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)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and side effects of zuclopenthixol acetate compared with haloperidol in the management of the acutely disturbed schizophrenic patient. Suitable subjects diagnosed as having schizophreniform disorder or acute exacerbation of schizophrenia admitted to the psychiatric wards Hospital Kuala Lumpur were randomised to receive either zuclopenthixol acetate or haloperidol. They were rated blind for three consecutive days using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and UKU Side Effects Scale. Apart from repeat injections of the same medication, no other anti-psychotic was given for the duration of the study. 50 subjects entered the study of which 44 completed. 23 were given zuclopenthixol acetate and 21 haloperidol. Both groups significantly reduced BPRS and CGI scores on all 3 days compared to the initial rating (p < 0.001). There was however no difference between the zuclopenthixol acetate and haloperidol group scores on all days (p > 0.05). More subjects on haloperidol than zuclopenthixol required more than 1 injection during the study. Both groups had minimal side effects. Zuclopenthixol acetate was effective in the management of the acutely disturbed schizophrenic.
 ...
PMID:A double blind comparison of zuclopenthixol acetate with haloperidol in the management of acutely disturbed schizophrenics. 1097 79

In Amsterdam in the Netherlands, in 1993, an intensive case management project was initiated. This article describes this well-known Dutch project as it was tested in a randomised clinical trial using regular outpatient and inpatient care as the control conditions. All the patients in this project are very ill and most of them suffer from schizophrenia. The new form of care has the same effect on everyday problems as regular care. The basis of this data is too narrow for the drawing of conclusions about the risk of suicide. Longer follow-up would be advisable in order to improve our understanding of this problem. There has been no drop in compulsory admissions. On the other hand, there has been a spectacular decrease in the number of bed days (a reduction of 66% in the second year of the ACT programme).
 ...
PMID:Assertive community treatment in Amsterdam. 1223 12

Although the traditional antipsychotic medications were a major advancement in schizophrenia therapeutics and made possible the era of deinstitutionalization, just maintaining a patient out of the hospital no longer can be viewed as the final goal of treatment. Most patients are able to maintain outpatient status despite persistent psychotic symptoms, pervasive negative symptoms and poor social competence. It is hoped that the availability of the atypical antipsychotic drugs will improve significantly compliance, treatment of symptoms, and possibly relapse rates and overall outcome. It should be the norm and not the exception for patients to be treated with these new medications as early as possible in their illness. The clinician should not be complacent and quick to accept persistent psychosis, and patients with various forms of treatment resistance should be tried early in the course of illness with clozapine (or other medications as they become available if they show superiority for treatment-resistant patients). Pharmacologic interventions aimed at deficit symptoms may become available in the future. Psychosocial interventions have a place in the modern therapeutic armamentarium. Relatively simple sustained family interventions and more comprehensive ACT programs are effective for relapse prevention and reduction of the "revolving door syndrome," whereas patients with psychosis nonresponsive to medication may benefit from new modalities of CBT. For patients with persistent negative symptoms and limited social competence, SST is indicated where available, and even in places where staff may be limited and social skills and other programs difficult to implement, family psychoeducational interventions can be carried out to good effect.
 ...
PMID:Maximizing the synergy between pharmacotherapy and psychosocial therapies for schizophrenia. 1268 66

Deficiencies in arachidonic acid (AA) parameters have been reported in schizophrenic patients. AA is a primary binding ligand for apolipoprotein D (apoD), which is increased in response to antipsychotic drug treatment and elevated in subjects with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In this study, we investigated whether apoD might modulate AA signaling/mobilization in cultured embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cells. Immunofluorescent labeling revealed both cytosolic and membrane-bound expression of apoD protein in apoD-transfected cells. In cells expressing apoD, phorbal 12-myristate 13-acetate-induced AA release was inhibited compared to controls and membrane levels of AA were elevated, as indicated by the amount of AA maximally incorporated into membrane phospholipids. In addition, exogenous apoD added directly to the incubation media prevented cellular uptake of free [3H]AA. These results suggest that apoD acts to stabilize membrane-associated AA by preventing release and sequestering free AA in the cell. These actions of apoD may be beneficial to psychiatric patients.
 ...
PMID:Apolipoprotein D modulates arachidonic acid signaling in cultured cells: implications for psychiatric disorders. 1462 96

The prenatal methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) treatment has been proposed as a suitable model for the neurodevelopmental aspects of schizophrenia since the morphological abnormalities it induces in the brain are subtle and in line with most reports of neuropathology in schizophrenic brains. However, the functional aspects of this treatment have not been investigated with behavioural paradigms that are relevant for the psychopathology of the symptoms of schizophrenia. In the present study, we investigated the validity of the prenatal MAM treatment as a developmental model for schizophrenia with a prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex, latent inhibition, locomotor activity, and cognition and emotionality with freezing in fear conditioning paradigms. We have conducted two studies: in Study I, MAM was injected from E09 to E12, and in Study II MAM was administered at later stages in the embryonic development, from E12 to E15. Morphologically, the prenatal MAM treatment induced mild to severe reduction in brain weights and in the entorhinal cortex, prefrontal cortex and striatum volumes, the severity of the effects depending on the timing of administration. However, despite the morphological abnormalities induced by the MAM treatments, no behavioural deficits were observed in the MAM-treated animals when compared to Controls in prepulse inhibition, latent inhibition with the two-way active avoidance, and in the freezing paradigms. Therefore, due to the consistent lack of treatment effect observed in the present investigation, we conclude that the prenatal MAM treatment has no validity as a behavioural model for schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:The prenatal methylazoxymethanol acetate treatment: a neurodevelopmental animal model for schizophrenia? 1512 80

