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

Aggressive behavior is a common feature of schizophrenia and is associated with the presence of 'soft' neurological signs. Since early age of onset of schizophrenia has been found to be associated with the negative syndrome, which according to Crow (1982) is related to structural brain abnormalities, I predicted that early age of onset may be a biological risk factor for aggressive behavior in the disease. To test this hypothesis, I investigated in 52 chronic institutionalized schizophrenic patients (mean age = 32.8 years; SD = 8.0), the association between age of onset of the disease and the severity of belligerent behavior. The age of onset was judged from the patient's histories as the age at which florid symptoms first emerged. Patients with early onset schizophrenia had a significantly higher belligerent score compared to those with later-onset schizophrenia (p < .05). These findings support the hypothesis of an association between early age of onset of schizophrenia and the risk of aggressive behavior and suggest, furthermore, that schizophrenic symptoms which emerge early may predict a higher risk of aggressive behavior. Furthermore, this study suggest that the neurochemical mechanisms which underlie the early emergence of symptoms may also predispose to aggressive behavior in schizophrenia. Specifically, since aggressive behavior has been linked to impairment of serotonergic (5-HT) functions, I propose that the timing of onset of schizophrenia may be partly associated with dysregulation of the 5-HT system. In a second study, I investigated whether schizophrenic patients with aggressive (suicide) behavior are characterized by more extensive brain damage and hence greater degree of cerebral atrophy on CT scan. The study, which involved 26 schizophrenic patients (mean age: 31.3 years; SD = 6.8), revealed that patients with aggressive behavior had a significantly greater degree of parieto-occipital atrophy on CT scan (p < .05). In contrast, ventricular size and prefrontal cortical atrophy did not distinguish aggressive from nonaggressive patients. These findings suggest that cortical atrophy may be a neuroradiological marker of aggressive behavior in schizophrenia.
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PMID:Aggressive behavior in schizophrenia: relationship to age of onset and cortical atrophy. 806 5

A total of 120 children and adolescents with the diagnosis of schizophrenia were hospitalized at the psychiatric clinic in Prague in 1946-1975. Of the 120 patients (58% males and 42% females) 12.5%, i.e. 15 died by 1988. The results are consistent with data in the literature which pertain to pregnancy, family background, relations with people already before the disease developed, social maladaptation, more frequent loss of a parent, depressive symptoms at the onset of the disease, changes on the EEG and neurological examination. The results differ as regards--1. A much greater hereditary load in grade II relatives 45% (19% psychoses, 14% suicides, 12% alcoholism). 2. A greater hereditary load in grade I relatives-parents and siblings (16% psychoses and suicides, 5% alcoholism, 12% personality disorders). 3. The authors detected more psychoses among grade I relatives 14% (11% schizophrenia, 3% manic-depressive psychosis). The hereditary load in the narrower sense of the word in grade I relatives is significantly elevated 16% (14.5% psychoses, 1.5% suicides). Based on the results pertaining to the 15-42-year catamnestic investigation of education, occupation, attempts to work, a certain socialization, attacks and remissions, the authors elaborated the prognosis. The author's prognosis of early onset schizophrenia: 10% complete cure, 17% remission alternating with relapses, 73% chronic patients (20% are capable of a certain socialization; in 53% permanent care by another person is necessary-this applies to chronic patients with a defect-deterioratio and postpsychotic psychopathization.
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PMID:[Early onset schizophrenia (case report)]. 826 20

In a sample from the unselected, general population Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, 11017 individuals alive at the age of 16 years were studied until the age of 27. The cumulative incidence of early onset schizophrenia until 23 years was higher (1.14%; 9/792) among young persons from the highest social class or class I (determined according to father's occupation) than among children from lower social classes (0.47%; 48/10225), the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05). The incidence of schizophrenia in the highest social class was higher than expected among girls, firstborns, children of young mothers under 30 and urban residents (p < 0.05) compared with lower social classes. When cases from the highest and other social classes were compared, there was no clear difference in background factors or clinical course. Four alcoholics, one of them also schizophrenic, were found among nine social class I fathers. The results suggest that in some families in Northern Finland, a father's professional advancement, often linked to mental disorder, may be one determinant of an increased risk of schizophrenia in the child.
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PMID:Is a child's risk of early onset schizophrenia increased in the highest social class? 907 3

To explore the role of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) in schizophrenia, we investigated ApoE phenotypes in a group of patients with schizophrenia. Serum samples were obtained from 122 schizophrenic patients and 126 controls in Japan and were examined using isoelectric focusing/immunoblotting. This experiment showed a trend toward a decreased frequency of ApoE epsilon4 in schizophrenia and no link between ApoE epsilon4 and familial schizophrenia or early onset schizophrenia. On the other hand, a decreased frequency of ApoE epsilon2 in early onset schizophrenia was detected. These results suggest that ApoE epsilon2 protects against early onset schizophrenia, and that ApoE epsilon4 is not involved in the development of schizophrenia in Japanese.
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PMID:Apolipoprotein E epsilon2 allele and early onset schizophrenia. 928 Jan 66

