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From the very inception of the modern diagnostic scheme for psychotic disorders, abnormalities in motor function have been observed in these conditions. Despite convergence from multiple areas of research supporting the notion that multiple frontal-subcortical circuits regulate motor and limbic behavior, the precise relationship between motor abnormalities and psychopathology has not been elucidated. The goals of this study were to examine the prevalence of extrapyramidal signs (EPS) in first-episode schizophrenia patients and their relationships to three psychopathological dimensions (positive psychosis syndrome, negative syndrome, and disorganization). We assessed EPS using traditional observer-based as well as quantitative instrumental measures in 39 neuroleptic-naive first-episode schizophrenia subjects. Subjects were followed for 6 months after initiating antipsychotic treatment to examine the stability of motor-limbic relationships. Four main findings emerged from this study. First, depending on the measure used the prevalence of dyskinesia prior to treatment ranged from 13% to 20%. The prevalence of parkinsonism ranged from 18% to 28%. Second, severity of dyskinesia was associated with the positive psychotic syndrome; whereas parkinsonism was associated with the positive psychosis, negative syndrome and disorganization. Third, psychopathology improved significantly across all symptom dimensions following antipsychotic treatment, while EPS remained stable. This suggests that some motor abnormalities in schizophrenia may reflect trait characteristics. Fourth, abnormalities on the pre-treatment instrumental measure of parkinsonism predicted greater improvement on positive psychosis symptoms following treatment (p=0.008). Our findings support the notion that neuromotor disturbances may be a core feature of schizophrenia in a substantial proportion of patients and implicate multiple fronto-striatal circuits regulating limbic and neuromotor behavior in schizophrenia.

Objective: A phase-specific intervention provided soon after the onset of a first episode of psychosis is likely to engender a more hopeful outlook. This article describes a community-oriented treatment program of phase-specific medical and psychosocial treatments integrated within an intensive case management model for patients with first-episode psychosis in a geographically defined population. One-year status is reported for a consecutive sample of patients with nonaffective mostly schizophrenic first-episode psychosis who were receiving treatment in this program., Methods: Patients were assessed at baseline and at one year with a modified version of the Interview for Retrospective Assessment of Onset of Schizophrenia, the Structured Clinical Assessment for DSM-IV, the Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms, and the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms to ascertain baseline patient characteristics, remission rates, hospital readmission rates, and change in the severity of symptoms., Results: Data at 13 months for 53 patients indicated a complete remission rate of 70 percent, a hospital readmission rate of 20 percent, a highly significant improvement in all dimensions of psychopathology, higher rates of remission among patients who entered treatment within six months of the onset of psychosis (82 percent compared with 60 percent), and a longer median duration of untreated psychosis among patients who did not experience complete remission (10.5 compared with 6.5 months). Nearly half the patients received initial treatment as outpatients without adverse consequences for their subsequent use of hospitalization., Conclusions: An epidemiologically representative sample of patients experiencing a first episode of psychosis, when treated optimally with low dosages of novel antipsychotics and phase-specific psychological interventions, showed a high rate of clinical recovery and were able to remain in the community most of the time.

The relationship of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology to anxiety disorders, mood disorders and schizophrenia continues to be controversial. In a sample of 117 psychiatric out-patients, we examined the relationship of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology to indices of anxiety, depression and schizotypy. The relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptomatology and schizotypy was found to be significantly higher than that between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and either anxiety or depression. These findings are consistent with recent studies suggesting that there are similar cognitive deficits associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms and schizotypy and that obsessive-compulsive disorders may be more closely aligned to the schizophrenic constellation of disorders than to anxiety disorders.