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To compare neuropsychological functions of individuals at risk (IR) for psychosis and patients with a first episode of psychosis (FE) with healthy control subjects (HC). And to determine cognitive factors which have the potential to discriminate IR with (IRtrans) and without (IRnon-trans) transition to psychosis.
Methods
N = 60 prodromal IR and N = 51 healthy control subjects were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Besides general intelligence the test battery covered two functional domains (executive and attentional functions) and working memory. Within a follow up period of at least 30 month N = 19 IR transited to psychosis and N = 30 IR still have been followed up.
For each patient group (FE and IR), cognitive profiles were constructed by means of z-values adjusted for demographic and medication influence. The HC mean performance level was used as baseline of each group profile. A further profile was constructed by differential values considering IRtrans versus IRnon-trans. Comparisons were carried out by MANOVA and post- hoc t-tests.
Results
In all functional domains FE and IR performed below HC except for specific sustained attention measures. There were no significant differences between FE and IR.
Executive functions and working memory measures were more compromised in IRtrans as compared to IRnon-trans.
Conclusions
Neuropsychological deficiencies precede psychotic breakdown. This indicates that neuropsychological assessments of affected domains may support early detection of psychosis.
For the success of PAL-XFEL, two critical systems, namely a low emittance injector and a variable gap out-vacuum undulator, are under development. In order to realize the target emittance of the PAL-XFEL injector we carried out an optimization study of various parameters, such as the laser beam transverse profile, the laser pulse length, the laser phase, and the gun energy. The transverse emittance measured at the Injector Test Facility (ITF) is ${\it\varepsilon}_{x}=0.48\pm 0.01~\text{mm}~\text{mrad}$. An undulator prototype based on the EU-XFEL design and modified for PAL-XFEL was built and tested. A local-$K$ pole tuning procedure was developed and tested. A significant reduction (90%) of the local-$K$ fluctuation was observed. The requirement of undulator field reproducibility better than $2\times 10^{-4}$ and the undulator gap setting accuracy below $1~{\rm\mu}\text{m}$ were achieved for the prototype. The optical phase jitter after the pole height tuning at the tuning gap was calculated to be $2.6^{\circ }$ rms, which satisfies the requirement of $5.0^{\circ }$.
Hyperprolactinemia is frequent in patients with schizophrenic psychoses. It is usually regarded as an adverse effect of antipsychotics but has recently also been shown in patients without antipsychotic medication. Our objective was to test whether hyperprolactinemia occurs in antipsychotic-naive first-episode patients (FEPs).
Method
In the framework of the European First Episode Schizophrenia Trial (EUFEST), 249 out of 498 FEPs were eligible for this study, of whom 74 were antipsychotic naive. All patients were investigated regarding their serum prolactin levels with immunoassays standardized against the 3rd International Reference Standard 84/500.
Results
Twenty-nine (39%) of the 74 antipsychotic-naive patients showed hyperprolactinemia not explained by any other reason, 11 (50%) of 22 women and 18 (35%) of 52 men.
Conclusions
Hyperprolactinemia may be present in patients with schizophrenic psychoses independent of antipsychotic medication. It might be stress induced. As enhanced prolactin can increase dopamine release through a feedback mechanism, this could contribute to explaining how stress can trigger the outbreak of psychosis.
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