Search

Schizophrenia disorder is a neurodevelopmental brain disorder characterized by impaired neurotransmitter interactions in the central nervous system. Thusschizophrenic disorders require treatment aimed at overcoming the disruption of neurotransmitter interactions in the central nervous system. Psycho-education (PE) can not only be applied to individuals with schizophrenia but can also be applied to families and groups. PE is widely given to patients with psychiatric disorders, including family members and people with interest in treating these patients. This literature review aims to discuss the role of psycho-education in schizophrenic patients.

Analyzing the human brain and detection of brain disorders using Electroencephalography (EEG) have gained impetus over past few years. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which affects the functioning of brain. In this paper, we aim to determine quantitative significant EEG features which can be used to differentiate person having schizophrenia disorder and the healthy ones. Variational mode decomposition method (VMD) is used for feature extraction followed by statistical significance analysis of the extracted values. VMD is a popular decomposition method due to its adaptive nature. In this study, we also aim to examine the efficacy of the method in EEG signal analysis. Six different features were calculated and analyzed over the decomposed EEG signal. Analysis is done by performing statistical significance test on SPSS version 23 and by observing the p-values and error bar graphs. Results indicate that five out of six features turned out to be a very good indicator/markers. Hence, this method could be further extended by applying machine learning approach for the classification based on obtained feature set.

Schizophrenia is one of the most common mental disorders and is increasing every year. One common type of schizophrenia is paranoid schizophrenia. Usually, a positive symptom that often appears in paranoid schizophrenia is auditory hallucinations. Furthermore, paranoid schizophrenia residual type is an end stage of schizophrenia disorder where the individual does not have positive symptoms but still experiences some negative symptoms. The method used in this research is qualitative namely case studies. This case study aims to describe the assessment, diagnosis, and psychological dynamics of individuals who have residual paranoid type schizophrenia. Participant is one person selected using purposive sampling. Data mining is done by conducting interviews, observations, and psychological tests. Interviews were conducted both to the subject and significant others. Observation and psychological tests conducted on the subject. Psychological tests provided include intelligence and personality tests. The results obtained that AS does not have positive symptoms. However, negative symptoms that are still felt are subject who has confusion, has difficulty in controlling emotions and does not want to work. In addition, the psychological dynamic of AS is he has experienced many traumatic events in his life, including: death from his family, repeated fraud, not getting appreciation from the environment and he who felt that his role as head of the family could not function properly.

The neural mechanisms of the brain and, particularly, the neural networks involved in pathological behavior as in the schizophrenia disorder, have become a relevant research topic. Hence, the proposal developed in this Doctoral Thesis is focused on analyzing EEG recordings to characterize the underlying neural mechanisms of the brain aimed at finding altered neural substrates in schizophrenia.

International audience; This paper presents the early stages of a growing corpus of psychiatric interviews from help seeking patients referred to an early detection and intervention center for psychosis. In order to contribute to the practitioner's diagnostic, we focus on a new method of automatic comorbidity detection in the corpus. Among the novelties of this method is the fact that it is based on syntactic features of paralinguistic data (interjections and pauses). We use the formalism of dependency syntax, a brief description of which we provide in the paper. Considering the (currently) small size of the corpus, our intention is to prove the applicability of the method rather than to obtain general results about the relevance of syntactic indicators.

This article presents a method for detection of cognitive defects based on eye tracking and saliency maps. The main goal of our paper is to augment the original approach using saliency maps and correlation matrices by introducing orthogonal transforms, namely–DHYT, DST, DCT2 and DCT3. It was shown that combination of various orthogonal transforms provided different results, which are discussed in the article. Experimental data were measured using eye tracker tool for a group of healthy (22) and diagnosed (22) individuals exposed to the Rorschach inkblot test. On average the measured accuracies reached scores over 70% which forms a solid basis for automated prescreening deployment.

Motivation: Bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) has a difficult diagnosis, so the main objective of this article is to propose the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to classify (diagnose) groups of patients with BD or SZ from a control group using sociodemographic and biochemical variables. Methods: Artificial neural networks are used as classifying tool. The data from this study were obtained from the array collection from Stanley Neuropathology Consortium databank. Inflammatory markers and characteristics of the sampled population were the inputs variables. Results: Our findings suggest that an artificial neural network could be trained with more than 90% accuracy, aiming the classification and diagnosis of bipolar, schizophrenia and control healthy group. Conclusion: Trained ANNs could be used to improve diagnosis in Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorders.

