7 results
Gender, age at onset, and duration of being ill as predictors for the long-term course and outcome of schizophrenia: an international multicenter study
- Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, Elena Dragioti, Antonis T. Theofilidis, Tobias Wiklund, Xenofon Atmatzidis, Ioannis Nimatoudis, Erik Thys, Martien Wampers, Luchezar Hranov, Trayana Hristova, Daniil Aptalidis, Roumen Milev, Felicia Iftene, Filip Spaniel, Pavel Knytl, Petra Furstova, Tiina From, Henry Karlsson, Maija Walta, Raimo K. R. Salokangas, Jean-Michel Azorin, Justine Bouniard, Julie Montant, Georg Juckel, Ida S. Haussleiter, Athanasios Douzenis, Ioannis Michopoulos, Panagiotis Ferentinos, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Leonidas Mantonakis, Zsófia Nemes, Xenia Gonda, Dora Vajda, Anita Juhasz, Amresh Shrivastava, John Waddington, Maurizio Pompili, Anna Comparelli, Valentina Corigliano, Elmars Rancans, Alvydas Navickas, Jan Hilbig, Laurynas Bukelskis, Lidija I. Stevovic, Sanja Vodopic, Oluyomi Esan, Oluremi Oladele, Christopher Osunbote, Janusz K. Rybakowski, Pawel Wojciak, Klaudia Domowicz, Maria L. Figueira, Ludgero Linhares, Joana Crawford, Anca-Livia Panfil, Daria Smirnova, Olga Izmailova, Dusica Lecic-Tosevski, Henk Temmingh, Fleur Howells, Julio Bobes, Maria P. Garcia-Portilla, Leticia García-Alvarez, Gamze Erzin, Hasan Karadağ, Avinash De Sousa, Anuja Bendre, Cyril Hoschl, Cristina Bredicean, Ion Papava, Olivera Vukovic, Bojana Pejuskovic, Vincent Russell, Loukas Athanasiadis, Anastasia Konsta, Nikolaos K. Fountoulakis, Dan Stein, Michael Berk, Olivia Dean, Rajiv Tandon, Siegfried Kasper, Marc De Hert
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- Journal:
- CNS Spectrums / Volume 27 / Issue 6 / December 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 09 August 2021, pp. 716-723
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Background
The aim of the current study was to explore the effect of gender, age at onset, and duration on the long-term course of schizophrenia.
MethodsTwenty-nine centers from 25 countries representing all continents participated in the study that included 2358 patients aged 37.21 ± 11.87 years with a DSM-IV or DSM-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia; the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale as well as relevant clinicodemographic data were gathered. Analysis of variance and analysis of covariance were used, and the methodology corrected for the presence of potentially confounding effects.
ResultsThere was a 3-year later age at onset for females (P < .001) and lower rates of negative symptoms (P < .01) and higher depression/anxiety measures (P < .05) at some stages. The age at onset manifested a distribution with a single peak for both genders with a tendency of patients with younger onset having slower advancement through illness stages (P = .001). No significant effects were found concerning duration of illness.
DiscussionOur results confirmed a later onset and a possibly more benign course and outcome in females. Age at onset manifested a single peak in both genders, and surprisingly, earlier onset was related to a slower progression of the illness. No effect of duration has been detected. These results are partially in accord with the literature, but they also differ as a consequence of the different starting point of our methodology (a novel staging model), which in our opinion precluded the impact of confounding effects. Future research should focus on the therapeutic policy and implications of these results in more representative samples.
Familial and socioeconomic contributions to premorbid functioning in psychosis: Impact on age at onset and treatment response
- Alex Hatzimanolis, Pentagiotissa Stefanatou, Emmanouil Kattoulas, Irene Ralli, Stefanos Dimitrakopoulos, Stefania Foteli, Ioannis Kosteletos, Leonidas Mantonakis, Mirjana Selakovic, Rigas-Filippos Soldatos, Ilias Vlachos, Lida-Alkisti Xenaki, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Nicholas C. Stefanis
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- Journal:
- European Psychiatry / Volume 63 / Issue 1 / 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 April 2020, e44
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Background.
