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

Simple schizophrenia is widely considered to be a controversial or even discredited entity. However, cases showing typical clinical features continue to be identified in surveys of schizophrenia patients. This article reports on nine patients who met proposed diagnostic criteria for simple schizophrenia. The patients all showed the classical features of social and occupational decline, as well as negative symptoms in the absence of clear-cut positive symptoms. A range of other symptoms, which were either nonspecific or fell short of psychotic phenomena, was also seen. Neuropsychological testing revealed evidence of general intellectual impairment plus deficits in executive function and memory. Computed tomography scans were normal or showed only minor abnormalities. All patients, however, showed abnormalities on single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), mainly affecting frontal and temporal regions. It is concluded that cases conforming to the original descriptions of simple schizophrenia continue to be seen and are still best understood as representing a form of schizophrenia.
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PMID:Simple schizophrenia revisited: a clinical, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging analysis of nine cases. 1088 45

1. The lenticula nuclei have been suggested to be the site of structural and functional abnormalities in schizophrenia. 2. Recently, several studies involving proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) showed that the ratio of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) to choline-containing compounds (Cho) was significantly reduced in the basal ganglia region in patients with schizophrenia. 3. Simple schizophrenia is characterized by social withdrawal and affective flattening, but not by prominent catatonic, hebephrenic or paranoid features. 4. We studied, using 1H MRS, the lenticula nuclei of 10 patients with simple schizophrenia, and 10 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. 5. No differences between the patients and the controls were found in any of the measured ratios, i.e. Cho/Cr, NAA/Cr and NAA/Cho. 6. Our results suggest the normal viability of neuronal cells, as found on quantification of NAA, Cr and Cho, in the lenticular nuclei of patients with simple schizophrenia. 7. The pathophysiology of simple schizophrenia may be different from those of other types of schizophrenia.
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PMID:Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of lenticular nuclei in simple schizophrenia. 1095 47

Studies of course, treatment response, biological correlates, and environmental risk factors have suggested that the deficit syndrome of schizophrenia defines a meaningful subgroup within schizophrenia. Probands from the Roscommon Family Study who met criteria for schizophrenia or simple schizophrenia were categorized into deficit (N=22) and nondeficit (N=111). Within schizophrenia, the lifetime prevalence of the deficit syndrome was 16.5%; the percentage of males was 91% compared to 63% in the nondeficit group. The first-degree relatives of deficit probands had a significantly greater social isolation than the relatives of nondeficit probands, despite significantly less severe dysphoria and psychotic-like symptoms. The risk of schizophrenia was 1.75 times greater in the families of deficit compared to nondeficit probands. There were no significant differences in the adjusted morbid risk for nonaffective psychosis, affective disorder, or alcoholism. These results provide further evidence that the deficit syndrome is a marker of a group of patients with clinical and neurobiological characteristics that distinguish them from the rest of schizophrenia. The deficit syndrome may be a useful phenotype in genetic linkage studies.
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PMID:Family characteristics of deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia in the Roscommon Family Study. 1097 73

The term simple schizophrenia was firstly used in the early twentieth century to designate a formal variety of schizophrenia. Without a precise definition the concept progressively looses its clinical significance as a subtype of schizophrenia and becomes paradoxically the representation of the pure fundamental disorder. The intersection of three clinical psychopathology categories psychoses, endogenity and process has historically determined the meaning of simple schizophrenia. The recent exclusion of the term simple schizophrenia from the diagnostic manuals and its taxonomical realignment as a personality disorder are the result of the nosological approach. The review of the concept of simple schizophrenia allow us to question the viability of a unique definition of clinical objects and to point out the configurating effect of theory on psychiatric taxonomy.
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PMID:[Simple schizophrenia: personality development or a condition?]. 1126 84

Negative symptoms in schizophrenia represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Diagnostically, they need to be differentiated from depression and treatment-related variables. The latter include akinesia, a part of drug-induced Parkinsonism, sedation, and effects of understimulation, as they have been reported in patients institutionalised for long periods of time. Other patients show negative symptoms as sequelae of positive symptoms: Commanding voices that tell patients to stay in the house or forbid them to speak to other people, or persecutory delusions may result in social withdrawal and alogia. All of the above, often summarised as secondary negative symptoms, have to be distinguished from primary negative symptoms, sometimes also referred to as the deficit state of schizophrenia. These are considered illness inherent problems and usually have an enduring, chronic course. They are often seen in the absence of positive symptoms, as in simple schizophrenia. The chronicity of the disorder, the lack of obviously disturbed and aberrant behavior and the fact that these patients tend to lead secluded lives lead to an underrepresentation of these patients in clinical psychiatry. Next to a description of clinical symptoms a review of means to aid differential diagnosis is provided. Negative symptoms call for sound differential diagnosis provided by a specialist in order to be able to provide optimal management to prevent the negative consequences of a chronic negative syndrome.
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PMID:Negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia with special reference to the primary versus secondary distinction. 1129 57