Background: The exact diagnosis of schizophrenic disorder from schizoaffective disorder has always been a challenge for therapists due to the comorbidity of many signs and symptoms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differential diagnosis of schizophrenia disorder from schizoaffective disorder, focusing on the emotional content of their memories. Materials and Methods: The present study is a causal-comparative study on 23 male and female patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (without any comorbid diagnosis). Using a clinical interview, the emotional events and memories of their lives, as well as the amount of affective and emotional words used by these patients in expressing their memories, have been assessed. To determine the differences between the two groups, the data were analyzed by Chi-square test. Results: Results showed that men with schizophrenia had a significant difference in expressing the amount of emotional events in their lives, as well as in expressing affective and emotional words compared to schizoaffective men. But, this difference was not observed in schizophrenic and schizoaffective women. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that differential diagnosis of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder can be made with emphasis on the emotional content of memories, especially in men.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder with a complex brain disorder that causes sufferers not to be able to distinguish between reality and imagination. This study aims to determine the parameters for the best model Box-Jenkins time series analysis in predicting the number of schizophrenic in Cirebon City in 2018 as seen from the smallest MSE (Mean Square Error) value. This study uses Box Jenkins method (often referred to as the ARIMA Method) with documentation collection techniques and literature studies. The documentation aims to collect data on the number of schizophrenic patients in January 2014 to December 2018. Data were analyzed in several stages, namely the stage of data stationary identification, determining model parameter estimates, model verification and forecasting. The results of this study show that the best model for predicting the number of schizophrenic patients in the future is ARIMA (0,1,1). The forecasting results of the number of schizophrenic patients in Cirebon City from January to December 2018 respectively are 69 people, 68 people, 68 people, 68 people, 68 people, 68 people, 67 people, 67 people, 67 people, 67 people, 67 people, 67 people.

Schizophrenia is one of the mental disorders that impacts a person's thinking, speech, and actions. It can reduce a person’s ability to process auditory information and make decisions. Analyzing this disorder correctly is important because it might help with different ways of reducing its negative effects on its patients. Linguists and psychiatrists have been investigating language impairments and speech disorder in people with schizophrenia disorder which can be challenging. In this study, we attempt to address this issue by analyzing linguistic features i.e. cohesion in the writings and speech scripts of schizophrenia patients. Our results show that using referential cohesion with text easability or situation model features provides the best performance for speech whereas for writing dataset, readability or a combination of situation model and readability yield the best performance.

Background. It is important to prepare response in advance to increase the efficiency of its execution. The process of response preparation is usually studied using the precueing paradigm. In this paradigm subjects have to employ the preceding information about further imperative stimulus to perform proper response preparation, which shortens the reaction time of subsequent response execution. Previous studies detected the impairment of response preparation in schizophrenia only with the help of electroencephalographic parameters, but not with the assessing of reaction time. Therefore, in this study we attempted to find a behavioural parameter that could detect impairment in response preparation of schizophrenia patients. It was recently found that appropriate response preparation not only shortens the reaction time but also increases its stability, which is measured with the intra-individual reaction time variability. It was also revealed that response stability could better find cognitive dysfunction in some studies of schizophrenia disorder than classical behavioural parameters. Hence, the main goal of this study was to verify if intra-individual reaction time variability could detect the impairment of response preparation in schizophrenia patients. Materials and methods. In order to achieve the main purpose, we carried out a study with 14 schizophrenia patients and 14 control group subjects. We used precueing paradigm in our research, in which participants had to employ information about stimulus probability for the proper response preparation. Results. Our main result showed that despite the responses of schizophrenia patients were faster to the high-probability stimulus than to the low-probability one (F (1, 13) = 30.9, p < 0.001), intra-individual reaction time variability did not differ in this group between the responses to more and less probable stimuli (F (1, 13) = 0.64, p = 0.44). Conclusions. Results of the study suggest that people with schizophrenia were able to use precueing probabilistic information only to shorten their reaction time, but not to increase response stability. Therefore, it was found that intra-individual reaction time variability parameter could detect response preparation impairment in schizophrenia, and could be used in clinical purposes.

