To describe the premorbid state of early onset schizophrenia (EOS).

Twenty-three adolescents with EOS were compared to a healthy control group (CG) and to a group of anorexic patients (AG). The premorbid state was studied through the CBCL and the data obtained were analyzed using ANOVA’s and t-test.

During the premorbid period EOS showed significantly higher scores on all scales, relative to the CG, and only on some scales (social, thought and attention problems, and school competencies) relative to the AG.

Children who develop first episode psychosis during adolescence differ from children with normal development. The premorbid internalizing state is common to AG but social competencies and school problems are the most affected areas in EOS when compared to the AG. It is hypothesized that both EOS and AG can be considered as the expression of a previous vulnerability.

This study explores psychopathological aspects of acute and transient psychotic disorders (ATPD), a diagnostic category introduced with ICD-10, to elucidate its relationship with schizophrenia and schizoaffective psychoses.

We recruited all consecutive inpatients fulfilling the ICD-10 criteria of ATPD (F23) during a 5-year period as well as control groups with “positive” schizophrenia (PS) and bipolar schizoaffective disorder (BSAD) matched for gender and age at index episode. For the evaluation of psychopathological parameters during index episode a standardized symptom list was used. Prepsychotic (prodromal) symptoms were also assessed.

During the prepsychotic period few differences between the groups were detected. The most important difference between ATPD and the other two other psychotic disorders regarding phenomenology of the full-blown episodes was a higher frequency of “rapidly changing delusional topics”, “rapidly changing mood” and anxiety in ATPD.

ATPD show a characteristic psychopathological picture consistent with earlier concepts such as cycloid psychoses and bouffée délirante. Nevertheless, psychopathology alone is not enough to establish ATPD as an independent nosological entity.

Patients with schizophrenia show a significantly higher frequency of hyperbilirubinemia the patients suffering from other psychiatric disorders and the general healthy population. The objective of the current study was to determine whether patients with schizophrenia-associated idiopathic unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia (Gilbert's syndrome, GS) have specific changes in signal intensities on fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance (MR) images.

Axial 5-mm-thick FLAIR MR images from schizophrenia patients with GS (n = 18) and schizophrenia patients without GS (n = 18), all diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria, were compared with age- and sex-matched non-psychiatric controls (n = 18). Signal intensities in the hippocampus, amygdala, caudate, putamen, thalamus, cingulate gyrus, and insula were graded relative to cortical signal intensity in the frontal lobe.

Compared to both schizophrenia patients without GS and normal controls, the schizophrenia patients with GS showed significantly increased signal intensities in almost all regions studied.

Patients with schizophrenia-associated GS have specific changes of signal intensities on FLAIR MR images, suggesting that schizophrenia with GS produces changes in the fronto-temporal cortex, limbic system, and basal ganglia.

Excessive cortical cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been acknowledged as a possible marker of a gray matter loss. This excess in schizophrenia is found predominantly in the prefrontal and temporal regions. We hypothesized that the poorer global outcome and treatment response in males with schizophrenia are related to a greater cortical volume loss as compared to females.

In order to test this hypothesis we have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the cortical (prefrontal, temporal, and hemispheric) CSF values in a group of 85 patients with schizophrenia, of whom 56 were males and 29, females. We calculated the residual values of CSF in the patients based on the data pertaining to 45 control subjects and linear regression, from which the normal effects of age and intracranial volume were discounted. These residual scores constitute a quantitative measurement of the excess of CSF due to the disease.

Males, but not females, presented a trend-level significant excess of left prefrontal CSF. The prefrontal and temporal residual values were significantly associated with illness duration in males, but not in females.

These results conform to the worse outcome and the higher severity of structural abnormalities generally found in schizophrenia in male subjects.

Our data support the hypothesis of accelerated prefrontal cortical loss in males, but not in females with schizophrenia.

Twenty-one schizophrenic patients (DSM-IV), 31 first-degree relatives of those patients without schizophrenic spectrum disorders, and two groups of healthy controls matched by age and sex were included. Three oculomotor tasks (smooth pursuit, reflexive saccades and antisaccades) were used.

Patients had a lower averaged gain (P = 0.035) during smooth pursuit than controls, made less correct visually guided saccades (P < 0.001) and more antisaccades errors (P = 0.002) than controls. In contrast, none of the comparison between the relatives and their controls was significant.

Schizophrenic patients were impaired on smooth pursuit and antisaccade paradigms. None of these impairments was, however, observed in their first-degree relatives. Our results suggest that the eye movement parameters tested could not be considered as vulnerability markers for schizophrenia.

To test the hypothesis that recent onset psychotic patients who use cannabis will have psychotic symptoms that are more severe and more persistent than those who do not use cannabis.

We carried out a 4-year follow-up study of a cohort of 119 patients with recent onset of psychosis. The patients were divided into four groups according to duration of cannabis use, taking index admission and follow-up as reference points.

Those subjects who persisted in the use of cannabis had more positive (but not negative) symptoms and a more continuous illness at follow-up.

The main limitations of the study were: the relatively small sample size, and that the excess of male subjects and the presence of cannabis induced psychosis could have a confusing impact on the interpretation of the results.

It is possible that psychotic patients who use cannabis are at a greater risk of a more continuous illness with more positive symptoms than those who do not.