Premorbid adjustment (PA) abnormalities in psychotic disorders are associated with an earlier age at onset (AAO) and unfavorable clinical outcomes, including treatment resistance. Prior family studies suggest that familial liability, likely reflecting increased genetic risk, and socioeconomic status (SES) contribute to premorbid maladjustment. However, their joint effect possibly indicating gene–environment interaction has not been evaluated.
Methods.We examined whether family history of psychosis (FHP) and parental SES may predict PA and AAO in unrelated cases with first-episode psychosis (n = 108) and schizophrenia (n = 104). Premorbid academic and social functioning domains during childhood and early adolescence were retrospectively assessed. Regression analyses were performed to investigate main effects of FHP and parental SES, as well as their interaction. The relationships between PA, AAO, and response to antipsychotic medication were also explored.
Results.Positive FHP associated with academic PA difficulties and importantly interacted with parental SES to moderate social PA during childhood (interaction p = 0.024). Positive FHP and parental SES did not predict differences in AAO. Nevertheless, an earlier AAO was observed among cases with worse social PA in childhood (β = −0.20; p = 0.005) and early adolescence (β = −0.19; p = 0.007). Further, confirming evidence emerged for an association between deficient childhood social PA and poor treatment response (p = 0.04).
Conclusions.Familial risk for psychosis may interact with parental socioeconomic position influencing social PA in childhood. In addition, this study supports the link between social PA deviations, early psychosis onset, and treatment resistance, which highlights premorbid social functioning as a promising clinical indicator.
The effect of change in clinical state on eye movement dysfunction in schizophrenia
- Dimitra Kallimani, Christos Theleritis, Ioannis Evdokimidis, Nicholas C. Stefanis, Ioannis Chatzimanolis, Nikolaos Smyrnis
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- European Psychiatry / Volume 24 / Issue 1 / 2009
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 16 April 2020, pp. 17-26
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Measures of eye movement dysfunction have been considered as candidate endophenotypes for the study of genetic liability in schizophrenia. In this respect it is crucial to confirm a clinical state independentce of these measures. Twenty people with DSM-IV schizophrenia were assessed using a battery of oculomotor tasks in the acute phase of their disorder without being treated with antipsychotic medication and then again in the remission phase under treatment with antipsychotic medication. The saccade latency in the saccade task, the error rate and antisaccade latency in the antisaccade task, and the frequency of unwanted saccades in the active fixation task were stable in time both at the group level and within each individual, showing no relation to the significant improvement in different psychopathological dimensions of these patients. The root mean square error, gain and saccade frequency in the pursuit task were not stable over time, although again this instability was not related to the changes in psychopathological status of these patients. Finally, the saccade frequency in the active fixation task with distracters was not stable in time and was correlated with changes in specific dimensions of psychopathology. These results provide further evidence that saccade and smooth eye pursuit dysfunction measures are not affected by the substantial change in the clinical state of schizophrenia from the acute phase to remission, and strengthen the current view that they can be used as endophenotypes. On the other hand, active fixation might be state-dependent adding to the evidence against its use as a candidate endophenotype in schizophrenia.