Schizophrenia has been described as a psychiatric condition characterized by deficits in one's own and others' face recognition, as well as by a disturbed sense of body-ownership. To date, no study has integrated these two lines of research with the aim of investigating Enfacement Illusion (EI) proneness in schizophrenia. To accomplish this goal, the classic EI protocol was adapted to test the potential plasticity of both Self-Other and Other-Other boundaries. Results showed that EI induced the expected malleability of Self-Other boundary among both controls and patients. Interestingly, for the first time, the present study demonstrates that also the Other-Other boundary was influenced by EI. Furthermore, comparing the two groups, the malleability of the Other-Other boundary showed an opposite modulation. These results suggest that, instead of greater Self-Other boundary plasticity, a qualitative difference can be detected between schizophrenia patients and controls in the malleability of the Other-Other boundary. The present study points out a totally new aspect about body-illusions and schizophrenia disorder, demonstrating that EI is not only confined to self-sphere but it also affects the way we discriminate others, representing a potential crucial aspect in the social domain.

Motor alteration is an important aspect of the elusive schizophrenia disorder, manifested both throughout the various phases of the disease and as a response to treatment. Tracking of patients' movement, and especially in a closed ward hospital setting, can therefore shed light on the dynamics of the disease, and help alert staff to possible deterioration and adverse effects of medication. In this paper we describe the use of ARIMA-based anomaly detection for monitoring of patient motor activity in a closed ward hospital setting. We demonstrate the utility of the approach in several intriguing case studies.

Motor peculiarity is an integral part of the schizophrenia disorder, having various manifestations both throughout the phases of the disease, and as a response to treatment. The current subjective non-quantitative evaluation of these traits leads to multiple interpretations of phenomenology, which impairs the reliability and validity of psychiatric diagnosis. Our long-term objective is to quantitatively measure motor behavior in schizophrenia patients, and develop automatic tools and methods for patient monitoring and treatment adjustment. In the present study, wearable devices were distributed among 25 inpatients in the closed wards of a Mental Health Center. Motor activity was measured using embedded accelerometers, as well as light and temperature sensors. The devices were worn continuously by participants throughout the duration of the experiment, approximately one month. During this period participants were also clinically evaluated twice weekly, including patients’ mental, motor, and neurological symptom severity. Medication regimes and outstanding events were also recorded by hospital staff. Below we discuss the general framework for monitoring psychiatric patients with wearable devices. We then present results showing correlations between features of activity in various daily time-windows, and measures derived from the psychiatrist’s clinical assessment or abnormal events in the patients’ routine.

