Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0036341 (schizophrenia)
 60,220 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This study examined timeliness, access, and intensity of outpatient medical service use in a national sample of veterans with comorbid medical disorders discharged from Veterans Affairs (VA) psychiatric units (N = 44,533). The factors that predicted decreased use of medical services included diagnosis of schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse. The factors associated with increased use of medical services included proximity to a VA outpatient clinic, receipt of VA compensation payments, discharge from a facility with greater resources devoted to medical-surgical care, and prompt outpatient mental health follow-up. Better integration of medical and psychiatric services may help improve access to medical care for the severely mentally ill.
 ...
PMID:Use of medical services by veterans with mental disorders. 931 14

This review assesses the usefulness of beta-blockers in the treatment of aggression and describes the parameters for their clinical use. A Medline search using the terms "beta-blockers," "aggression," "propranolol," and "brain injury" identified relevant journal articles published in English between 1977 and 1993. Open, prospective and double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, as well as case reports, were included. Beta-blockers appear to be effective in decreasing the frequency and intensity of aggressive outbursts associated with a wide variety of conditions, such as dementias, attention-deficit disorder, personality disorders, Korsakoff's psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, profound mental retardation, autism, and brain injury. A general discussion attempts to resolve some of the issues surrounding the possible mechanisms of beta-blocker effects, reviews the anatomic and neurochemical bases of aggression, and explores implications of the clinical use of beta-blockers.
 ...
PMID:Beta-blockers and the treatment of aggression. 938 11

The self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders derives primarily from clinical observations of patients with substance use disorders. Individuals discover that the specific actions or effects of each class of drugs relieve or change a range of painful affect states. Self-medication factors occur in a context of self-regulation vulnerabilities--primarily difficulties in regulating affects, self-esteem, relationships, and self-care. Persons with substance use disorders suffer in the extreme with their feelings, either being overwhelmed with painful affects or seeming not to feel their emotions at all. Substances of abuse help such individuals to relieve painful affects or to experience or control emotions when they are absent or confusing. Diagnostic studies provide evidence that variously supports and fails to support a self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders. The cause-consequence controversy involving psychopathology and substance use/abuse is reviewed and critiqued. In contrast, clinical observations and empirical studies that focus on painful affects and subjective states of distress more consistently suggest that such states of suffering are important psychological determinants in using, becoming dependent upon, and relapsing to addictive substances. Subjective states of distress and suffering involved in motives to self-medicate with substances of abuse are considered with respect to nicotine dependence and to schizophrenia and posttraumatic stress disorder comorbid with a substance use disorder.
 ...
PMID:The self-medication hypothesis of substance use disorders: a reconsideration and recent applications. 938 6

Functional cerebral guiding and integrating systems may be revealed by analyzing the covariation of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to measure absolute rCBF in 14 volunteers with specific phobia and 6 nonphobic controls, when exposed to videos containing phobia-relevant and neutral scenes. A fear reaction and increased covariation between absolute rCBFs was observed during phobia-relevant as compared to neutral stimulation in phobics only. In controls fear was not elicited and rCBF covariation was not influenced by stimulus condition, being similar to the pattern observed in phobics during neutral stimulation. We suggest the rCBF correlative pattern during phobic fear to reflect fear-related activation of distinct neuronal pathways that involves the amygdala, the thalamus, and the striatum. We theorize that these pathways are activated also by uncontrolled emotions in diverse conditions, like posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:Evidence of altered cerebral blood-flow relationships in acute phobia. 939 31

The organization of components of the reticular activating system and their role in sleep-wake mechanisms and arousal are described. A functional model is proposed based on known neuroanatomical and neurophysiological findings. The involvement of these elements of the reticular activating system in various neurological and psychiatric disorders is discussed. A series of hypotheses are advanced to account for the role of these nuclei in such diverse disorders as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, REM behavior disorder, Parkinson's disease and narcolepsy. This line of reasoning suggests that, when neurological or psychiatric disorders manifest symptoms related to arousal and sleep-wake control, disturbances of elements of the reticular activating system must be considered responsible.
 ...
PMID:Disorders of the reticular activating system. 942 2