1. The entorhinal cortex (EC), part of the limbic temporal lobe, is a critical link between the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, and is considered one of the most important cortical "association" areas. Several postmortem abnormalities in the EC have been reported. 2. Here, the authors report the first in vivo study of the volume of the EC in schizophrenia using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. 3. The authors compared 57 schizophrenic patients and 35 healthy controls. No overall difference in the mean EC volume was found between controls and schizophrenic patients, but there was a strong trend (p = .078) for the schizophrenic females to have a large mean EC than control females and for the early onset schizophrenia group to have a smaller (EC (p = .07) than late onset schizophrenia subjects. 4. The implications of the findings are discussed.
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PMID:The volume of the entorhinal cortex in schizophrenia: a controlled MRI study. 946 94

Auditory P300 amplitude reductions are well-established in young adults with schizophrenia. Little is known, however, regarding the P300 in older schizophrenia patients, especially those with late onset. We studied 28 middle-aged and elderly (mean age = 62.7 years) patients [14 with early onset schizophrenia (EOS) and 14 with late onset schizophrenia (LOS)] and 14 normal comparison (NC) participants using an auditory oddball paradigm. Event-related potentials were recorded from 15 scalp electrodes and six non-scalp sites. There were no significant differences between EOS and LOS groups in neuroleptic dosage, symptom severity, reaction times, target-detection accuracy, or N100 and N200 ERP measures. The EOS, but not the LOS, group had significantly smaller auditory oddball P300 amplitudes than the NC group. Twelve of the 14 LOS patients had P300 amplitudes in the normal range. Smaller P300 amplitudes were associated with earlier age of onset (r = 0.48), longer duration of illness (r = -0.49) and more severe alogia (r = -0.50). We conclude that P300 abnormalities in schizophrenia may be a marker for a disease subtype with early onset and more severe information-processing deficits.
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PMID:Relationship between auditory P300 amplitude and age of onset of schizophrenia in older patients. 970 71

The FDA approval for clozapine in 1990 under several hematologic surveillance conditions has reactualized the debate on the use of atypical neuroleptics for adults with schizophrenia. The use of conventional neuroleptics in children and adolescents has always been a subject of controversy due to their side effects and the absence of controlled studies. The pharmacological action of clozapine and risperidone is mainly on D2 and 5HT. Since 1992 several studies concerning children and adolescents show the efficiency and the tolerance of the clozapine and risperidone in various disorders, especially in very early onset schizophrenia (VEOS). Controlled trials are necessary to confirm the data obtained in open studies.
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PMID:[Atypical neuroleptics in the child and adolescent]. 980 43

A degree of ventricular enlargement, together with a reduction of total cortical mass and loss of asymmetry is reported in schizophrenia, but the meaning is obscure. These changes may reflect an anomaly of brain development. Brain structure was assessed on a 1.5-Tesla MRI scan in a series of 29 adolescents at the time of a first episode of schizophrenia and compared with 15 adolescents with other serious psychiatric disturbance (mostly psychotic) and 20 normal adolescent controls. The age at scan ranged between 13 and 20 years. In the adolescents with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, total brain volume increased with age in a way that differed significantly (p=0.007) from that seen in patients with other psychiatric disturbance and normal controls. Thus, brain growth, as assessed by this index, had reached a plateau in the control group by the age of 13 years, but this was not true of patients with schizophrenia. The measure that most clearly distinguished the groups (p<0.001 after co-varying for height and sex) was the volume of the left lateral ventricle the ventricle was significantly larger in patients with schizophrenic illness, and ventricular size increased with age to a greater extent in the patient group, although not significantly so, than in normal controls. Thus, aspects of brain growth are delayed in patients with early onset schizophrenia, and the greatest severity of illness is reflected in a component of growth that is lateralized to the dominant hemisphere. Individuals who develop serious psychiatric illness, including schizophrenia, represent a fraction of the population in whom a component of the relative development of the cerebral hemispheres occurs late.
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PMID:Is the course of brain development in schizophrenia delayed? Evidence from onsets in adolescence. 1054 Oct 1

Childhood-onset schizophrenia (defined by an onset of psychosis by age 12) is a rare and severe form of the disorder that is clinically and neurobiologically continuous with the adult-onset disorder. There is growing evidence for more salient risk or etiologic factors, particularly familial, in this possibly more homogeneous patient population. For the 49 patients with very early onset schizophrenia studied to date at the National Institute of Mental Health, there were more severe premorbid neuro-developmental abnormalities, a higher rate of cytogenetic anomalies, and a seemingly higher rate of familial schizophrenia and spectrum disorders than later onset cases. There was no evidence for increased obstetric complications or environmental stress. These data, while preliminary, suggest that a very early age of onset of schizophrenia may be secondary to greater familial vulnerability. Consequently, genetic studies of these patients may be particularly informative and may provide important etiologic information.
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PMID:Childhood-onset schizophrenia: rare but worth studying. 1057 56

Childhood-onset schizophrenia (with an onset of psychosis by age 12) is a rare and severe form of the disorder which is clinically and neurobiologically continuous with the adult-onset disorder. Very early onset diseases provide an opportunity to look for more salient or striking risk or etiologic factors in a possibly more homogenous patient population. For the 47 patients with very early onset schizophrenia studied to date, there were more severe premorbid neurodevelopmental abnormalities, more cytogenetic anomalies, and potentially greater family histories of schizophrenia and associated spectrum disorders than later onset cases. There was no evidence for relatively increased obstetrical complications or environmental stress. These data, while preliminary, suggest a very early age of onset of schizophrenia may be secondary to greater genetic vulnerability. It is anticipated that future genetic studies of these patients may provide important etiologic information.
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PMID:Lessons from childhood-onset schizophrenia. 1071 43


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