Modeling psychological function in patients with schizophrenia with the PANSS: an international multi-center study
- Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, Elena Dragioti, Antonis T. Theofilidis, Tobias Wiklund, Xenofon Atmatzidis, Ioannis Nimatoudis, Erik Thys, Martien Wampers, Luchezar Hranov, Trayana Hristova, Daniil Aptalidis, Roumen Milev, Felicia Iftene, Filip Spaniel, Pavel Knytl, Petra Furstova, Tiina From, Henry Karlsson, Maija Walta, Raimo K.R. Salokangas, Jean-Michel Azorin, Justine Bouniard, Julie Montant, Georg Juckel, Ida S. Haussleiter, Athanasios Douzenis, Ioannis Michopoulos, Panagiotis Ferentinos, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Leonidas Mantonakis, Zsófia Nemes, Xenia Gonda, Dora Vajda, Anita Juhasz, Amresh Shrivastava, John Waddington, Maurizio Pompili, Anna Comparelli, Valentina Corigliano, Elmars Rancans, Alvydas Navickas, Jan Hilbig, Laurynas Bukelskis, Lidija I. Stevovic, Sanja Vodopic, Oluyomi Esan, Oluremi Oladele, Christopher Osunbote, Janusz K. Rybakowski, Pawel Wojciak, Klaudia Domowicz, Maria L. Figueira, Ludgero Linhares, Joana Crawford, Anca-Livia Panfil, Daria Smirnova, Olga Izmailova, Dusica Lecic-Tosevski, Henk Temmingh, Fleur Howells, Julio Bobes, Maria P. Garcia-Portilla, Leticia García-Alvarez, Gamze Erzin, Hasan Karadağ, Avinash De Sousa, Anuja Bendre, Cyril Hoschl, Cristina Bredicean, Ion Papava, Olivera Vukovic, Bojana Pejuskovic, Vincent Russell, Loukas Athanasiadis, Anastasia Konsta, Dan Stein, Michael Berk, Olivia Dean, Rajiv Tandon, Siegfried Kasper, Marc De Hert
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- Journal:
- CNS Spectrums / Volume 26 / Issue 3 / June 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 April 2020, pp. 290-298
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Background
The aim of the current study was to explore the changing interrelationships among clinical variables through the stages of schizophrenia in order to assemble a comprehensive and meaningful disease model.
MethodsTwenty-nine centers from 25 countries participated and included 2358 patients aged 37.21 ± 11.87 years with schizophrenia. Multiple linear regression analysis and visual inspection of plots were performed.
ResultsThe results suggest that with progression stages, there are changing correlations among Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale factors at each stage and each factor correlates with all the others in that particular stage, in which this factor is dominant. This internal structure further supports the validity of an already proposed four stages model, with positive symptoms dominating the first stage, excitement/hostility the second, depression the third, and neurocognitive decline the last stage.
ConclusionsThe current study investigated the mental organization and functioning in patients with schizophrenia in relation to different stages of illness progression. It revealed two distinct “cores” of schizophrenia, the “Positive” and the “Negative,” while neurocognitive decline escalates during the later stages. Future research should focus on the therapeutic implications of such a model. Stopping the progress of the illness could demand to stop the succession of stages. This could be achieved not only by both halting the triggering effect of positive and negative symptoms, but also by stopping the sensitization effect on the neural pathways responsible for the development of hostility, excitement, anxiety, and depression as well as the deleterious effect on neural networks responsible for neurocognition.
Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS and Biological Insights Into Cognition: A Response to Hill (2018)
- Max Lam, Joey W. Trampush, Jin Yu, Emma Knowles, Srdjan Djurovic, Ingrid Melle, Kjetil Sundet, Andrea Christoforou, Ivar Reinvang, Pamela DeRosse, Astri J. Lundervold, Vidar M. Steen, Thomas Espeseth, Katri Räikkönen, Elisabeth Widen, Aarno Palotie, Johan G. Eriksson, Ina Giegling, Bettina Konte, Panos Roussos, Stella Giakoumaki, Katherine E. Burdick, Antony Payton, William Ollier, Ornit Chiba-Falek, Deborah K. Attix, Anna C. Need, Elizabeth T. Cirulli, Aristotle N. Voineskos, Nikos C. Stefanis, Dimitrios Avramopoulos, Alex Hatzimanolis, Dan E. Arking, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Robert M. Bilder, Nelson A. Freimer, Tyrone D. Cannon, Edythe London, Russell A. Poldrack, Fred W. Sabb, Eliza Congdon, Emily Drabant Conley, Matthew A. Scult, Dwight Dickinson, Richard E. Straub, Gary Donohoe, Derek Morris, Aiden Corvin, Michael Gill, Ahmad R. Hariri, Daniel R. Weinberger, Neil Pendleton, Panos Bitsios, Dan Rujescu, Jari Lahti, Stephanie Le Hellard, Matthew C. Keller, Ole A. Andreassen, David C. Glahn, Anil K. Malhotra, Todd Lencz
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- Journal:
- Twin Research and Human Genetics / Volume 21 / Issue 5 / October 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 July 2018, pp. 394-397
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Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84–88) presented a critique of our recently published paper in Cell Reports entitled ‘Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets’ (Lam et al., Cell Reports, Vol. 21, 2017, 2597–2613). Specifically, Hill offered several interrelated comments suggesting potential problems with our use of a new analytic method called Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS (MTAG) (Turley et al., Nature Genetics, Vol. 50, 2018, 229–237). In this brief article, we respond to each of these concerns. Using empirical data, we conclude that our MTAG results do not suffer from ‘inflation in the FDR [false discovery rate]’, as suggested by Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84–88), and are not ‘more relevant to the genetic contributions to education than they are to the genetic contributions to intelligence’.