A series of 33 patients with combined (injurious) sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (viz. "parasomnia overlap disorder") was gathered over an 8-year period. Patients underwent clinical and polysomnographic evaluations. Mean age was 34 +/- 14 (SD) years; mean age of parasomnia onset was 15 +/- 16 years (range 1-66); 70% (n = 23) were males. An idiopathic subgroup (n = 22) had a significantly earlier mean age of parasomnia onset (9 +/- 7 years) than a symptomatic subgroup (n = 11) (27 +/- 23 years, p = 0.002), whose parasomnia began with either of the following: neurologic disorders, n = 6 [congenital Mobius syndrome, narcolepsy, multiple sclerosis, brain tumor (and treatment), brain trauma, indeterminate disorder (exaggerated startle response/atypical cataplexy)]; nocturnal paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, n = 1; posttraumatic stress disorder/major depression, n = 1; chronic ethanol/amphetamine abuse and withdrawal, n = 1; or mixed disorders (schizophrenia, brain trauma, substance abuse), n = 2. The rate of DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 3rd edition, revised) Axis 1 psychiatric disorders was not elevated; group scores on various psychometric tests were not elevated. Forty-five percent (n = 15) had previously received psychologic or psychiatric therapy for their parasomnia, without benefit. Treatment outcome was available for n = 20 patients; 90% (n = 18) had substantial parasomnia control with bedtime clonazepam (n = 13), alprazolam and/or carbamazepine (n = 4), or self-hypnosis (n = 1). Thus, "parasomnia overlap disorder" is a treatable condition that emerges in various clinical settings and can be understood within the context of current knowledge on parasomnias and motor control/dyscontrol during sleep.
 ...
PMID:A parasomnia overlap disorder involving sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and REM sleep behavior disorder in 33 polysomnographically confirmed cases. 945 62

Studies on animal models of stress, anxiety, aggression, and sensorimotor gating have linked specific monoamine neurotransmitter abnormalities to the cognitive and behavioral disturbances associated with many affective neuropsychiatric disorders. Although alpha2-adrenoceptors (alpha2-ARs) have been suggested to have a modulatory role in these disorders, the specific roles of each alpha2-AR subtype (alpha2A, alpha2B, and alpha2C) are largely unknown. The restricted availability of relevant animal models and the lack of subtype-selective alpha2-AR drugs have precluded detailed studies in this area. Therefore, transgenic mice were used to study the possible role of the alpha2C-AR subtype in two well established behavioral paradigms: prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex and isolation-induced aggression. The alpha2C-AR-altered mice appear grossly normal, but subtle changes have been observed in their brain dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) metabolism. In this study, the mice with targeted inactivation of the gene encoding alpha2C-ARs (alpha2C-KO) had enhanced startle responses, diminished PPI, and shortened attack latency in the isolation-aggression test, whereas tissue-specific overexpression of alpha2C-ARs (alpha2C-OE) was associated with opposite effects. Correlation analyses suggested that both the magnitude of the startle response and its relative PPI (PPI%) were modulated by the mutations. In addition, the differences in PPI, observed between drug-naive alpha2C-OE mice and their wild-type controls, were abolished by treatment with a subtype nonselective alpha2-agonist and antagonist. Thus, drugs acting via alpha2C-ARs might have therapeutic value in disorders associated with enhanced startle responses and sensorimotor gating deficits, such as schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug withdrawal.
 ...
PMID:Adrenergic alpha2C-receptors modulate the acoustic startle reflex, prepulse inhibition, and aggression in mice. 952 20

The study of excitatory amino acids (EAAs) has recently resulted in new and fundamental concepts in neuroscience. This progress has led to a growing awareness of the crucial role that brain EAAs systems play in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, presently the most well understood subtype of EAAs receptors, has been implicated in crucial physiological processes such as synaptogenesis, learning and memory. Dysfunctions of NMDA receptors seem to play a crucial role in the neurobiology of disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and ischemic stroke. This paper is a review of emerging data indicating that alterations of NMDA receptor function may be pivotal to the pathophysiology of four common psychiatric syndromes: schizophrenia, major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and alcoholism. Special emphasis is placed on the current state of development of pharmacological strategies aiming at the modulation of NMDA receptor-mediated neurotransmission in these disorders.
 ...
PMID:The role of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated neurotransmission in the pathophysiology and therapeutics of psychiatric syndromes. 961 93

This research assessed the lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 275 patients with severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) receiving public mental health services in Concord and Manchester, New Hampshire, and Baltimore, Maryland. Lifetime exposure to traumatic events was high, with 98% of the sample reporting exposure to at least 1 traumatic event. The rate of PTSD in our sample was 43%, but only 3 of 119 patients with PTSD (2%) had this diagnosis in their charts. PTSD was predicted most strongly by the number of different types of trauma, followed by childhood sexual abuse. The findings suggest that PTSD is a common comorbid disorder in severe mental illness that is frequently overlooked in mental health settings.
 ...
PMID:Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in severe mental illness. 964 87

In a sample of 105 community-care patients suffering from schizophrenia, the relationship between reports of involuntary admission in the past, current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and other aspects of psychopathology was examined. PTSD symptoms were obtained on the PTSD interview, and psychopathology was rated on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and on the Present State Examination (PSE). Fifty-seven percent of the patients reported they had experienced involuntary admissions in the past. The degree of PTSD symptoms was high--51% fulfilled the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis. PTSD symptoms were not correlated with reports of involuntary admissions. They were, however, significantly correlated with the BPRS subscale anxiety/depression, and with PSE subscores for specific and nonspecific neurotic syndromes. Because of an overlap of symptom scores, a diagnosis of PTSD according to DSM criteria appears to be very difficult in schizophrenia patients.
 ...
PMID:Involuntary admission and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in schizophrenia patients. 967 7


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>