Schizophrenia affects 1% of the population. It greatly alters the quality of life of patients and their autonomy. In this study, we evaluated the effect of a psychoeducation program (PEP) in 17 patients.The effectiveness of the program was measured with validated psychometric questionnaires assessing functional remission, quality of life, adherence to drug treatments and satisfaction.The results revealed a significant effect of PEP on functional remission and adherence to treatment, but no effect on the overall quality of life score. Self-esteem and autonomy were improved. No patient presented evidence for a major depressive episode after PEP. Patients were generally very satisfied of the program.In conclusion, PEP has a beneficial effect on coping strategies of patients with schizophrenia. Awareness of the deleterious effects of the disease at the family, social, emotional and somatic levels allows patients to be challenged with active involvement in care. Building self-esteem ("I'm not crazy, I have an illness") helps patients to be more easily engaged with caregivers.Integrating PEP into the overall care of the patient as a pivotal care (drug treatment, psychosocial rehabilitation, family therapy) is very beneficial. A regular assessment with reinforcement of the knowledge and requests of the patient will be able to improve the overall quality of life score., La schizophrénie affecte 1% de la population. Elle altère grandement la qualité de vie des patients et leur autonomie. Dans cette étude, nous avons évalué l’effet d’un programme d’éducation thérapeutique (ETP) réalisée en groupe, chez 17 patients suivis en psychiatrie et stabilisés. L’efficacité du programme a été mesurée à partir de questionnaires psychométriques validés évaluant la rémission fonctionnelle, la qualité de vie des patients, leur adhésion aux traitements médicamenteux et leur satisfaction quant aux soins reçus.Les résultats révèlent un effet significatif de l’ETP sur la rémission fonctionnelle et l’adhésion aux traitements, mais pas d’effet sur le score global de qualité de vie. L’estime de soi et l’autonomie sont améliorées. Aucun patient n’a présenté de signes en faveur d’un épisode dépressif majeur après l’ETP. Les patients sont globalement très satisfaits du programme.En conclusion, l’ETP a un effet bénéfique sur les stratégies d’adaptation des patients qui souffrent de schizophrénie. La prise de conscience des effets délétères de la maladie au niveau familial, social, affectif et somatique permet aux patients une remise en question avec une implication active dans les soins. Le renforcement de l’estime de soi (« je ne suis pas fou, j’ai une maladie ») aide les patients à se livrer plus facilement auprès des soignants.Intégrer l’ETP dans la prise en charge globale du patient comme pivot dans l’articulation des soins (traitements médicamenteux, réhabilitation psychosociale, thérapie familiale) est très bénéfique. Un bilan régulier avec renforcement des connaissances et demandes du patient pourra améliorer le score global qualité de vie.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by the appearance of symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. The decrease in the frequency and intensity of symptoms is also called the period of symptom remision. Excessive unresolved stress conditions associated with recurrence / reappearance of schizophrenia symptoms. Relapse can affect the quality of life in people with schizophrenia during remission of symptoms.The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between stress coping with quality of life in people with schizophrenia period remission symptom. This research is a quantitative study with correlational approach. The design of this study used is cross sectional. This study enrolled 52 people with schizophrenia disorder during the remission of symptoms. The data were collected using an adapted questionnaire, the SQLS (Self-Report Quality of Life measure for people with Schizophrenia) and the COPE Brief. Data analysis was done by using Pearson correlation statistic technique. The results showed that there was no correlation between stress coping and quality of life in schizophrenic patients on remission of symptom (p = 0,765, p> 0,05). There is no relationship between coping stress and quality of life caused by many other factors that affect the quality of life, namely negative stigma, self-mastery, family support, socioeconomic, treatment factors. Keywords: coping stress, quality of life, schizophrenia

When read as a fictional psychosis narrative, Jesus' Son, a collection of short stories by Denis Johnson, reveals important elements of the phenomenology of schizophrenia and recovery. It is possible that Jesus' Son, as a work of fiction, may be able to uniquely add depth and nuance to an understanding of the phenomenology of schizophrenia involving a state of psychological fragmentation, an ever-changing interpersonal field and a loss of personal agency. In addition, by following the protagonist in Jesus' Son as he begins to resolve some of his difficulties, the book also offers an individualised account of recovery. The authors detail how the book reveals these insights about schizophrenia and recovery and suggest that these elements are intertwined in such a manner that leads to a profound disruption of self-experience, characterised by a collapse of metacognitive processes. Jesus' Son may add depth to our understanding of the subjective experience of schizophrenia and recovery, and also may serve as one example in which the study of humanities offers an opportunity to explore the human elements in the most profound forms of suffering.

