
Electroconvulsive therapy enhances the anti-ageing hormone Klotho in the cerebrospinal fluid of geriatric patients with major depression
Klotho is a humoral factor with pleiotropic effects. Most notably, Klotho deficiency is associated with a phenotype comprising organ manifestations accompanying aging including atherosclerosis and cognitive impairment. Research on the role of Klotho in affective disorder is scarce, which is surprising in light of the fact that depression is associated with accelerated cellular aging as well as aging-related phenotypes and comorbidity observed in Klotho deficiency. On these grounds we investigated Klotho levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum of eight geriatric patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) ...
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 20, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Carolin Hoyer, Alexander Sartorius, Suna Su Aksay, Jan Malte Bumb, Christoph Janke, Manfred Thiel, Dieter Haffner, Maren Leifheit-Nestler, Laura Kranaster Source Type: research
Clozapine use in patients with schizophrenia and a comorbid substance use disorder: A systematic review
Lifetime prevalence of substance use disorders (SUD) in patients with schizophrenia is nearly 50%. Nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis are the substances most frequently used, with a high percentage of poly-substance users. There are few available data about pharmacological approaches in this population. Amongst antipsychotics, clozapine shows positive evidence in the literature. The aim of the present article is to provide systematic review on the efficacy of clozapine in SUD improvement in schizophrenic patients. (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 19, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bel én Arranz, Marina Garriga, Clemente García-Rizo, Luis San Tags: REVIEW Source Type: research
Reduced insulin sensitivity may be related to less striatal glutamate: An 1H-MRS study in healthy non-obese humans
Levels of striatal dopamine (DA) may be positively correlated with levels of striatal glutamate (Glu). While reduced insulin sensitivity (%S) has been associated with reduced striatal DA levels in healthy non-obese persons, whether reduced %S is also associated with reduced striatal Glu levels has not yet been established. Using 1H-MRS, we measured levels of several neurometabolites in the striatum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of seventeen healthy non-obese persons (9 female, mean age: 28.35 ± 9.53). (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 18, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Fernando Caravaggio, Yusuke Iwata, Eric Plitman, Sofia Chavez, Carol Borlido, Jun Ku Chung, Julia Kim, Sri Mahavir Agarwal, Philip Gerretsen, Gary Remington, Margaret Hahn, Ariel Graff-Guerrero Source Type: research
Cortical thickness, cortical surface area and subcortical volumes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients with cannabis use
In this study we investigated associations between cannabis use and brain structures among patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorders. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained for 77 schizophrenia and 55 bipolar patients with a history of cannabis use (defined as lifetime use>10 times during one month or abuse/dependence), and 97 schizophrenia, 85 bipolar disorder patients and 277 healthy controls without any previous cannabis use. (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 15, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cecilie Bhandari Hartberg, Elisabeth H. Lange, Trine Vik Lagerberg, Unn K. Haukvik, Ole A. Andreassen, Ingrid Melle, Ingrid Agartz Source Type: research
The concept of violent suicide, its underlying trait and neurobiology: A critical perspective
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death and represents a significant public health problem world-wide. Individuals who attempt or die by suicide represent a highly heterogeneous population. Recently, efforts have been made to identify sub-populations and variables to categorize them. A popular dichotomy in suicide research of the past years is violent versus non-violent suicide - based on the method. This dichotomy is important given that there is an association between method of attempted suicide and risk of subsequent death by suicide. (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 15, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Birgit Ludwig, Yogesh Dwivedi Tags: REVIEW Source Type: research
Life (and death) in Pink: The dangerous rise of synthetic opioids in the new psychoactive substances panorama
Novel psychoactive substances represent a recent and unprecedented challenge in the global health panorama. Recently, among these, synthetic opioids are growing in number and prevalence of use, leaving behind them severe intoxications and victims, and fuelling the illicit drug market, particularly on the Dark Net. Further attention should be drawn to this alarming phenomenon, from both clinicians and policymakers. (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 15, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rita Santacroce, Elisabetta Bosio, Francesca Ferrero, Mara Mignone Source Type: research
Adjunctive treatment with brexpiprazole and escitalopram reduces behavioral stress responses and increase hypothalamic NPY immunoreactivity in a rat model of PTSD-like symptoms
The study explored effects of brexpiprazole (partial D2/5-HT1A agonist, 5-HT2A and α1B/2C-adrenoceptor antagonist) in rats exposed to predator scent stress (PSS), a proposed model of PTSD-like phenotype. Brexpiprazole (3.0mg/kg, PO), escitalopram (5.0mg/kg, IP) and their combination were administered twice daily for 14 days, starting 14 days after exposure to PSS or sham-PSS, sho rtly after a situational stress reminder. One day after last treatment behavioral responsivity was assessed. Brexpiprazole+escitalopram-treated rats spent more time in open arms, entered open arms more often and exhibited a lower anxiety index in...
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 8, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Hagit Cohen, Joseph Zohar, Zeev Kaplan, J ørn Arnt Source Type: research
Aberrant development of the asymmetry between hemispheric brain white matter networks in autism spectrum disorder
Atypical brain asymmetry/lateralization has long been hypothesized for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and this model has been repeatedly supported by various neuroimaging studies. Recently, hemispheric network topologies have been found to be asymmetric, thereby providing a new avenue for investigating brain asymmetries under various conditions. To date, however, how network topological asymmetries are altered in ASD remains largely unexplored. To clarify this, the present study included ASD individuals from the newly released Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange II database (58 right-handed male ASD individuals aged 5 to 2...
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 7, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Long Wei, Suyu Zhong, Shengdong Nie, Gaolang Gong Source Type: research
Multi-modal imaging investigation of anterior cingulate cortex cytoarchitecture in neurodevelopment
Multi-modal imaging may improve our understanding of the relationship between cortical morphology and cytoarchitecture. To this end we integrated the analyses of several magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) metrics within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Considering the ACCs role in neurodevelopmental disorders, we also investigated the association between neuropsychiatric symptoms and the various metrics. T1 and diffusion-weighted MRI and 1H-MRS (ACC voxel) data along with phenotypic information were acquired from children (8 –12 years) with various neurodevelopmental disorders (n=95) and healthy ...
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - December 6, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Natalie J. Forde, Jilly Naaijen, David J. Lythgoe, Sophie E.A. Akkermans, Tha ïra J.C. Openneer, Andrea Dietrich, Marcel P. Zwiers, Pieter J. Hoekstra, Jan K. Buitelaar Source Type: research
Monoamine and neuroendocrine gene-sets associate with frustration-based aggression in a gender-specific manner
Investigating phenotypic heterogeneity in aggression and understanding the molecular biological basis of aggression subtypes may lead to new prevention and treatment options. In the current study, we evaluated the taxonomy of aggression and examined specific genetic mechanisms underlying aggression subtypes in healthy males and females. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to replicate a recently reported three-factor model of the Reactive Proactive Questionnaire (RPQ) in healthy adults (n=661; median age 24.0 years; 41% male). (Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology)
Source: European Neuropsychopharmacology - November 27, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Marjolein M.J. van Donkelaar, Martine Hoogman, Elena Shumskaya, Jan K. Buitelaar, Janita Bralten, Barbara Franke Source Type: research
