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Query: UMLS:C0036341 (schizophrenia)
 60,220 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Coined by Sifneos in 1972, alexithymia refers to a relative narrowing in emotional functioning, an inability to find appropriate words to describe their emotions, and a poverty of fantasy life. Although initially described in the context of psychosomatic illness, alexithymic characteristics may be observed in patients with a wide range of medical and psychiatric disorders: Parkinson disease, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and eating disorders. Flattening of affect and poverty of speech, major negative symptoms, referred to chronic schizophrenia: there is a lack of outward display of emotions. Accordingly, some disturbances of alexithymia's scores would be expected in schizophrenic patients. The aims of this study were: first to establish some correlations between alexithymia and some symptoms of schizophrenia, and second to estimate the intensity of alexithymia in negative versus positive and undifferentiated schizophrenic patients. Twenty-nine patients, meeting DSM III-R criteria for schizophrenia have been studied. All of them treated by neuroleptics, were in a stable clinical status for at least one month. The patients were assessed by one trained psychiatrist (IN) using six rating scales: Beth Israel Questionnaire (BIQ) for alexithymia, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Depressive Retardation Rating Scale (DRRS), Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS), and finally, Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale (ESRS). In the total sample, the mean score of BIQ was 4.79 +/- 1.68 (mean +/- SD). Significant correlations were found between alexithymia and blunted affect (r = 0.376; p < 0.05), poverty of speech (r = 0.471; p < 0.01), anxiety (r = 0.370; p < 0.05), total score of DRRS (r = 0.370; p < 0.05), and motor subscore of DRRS (r = 0.429; p < 0.05). The patients with negative symptoms of schizophrenia had significantly higher total scores in alexithymia (p < 0.05), blunted affect (p < 0.0001), poverty of speech (p < 0.0001), anxiety (p < 0.05), total score of DRRS (p = 0.01) and his motor subscore (p < 0.0001) as compared to positive and undifferentiated subtypes. In our study, alexithymia seems to be correlated with negative and depressive symptoms in negative forms of schizophrenia, regardless of medication status.
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PMID:[Negative symptoms, depression, anxiety and alexithymia in DSM III-R schizophrenic patients]. 941 92

Coined by Sifneos in 1972, alexithymia refers to a relative narrowing in emotional functioning, an inability to find appropriate words to describe their emotions and, a poverty of fantasy life. Although initially described in the context of psychosomatic illness, alexithymic characteristics may be observed in patients with a wide range of medical and psychiatric disorders: Parkinson disease, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and eating disorders. Flattening of affect and poverty of speech, major negative symptoms, referred to chronic schizophrenia: there is a lack of outward display of emotion. Accordingly, some disturbances of alexithymia's scores would be expected in schizophrenic patients. The purpose of this study was to estimate and compare the prevalence of alexithymia in deficit and non-deficit schizophrenia. The term "deficit symptoms" may be used as Carpenter, to refer specifically to those negative symptoms that are not considered secondary. The influence of patients' symptoms has also been studied on alexithymia scores: negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, anhedonia and effects of neuroleptics. Twenty-five patients, meeting DSM III-R criteria for schizophrenia have been studied. All of them treated by neuroleptics, were in a stable clinical status for at least one month. The patients have been categorized into deficit (n = 12) and non-deficit (n = 13) subgroups by one trained psychiatrist (SD), using the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome. The subjects have been assessed by the same rater (IN), blind to deficit status, using six rating scales: Beth Israel Questionnaire (BIQ) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) for alexithymia, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS), and finally, Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale (ESRS). Using TAS, alexithymic characteristics were more prevalent in the deficit subgroup as compared to non-deficit subgroup (83% versus 30.76%; p < 0.01). Significant correlations were observed in the non-deficit subgroup between: TAS and anxiety (r = 0.743; p < 0.01), TAS and depression (r = 0.568; p < 0.05), BIQ and blunted affect (r = 0.636; p < 0.02), BIQ and poverty of speech (r = 0.629; p < 0.02). These correlations were not significant in the deficit group of patients. Alexithymia in schizophrenic patients seems to be a trait characteristic in deficit patients, and a state related to many symptoms, such as flattening of affect, poverty of speech, depression and anxiety in nondeficit patients.
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PMID:[Alexithymia in negative symptom and non-negative symptom schizophrenia]. 945 28

The Facial Discrimination Task (FDT) (Erwin, R.J., Gur, R.C., Gur, R. E., Skolnick, B., Mawhinney-Hee, M., Smailis, J., 1992. Facial emotion discrimination: I. Task construction and behavioural findings in normal participants. Psychiatry Research 42, 231-240.) consists of standardized black-and-white photographs of Caucasian actors exhibiting happy, sad, and neutral faces. Originally designed for brain-imaging research in emotion recognition in schizophrenia and major depression, it has since been successfully employed in emotion recognition studies on mental retardation and psychosomatic disorders. This article presents new basic psychometric data from three studies with a total of 401 college undergraduates. Content validity, item reliability (test-retest, item-total correlation, item difficulty) and test reliability (internal consistency) were established. Happy and sad items were easier to agree upon than neutral ones. In general, happy items had the highest validity, highest test-retest reliability, and highest item-total correlations. Recognition errors of neutral items were biased toward negative affect. Advantages and limitations of the FDT for clinical research applications are discussed.
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PMID:Reliability and validity studies of the Facial Discrimination Task for emotion research. 1096 2