Objective. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship betweenToxoplasma gondiiandToxocaraspp. infections in patients with schizophrenia disorder.Method. A total of 100 patients with schizophrenia disorder and 95 healthy individuals participated in the study. Participants were tested for the presence of anti-T. gondiiand anti-Toxocaraspp. antibodies by ELISA and Western blotting. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test and Fisher9s exact test.Results. There were no differences inT. gondiiIgG seroprevalence between patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals (P=0.1), but there were differences in seroprevalence between males and females with schizophrenia (P=0.009). In contrast,Toxocaraspp. IgG seroprevalence was greater in patients with schizophrenia disorder than in healthy individuals (P=0.02), but there were no differences in seroprevalence between men and women with schizophrenia (P=0.5). Finally, there were no differences in seroprevalence ofT. gondiiorToxocaraspp. IgG among different subtypes of schizophrenia, various age groups, residential area, or clinical course of treatment (P>0.05).Conclusion. The present study suggests that patients with schizophrenia disorder are at elevated risk ofToxocaraspp. infection. Moreover, contamination withT. gondiiis a risk factor for schizophrenia in women.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are often used to diagnose diseases such as seizure, alzheimer, and schizophrenia. One main problem with the recorded EEG samples is that they are not equally reliable due to the artifacts at the time of recording. EEG signal classification algorithms should have a mechanism to handle this issue. It seems that using adaptive classifiers can be useful for the biological signals such as EEG. In this paper, a general adaptive method named weighted distance nearest neighbor (WDNN) is applied for EEG signal classification to tackle this problem. This classification algorithm assigns a weight to each training sample to control its influence in classifying test samples. The weights of training samples are used to find the nearest neighbor of an input query pattern. To assess the performance of this scheme, EEG signals of thirteen schizophrenic patients and eighteen normal subjects are analyzed for the classification of these two groups. Several features including, fractal dimension, band power and autoregressive (AR) model are extracted from EEG signals. The classification results are evaluated using Leave one (subject) out cross validation for reliable estimation. The results indicate that combination of WDNN and selected features can significantly outperform the basic nearest-neighbor and the other methods proposed in the past for the classification of these two groups. Therefore, this method can be a complementary tool for specialists to distinguish schizophrenia disorder.

Background: Cultural psychology is a new discipline covering a universalistic intercultural version derived from a specific historical and cultural discourse. Since Kleinman’s major revision (1988), cultural psychopathology has been reconsidered with the aim of updating the previous reviews, assessment of conceptualizations and current methods, recognition of index trends, conceptual progressions, particularly changes in the definition of culture, studying both specific and common culture trends, the role of culture in psychiatric diagnosis for DSM-V and the World Health Organization report. In the new version, some cases of diseases such as depression and schizophreniaare included. Objective: The present research aims to show that mental illness is of a linguistic structure and study the illness as a cultural issue. Method: The method applied in this research wasthat of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis, as a method of qualitative research, analyzes language and speech. The module of discourse analysis is narrative. A narrative is a cultural text, or scientific theory or social act. In discourse analysis, the researcher tries to recognize the underlying narratives of discourses through analyzing language and speech as well as interpreting approaches and theories. Studying discourse patterns created during usage of discursive resources, the analyst aims to identify the sources of similarities and differences. Results: In recent years, research on cultural psychopathology has turned to an important area of study. The most important issue in cultural psychology and cultural psychopathology is to become aware of the definition of culture as specific discourse, and its role in in defining, clarifying and specifying mental illnesses. Cultural psychopathology focuses on language and the social global structure of language. It is in the light of language that we can reach to an integrated conceptualization of mental illness as a social and cultural construct. Conclusion: The ultimate goal of cultural psychopathology is to reduce pain and to improve people’s lives. Our modified definition of culture led to an analysis of signs and resources of cultural psychopathology in various levels of individual, family, society, and the expanded social system ones, which are all required for reaching this aim. Furthermore, culture is considered as a dynamic, variable and discursive process that is formed by role-playing of language in the social construct.

ObjectiveResolving the entangled nosological dilemma of whether obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with and without schizophrenia (schizo-OCD and OCD, respectively) are two independent entities or whether schizo-OCD is a combined product of its parent disorders.MethodsStudying motor activity in OCD and in schizo-OCD patients. Performance of the patients was compared with the performance of the same motor task by a matching control individual.ResultsBehavior in both schizo-OCD and OCD patients differed from controls in the excessive repetition and addition of acts, thus validating an identical OC facet. However, there was a significant difference in spatial behavior. Schizo-OCD patients traveled over a greater area with less focused activity as typical to schizophrenia patients and in contrast to OCD patients, who were more focused and traveled less in a confined area. While schizo-OCD and OCD patients share most of the OC ritualistic attributes, they differ in the greater spread of activity in schizo-OCD, which is related to schizophrenia disorder.DiscussionIt is suggested that the finding on difference in spatial behavior is a reflection of the mental differences between OCD and schizophrenia. In other words, this could be an overt and observable manifestation of the mental state, and therefore may facilitate the nosology of OC spectrum disorders and OCD.ConclusionIt seems as if both the OCD patients’ focus on specific thoughts, and the contrasting wandering thoughts of schizophrenia patients, are reflected in the focused activity of the former and wandering from one place to the next of the latter.