Schizophrenia simplex is a negative subtype of schizophrenia with a low prevalence but poor prognosis. We report on a 22-year-old male who responded well to atypical neuroleptics (clozapine and risperidone).
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PMID:[Successful treatment of simple schizophrenia with atypical neuroleptics (clozapine, risperidol)]. 1138 50

Simple schizophrenia is an uncommon disorder with unknown pathophysiology, and its position in the current diagnostic system is ambiguous. Brain-imaging studies may help to elucidate its pathophysiology. Five patients fulfilling both ICD-10 criteria for simple schizophrenia and DSM-IV criteria for simple deteriorative disorder underwent computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and single photon emission computed tomography. These scans were assessed individually by visual inspection as well as automatically by comparison with scans in normal controls or other schizophrenia subtype patients using voxel-based image analyses. Three of the five simple schizophrenia patients had findings of atrophy and reduced cerebral perfusion in the frontal areas. Voxel-based analyses also showed prefrontal grey matter deficits and hypoperfusion in simple schizophrenia patients compared with the controls. Although this study is limited by the small number of patients with simple schizophrenia, the results suggest that simple schizophrenia, or at least this subpopulation, may have rather homogeneous morphological and functional deficits in the prefrontal cortex. It is also suggested that simple schizophrenia may occupy an extreme position of the schizophrenic continuum where the prefrontal deficits and negative symptoms are most purely manifested.
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PMID:Prefrontal abnormalities in patients with simple schizophrenia: structural and functional brain-imaging studies in five cases. 1624 94

There are conflicting reports concerning the association of Toxoplasma gondii infection and schizophrenia in humans. Therefore, we determined such association in a Mexican population of Mestizo ethnicity. Through a case-control study design, 50 schizophrenic patients and 150 control subjects matched by gender, age, residence place, and ethnicity were examined with enzyme-linked immunoassays for the presence and levels of T. gondii IgG antibodies and for the presence of T. gondii IgM antibodies. Schizophrenic patients attended a public psychiatric hospital in Durango City, Mexico, and the control group consisted of individuals of the general population of the same city. Socio-demographic, clinical and behavioral characteristics from the study subjects were also obtained. Both the seroprevalence and the level of T.gondii IgG antibodies were higher in schizophrenic patients (10/50; 20%) than in control subjects (8/150; 5.3%) (OR=4.44; 95% CI: 1.49-13.37; P=0.003). The IgG T. gondii levels higher than 150 IU/ml were more frequently observed in patients than in controls (10% versus 2%, respectively; P=0.02). One (50%) of the two patients with recently diagnosed schizophrenia and none of the controls had T. gondii IgM antibodies (P=0.01). T. gondii seropositivity was significantly higher in patients with a history of cleaning cat excrement (P=0.005), and suffering from simple schizophrenia (ICD-10 classification: F20.6) (P=0.03) than patients without these characteristics. Toxoplasma seroprevalence was also significantly higher in patients with simple schizophrenia (F20.6) than in those with paranoid schizophrenia (F20.0) (P=0.02). This study provides elements to clarify the controversial information on the association of T. gondii infection and schizophrenia.
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PMID:Toxoplasma gondii infection and schizophrenia: a case control study in a low Toxoplasma seroprevalence Mexican population. 2129 26

Recent classification systems of schizophrenia consider the presence of psychotic features like certain forms of hallucinations and delusions as sine qua non of this disorder. Consequently, earlier categories like simple schizophrenia have been discarded from many diagnostic systems. However, there is a category of patients who present with gross deterioration in personality without ever experiencing hallucinations or delusions. Negative schizophrenia, a contemporary popular syndrome has again revived interest in this subgroup of patients. The authors present four cases diagnosed as simple schizophrenia and argue the case for retention of this subgroup of schizophrenia in the current nosological classification systems and conclude that simple schizophrenia of yesteryears has close resemblance with today's negative schizophrenia.
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PMID:Simple schizophrenia :patients in search of a diagnosis. 2189 69

Fetishistic transvestism is a disorder of sexual preference associated with fantasies and sexual urges to dress in opposite gender clothing as a means of arousal and as an adjunct to masturbation and coitus. The disorder has been reported in people with learning disabilities. The disorder has been reported in a young male with dull normal intelligence. Transvestism though has been described in schizophrenia and psychosis and fetishism has been described in the course of simple schizophrenia, there are no reports of fetishistic transvestism in a patient with mental retardation and psychosis. A case of fetishistic transvestism in a patient with mental retardation and psychosis with treatment and relevant review of literature is reported.
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PMID:Fetishistic transvestism in a patient with mental retardation and psychosis. 2486 Feb 26


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