Whether the Psychopathology Inventory for Mentally Retarded Adults (PIMRA) could detect specific psychopathological disorders was investigated in 652 subjects with different levels of mental retardation living in the community or in residential facilities. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out to check the scale organization of PIMRA. The Anxiety, Adjustment Disorder, Somatoform Disorder, and Soundness Scales were confirmed by 4 corresponding factors; the Psychosexual Disorder Scale was replaced by a factor specific to gender identity problems, and the Schizophrenia Scale by two factors concerning isolation and bizarre behaviors, respectively. The items of the Depression Scale were distributed over the three factors concerning anxiety, adjustment, and psychosomatic disorders, while the items of the Personality Disorder Scale were scattered over almost all the factors. Moreover, 55 subjects with anxiety disorders and 49 with depression were compared to 50 control subjects of the same age, intelligence level, and gender ratio but without dual diagnosis and obtained significantly higher factorial scores both on the overall scale and on the factors specifically related to their disorders. PIMRA has been found to show good construct validity. These results could be considered particularly valid as they were obtained from a large sample comprising different levels of mental retardation and thus showing all possible psychopathological behaviors.
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PMID:The psychopathology inventory for mentally retarded adults: factor structure and comparisons between subjects with or without dual diagnosis. 1098 85

Nicotine acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia because the prevalence of smoking among schizophrenic patients is extraordinarily high, and nicotine has been demonstrated to improve some psychophysiological dysfunction in schizophrenics. In addition, recent studies have suggested linkage of the alpha(7) nAChR gene region in families of schizophrenics. In a population-based association study, we tested the hypothesis that the allelic variant, with a 2-bp deletion, of the human alpha(7) nAChR gene confers susceptibility to schizophrenic disorders. We genotyped alpha(7) nAChR in 146 patients with schizophrenic disorders and 151 controls. The results showed no significant difference in genotype or allele frequencies between schizophrenic patients and control subjects. This suggests that alpha(7) nAChR 2-bp deletion plays no major role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenic disorders. Other nAChR variants in schizophrenic disorders may need further investigation.
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PMID:Association study of a nicotinic receptor variant with schizophrenic disorders. 1115 Aug 93

The construct of expressed emotion is regarded as one of the most important predictors of the course of schizophrenia and has also proven to be a predictor of the course of depressive disorders, psychosomatic disorders and physical illness. Despite its clinical significance, the utility of the EE-construct has been limited since measurement by interview is time-consuming, and to date only applicable to psychotic illness. Questionnaires as a practicable alternative to the structured interview are also mostly applicable solely to psychotic disorders. One exception is the Family Emotional Involvement and Criticism Scale (FEICS, Shields et al.). This questionnaire allows a general assessment of EE and thus a practical application of EE to the general area of family research. In a sample of n = 202 patients, the German version of this instrument proved to be reliable in our research. The two-factor structure of the original American version was replicated. We found good correlation between the measured factors, and clinical and other diagnostic markers particular to family pathology. This questionnaire is therefore a brief, reliable and valid instrument for measuring EE in many disorders.
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PMID:[The family emotional involvement and criticism scale]. 1153 84

An analysis of comorbidity of psychiatric and dermatological pathology in historical, epidemiological and clinical aspects is presented. Psychocutaneous disorders (delusional parasitosis, hypochondria circumscripta, obsessive-compulsive disorders with self-mutilations, pathomimia) play a central role in systematics elaborated in the present study. The authors suggest that delusional parasitosis is a subtype of paranoiac psychosis (paranoia, paranoiac schizophrenia). Psychiatric disorders triggered by dermatological pathology were specified as nosogenous reactions, depressive reactions with sociophobia, pathologic personality development (paranoiac, sensitive, hypochondriac). Atopic dermatitis, eczema, urticaria, psoriasis, herpes simplex, alopecia areata, rosacea, etc, are regarded among dermatological psychosomatic disorders with psychogenic manifestation/exacerbation.
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PMID:[Psychodermatology: current state of the problem]. 1558 Oct 30

Traumatic events and their consequences are often hidden or minimised by patients for reasons linked to the post-traumatic stress disorder itself (inexpressibility, shame, depressive thoughts, fear of stigmatisation, etc.). Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains the most widely known disorder, chronic post-traumatic psychiatric disorders are many and varied. After a trauma, the practitioner has to check for the different clinical forms of post-traumatic psychological consequences: PTSD is not the only diagnosis. Based on our own clinical experience compared to the international literature, we think necessary to build a didactic classification describing chronic post-traumatic symptoms and syndromes. Post traumatic depressions and bereavement lead to high risk of suicidal crisis and self-harm behaviours. Re-experiencing are felt with anxiety, hyper arousal increases anxious reactivity, and avoidance strategies increase anticipatory anxiety, indicating post-traumatic anxiety disorders (agoraphobia, specific phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, separation anxiety, social phobia). Characterising an often-severe clinical picture, the co-occurrence of post-traumatic and chronic psychotic symptoms is not unusual (post-traumatic schizophrenia, post-traumatic depression with mood-congruent psychotic features, non-schizophrenic post-traumatic psychotic disorder, and bipolar reaction to trauma). A physical injury occurring at the same time as a traumatic exposure increases the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder later which, in turn, afflicts the subjective perception of the physical health (development of somatoform and psychosomatic disorders, comorbidity with a post-concussion syndrome). The trauma may cause a rupture in the biography of a person, also in his/her internal physiological functioning as in his/her social activities (impacts of instinctive functions and behaviours, personality changes, and adjustment difficulties on professional and personal life). Although a nomenclature is necessary for semiological descriptions, a thorough analysis of the patient's general psychological functioning must also be conducted.
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PMID:Post-traumatic psychiatric disorders: PTSD is not the only diagnosis. 2958 Sep 6


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