Schizophrenia and other schizophrenia spectrum disorders are chronic and debilitating psychiatric disorders that affect approximately 1% of the population. Individuals with these disorders often experience significant impairments in daily functioning. Childhood-onset schizophrenia is generally regarded as a schizophrenia disorder diagnosed before the age of 13. It is considered a rare and more severe form of schizophrenia compared to adult-onset schizophrenia. It is crucial for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatments to be implemented. This chapter will provide an overview of the diagnostic history, symptomology, associated impairments, developmental course, prognosis, and treatments associated with this disorder.

PF-00217830 is a D2-partial agonist developed for the treatment of schizophrenia. The dual 14C/14C and 14C/3H-labelled PF-00217830 were required for animal and human absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) studies. This report describes the development of the syntheses of dual 14C/14C- and dual 14C/3H-labelled PF-00217830. [14C]PF-00217830-L labelled at the naphthalene ring was prepared in three steps starting with [14C]naphthalene, while [3H]PF-00217830-R was synthesised by Pd-catalysed tritium de-bromination of brominated PF-00217830 in a single radiosynthetic step. The dual [14C/3H]PF-00217830 was made by mixing 1:10 radioactivity ratio of [14C]PF-00217830-L and [3H]PF-00217830-R. The chemistry for [14C]PF-00217830-R labelled at the pyridine ring was also described.

Background Social cognitive dysfunction is common in patients with schizophrenia and is associated with marked and persistent functional disability. Facial emotion recognition is a core aspect of social cognition and has been consistently demonstrated to be impaired in this population. However, it remains unclear whether these deficits are unique to patients with schizophrenia. We compared the severity of facial emotion recognition deficits in patients with both sub- and full-threshold psychotic symptoms to those observed across a range of psychiatric, neurological and developmental disorders in order to determine to what extent this represents a disorder-specific or transdiagnostic aspect of cognitive dysfunction. Methods We conducted an electronic database search in order to identify published, peer-reviewed meta-analyses that compared facial emotion recognition task performance between individuals meeting clinical criteria for a psychiatric, neurological or developmental condition against healthy controls. Facial emotion recognition standardized mean difference effect size estimates (Cohen’s d or Hedges’ g) were required to have been derived from tasks in which participants had to identify, label or match images of faces consisting of all or any combination of the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise or disgust). Where possible, a ‘total’ score was used, comprising performance across multiple emotions. Effect size estimates must have been derived from two or more independent studies in order for the meta-analysis to be included. Where there were multiple publications for a given medical condition that met our inclusion criteria, we included the most recently published paper. Results We identified 19 meta-analyses eligible for inclusion that examined performance across relevant tasks among 24 different clinical populations. Though the effect sizes are not directly comparable across clinical conditions (due to methodological differences between studies and in meta-analytic procedures), they demonstrate consistent and statistically significant deficits in facial emotion recognition across almost all of the clinical groups included in this review. Effect size estimates indicated that deficits among patients with schizophrenia were among the largest and most robust. Deficits were also evident even among those individuals with sub-threshold psychotic symptoms who met clinical criteria for being at ultra-high risk of developing a psychotic disorder. Discussion Facial emotion recognition deficits are a transdiagnostic issue, potentially serving as a biomarker of neurological abnormality. However, these impairments appear to be particularly severe and debilitating among people with schizophrenia. There are currently no recognized treatments for these deficits. This in part is due to a lack of outcome measures suitable for use in clinical trials. Improved characterization and operationalization of social cognition and other ‘hot’ cognitive processes are necessary to facilitate and advance treatment efforts, both in schizophrenia and across other clinical groups. We are currently in the process of developing and acquiring normative data for a series of computerized tasks which can be used to assess these domains. This includes new variants of established tests which have been used to assess facial emotion recognition, as well as novel tasks to detect emotional biases and assess responses to socially-relevant information. These tasks will help to facilitate further research into these complex social processes and potentially assist in the development of interventions for those patients that are adversely affected.