Selective Attention and the Three-Process Memory Model for the Interpretation of Verbal Free Recall in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
- Foteini Christidi, Ioannis Zalonis, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Ioannis Evdokimidis
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- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 18 / Issue 5 / September 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 June 2012, pp. 809-818
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The present study investigates selective attention and verbal free recall in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and examines the contribution of selective attention, encoding, consolidation, and retrieval memory processes to patients’ verbal free recall. We examined 22 non-demented patients with sporadic ALS and 22 demographically related controls using Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test (SNST; selective attention) and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT; immediate & delayed verbal free recall). The item-specific deficit approach (ISDA) was applied to RAVLT to evaluate encoding, consolidation, and retrieval difficulties. ALS patients performed worse than controls on SNST (p < .001) and RAVLT immediate and delayed recall (p < .001) and showed deficient encoding (p = .001) and consolidation (p = .002) but not retrieval (p = .405). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that SNST and ISDA indices accounted for: (a) 91.1% of the variance in RAVLT immediate recall, with encoding (p = .016), consolidation (p < .001), and retrieval (p = .032) significantly contributing to the overall model and the SNST alone accounting for 41.6%; and (b) 85.2% of the variance in RAVLT delayed recall, with consolidation (p < .001) and retrieval (p = .008) significantly contributing to the overall model and the SNST alone accounting for 39.8%. Thus, selective attention, encoding, and consolidation, and to a lesser extent of retrieval, influenced both immediate and delayed verbal free recall. Concluding, selective attention and the memory processes of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval should be considered while interpreting patients’ impaired free recall. (JINS, 2012, 18, 1–10)
COMT Val158Met moderation of stress-induced psychosis
- NICHOLAS C. STEFANIS, CÉCILE HENQUET, DIMITRIOS AVRAMOPOULOS, NIKOLAOS SMYRNIS, IOANNIS EVDOKIMIDIS, INEZ MYIN-GERMEYS, COSTAS N. STEFANIS, JIM VAN OS
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- Journal:
- Psychological Medicine / Volume 37 / Issue 11 / November 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 July 2007, pp. 1651-1656
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Background
Exposure to stressful life events increases the risk of developing a psychotic disorder. Moreover, increased reactivity to stress seems to represent part of the vulnerability for psychosis. This study aimed to investigate whether a functional polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT Val158Met) gene moderates the psychosis-inducing effects of stress.
MethodA semi-experimental stress exposure paradigm was used in a sample of 306 genotyped young men (aged 19–24 years), in whom measures of psychotic symptoms were obtained at recruitment in the Greek army (exposed condition) and again after 18 months of military training (unexposed condition).
ResultsStress exposure at army induction was associated with an increased level of psychotic symptoms. In addition, carriers of the COMT Val158Met Val allele were more susceptible to the effect of stress on the psychosis outcome than those with the Met/Met genotype (test for interaction: χ2=5·02, df=1, p=0·025).
ConclusionThe COMT Val158Met genotype may moderate the effect of stress on psychotic symptoms.