Background: Nutritional deprivation in the early stage of life increases the risk of developing schizophrenia. Oxidative stress, disturbed thinking and irrational behavior which are common to schizophrenic patients may be a result of changes in the levels of certain trace metals. Methods: Twenty (20) healthy volunteers and a total of thirty-five (35) schizophrenic patients consisting of 20 on antipsychotic drugs for at least 2 weeks and 15 newly diagnosed but not taking antipsychotic drugs were considered. The plasma levels of trace metals were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Results: Fe and Se were significantly reduced in newly diagnosed and medicated-schizophrenic patients compared with controls. Pb, Cd and Cr were significantly raised in newly diagnosed drug free schizophrenic patients compared with controls. While Cr and Cd were significantly raised in schizophrenic patients on treatment compared with the controls. Conclusions: Levels of certain nutritionally essential trace metals (Fe and Se) were reduced while levels of certain heavy metals (Pb, Cr and Cd) were raised in schizophrenic patients.

ZusammenfassungDer Artikel gibt einen kurzen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Forschung zu kognitiver Verhaltenstherapie (KVT) von Negativsymptomatik bei schizophrenen Psychosen. Es werden zugrunde liegende Modellvorstellungen beleuchtet und Studienergebnisse dargestellt. Das vorgestellte Konzept wird in einer multizentrischen, randomisierten klinischen Studie überprüft, das Studiendesign und das Therapiekonzept werden vorgestellt.Die Therapie ist eine manualbasierte, individuell angepasste ambulante Einzeltherapie. Zusammen mit dem Patienten wird ein Fallkonzept und ein Therapieplan erstellt. Das Fallkonzept bildet die Grundlage für die individualisierte Therapie, die sich auf die Module „Initiative und Planung“, „Soziale Aktivitäten“, „Sprachliche Aktivitäten“, „Emotionale Beteiligung“ und „Emotionaler Ausdruck“ beziehen. Vorbereitend für diese Hauptphase der Therapie werden in den ersten Stunden ein bio-psycho-soziales Krankheitsmodell erarbeitet, die Behandlungskooperation unterstützt, die Belastungsbewältigung gefördert und der Umgang mit Krisen trainiert. Die einzelnen Module werden vorgestellt und an einem Fallbeispiel verdeutlicht.

International audience; Self-face recognition has been shown to be impaired in schizophrenia (SZ), according to studies using behavioral tasks implicating cognitive demands. Here, we employed an eye-tracking methodology, which is a relevant tool to understand impairments in self-face recognition deficits in SZ because it provides a natural, continuous and online record of face processing. Moreover, it allows collecting the most relevant and informative features each individual looks at during the self-face recognition. These advantages are especially relevant considering the fundamental role played by the patterns of visual exploration on face processing. Thus, this paper aims to investigate self-face recognition deficits in SZ using eye-tracking methodology. Visual scan paths were monitored in 20 patients with SZ and 20 healthy controls. Self, famous, and unknown faces were morphed in steps of 20%. Location, number, and duration of fixations on relevant areas were recorded with an eye-tracking system. Participants performed a passive exploration task (no specific instruction was provided), followed by an active decision making task (individuals were explicitly requested to recognize the different faces). Results showed that patients with SZ had fewer and longer fixations compared to controls. Nevertheless, both groups focused their attention on relevant facial features in a similar way. No significant difference was found between groups when participants were requested to recognize the faces (active task). In conclusion, using an eye tracking methodology and two tasks with low levels of cognitive demands, our results suggest that patients with SZ are able to: (1) explore faces and focus on relevant features of the face in a similar way as controls; and (2) recognize their own face.

In the context of a medication or therapy course, an intriguing question may arise after a few therapies: Should the treatment or therapy be continued? Even after several instances of therapy, there are not clear measures for a schizophrenia patient. Therefore, the decision is based on the expertise of the therapist or psychiatrist. Here, an innovative method was shown for evaluating responses of schizophrenia patients in a course of therapy and even different treatments. A parity decision task was proposed, where duration and mutual information of the different sounds were correlated with the electroencephalographic (EEG) measures of schizophrenia patients. The result was the design of a database system that is able to provide multiple-adapted comparison treatments in patients. Clinical test data recording was designed as well, which aims to be effective in creating a decision tool regarding the continuity of the therapy for a schizophrenia patient. No similar database design was found in the literature reviewed.