The effects of the adaptive immune system on the cognitive performance and abnormal behaviors seen in mental disorders such as schizophrenia have never been documented. Here, we show that mice deprived of mature T cells manifested cognitive deficits and behavioral abnormalities, which were remediable by T cell restoration. T cell-based vaccination, using glatiramer acetate (copolymer-1, a weak agonist of numerous self-reactive T cells), can overcome the behavioral and cognitive abnormalities that accompany neurotransmitter imbalance induced by (+)dizocilpine maleate (MK-801) or amphetamine. The results, by suggesting that peripheral T cell deficit can lead to cognitive and behavioral impairment, highlight the importance of properly functioning adaptive immunity in the maintenance of mental activity and in coping with conditions leading to cognitive deficits. These findings point to critical factors likely to contribute to age- and AIDS-related dementias and might herald the development of a therapeutic vaccination for fighting off cognitive dysfunction and psychiatric conditions.
 ...
PMID:T cell deficiency leads to cognitive dysfunction: implications for therapeutic vaccination for schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions. 1514 Oct 78

Gestational disruption of neurodevelopment has been proposed to lead to pathophysiological changes similar to those underlying schizophrenia. We induced such disruption by treating pregnant rat dams with methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) on gestational day 17 (GD17). Total brain size and that of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus were reduced in adult rats exposed prenatally to MAM. When locomotor activity was assessed in an open field, MAM-exposed rats were hyper-responsive to a mild stress and to amphetamine (2 mg/kg, s.c.). They also engaged in less social interaction than controls. We studied, by microdialysis, the effect of amphetamine on extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens and the medial prefrontal cortex of freely moving control and MAM-exposed rats. Amphetamine (2 mg/kg, s.c.) induced an increase in dopamine release that was larger in the nucleus accumbens of MAM-exposed rats than in controls, whereas no difference was seen in the medial prefrontal cortex. In controls, amphetamine infused into the medial prefrontal cortex (50 microM) led to a slight decrease in extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. This effect was absent in MAM-exposed rats, where a transient increase in nucleus accumbens dopamine levels was seen after amphetamine infusion. These results show that the late gestational disruption of neurogenesis in the rat leads to behavioral changes that mimic positive and negative schizophrenia symptoms, and also to a dysregulation of subcortical dopamine neurotransmission. This study contributes to the evaluation of the validity of the prenatal MAM GD17 treatment in rats as an animal model for schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:Disruption of neurogenesis on gestational day 17 in the rat causes behavioral changes relevant to positive and negative schizophrenia symptoms and alters amphetamine-induced dopamine release in nucleus accumbens. 1519 77

Several neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, are the consequence of a disrupted development of the CNS. Accordingly, intrauterine exposure to toxins may increase the risk for psychopathology. We investigated whether prenatal exposure of rats to the neurotoxin methylazoxymethanol acetate led to long-term changes in cerebral neurotrophin levels. We measured the brain levels of nerve growth factor and brain derived neurotrophic factor in young adult and adult rats. Decreased nerve growth factor or brain derived neurotrophic factor were found in the parietal cortex accompanied by altered neurotrophin content in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. The present study is the first to show long-lasting effects of a single prenatal exposure to a neurotoxin on adult levels of neurotrophins in brain regions implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders.
 ...
PMID:Impaired brain development in the rat following prenatal exposure to methylazoxymethanol acetate at gestational day 17 and neurotrophin distribution. 1525 49

The expected therapeutic effect of estrogen as an adjunct treatment to antipsychotics in women suffering from schizophrenia for relapse prevention was to be tested under real-life conditions. A multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over study based on an A-B-A-B (and/or B-A-B-A) design was applied. Forty-six hypoestrogenic women with schizophrenia hospitalized for the first time or repeatedly were included in the study. Their average age was 37.9 and they had been suffering from schizophrenia for 8.4 years. During the drug treatment phases, they received a three-phase estrogen-gestagen combination drug (17beta-estradiol+norethisterone acetate) in addition to an antipsychotic drug. Significant effects of the adjuvant hormone replacement therapy on the estradiol levels could be observed, and high and low levels of estradiol prevailed in the active drug and placebo phases, respectively. We did not find any difference either in defined relapse events or in the psychopathology between estradiol replacement and placebo phases. Neither did the required antipsychotic doses or the tolerance data differ between the two phases. Thus, the results of our study do not confirm the hypothesis that a combined estradiol/antipsychotic therapy is superior to an antipsychotic monotherapy for relapse prevention.
 ...
PMID:Estrogen as an adjuvant therapy to antipsychotics does not prevent relapse in women suffering from schizophrenia: results of a placebo-controlled double-blind study. 1572 93

Severe mental illnesses cause their sufferers dismal functional impairment. The Global Burden of Disease lists schizophrenia among the top 10 contributors to health burden and disability around the world. In the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) of Singapore, 9 out of 10 Class-C beds are occupied by patients whose hospitalisation periods last 300 days on average. Whilst de-institutionalisation has not seen its expected level of success overseas, the provision of community-based psychiatric care has been shown to be more cost-effective than hospital-based inpatient care. As such, there is a need for increased emphasis on community psychiatric services, both to provide and to effectively utilise available resources to assist patients with severe mental illnesses in living and functioning within the community. In line with several other efforts, a pilot Assertive Community Treatment or ACT Programme was launched by IMH in November 2003. This article details the aims, set-up and services of this pilot project funded by the Health Service Development Programme (HSDP) for 3 years, which receives referrals from IMH psychiatrists. With the services provided by the ACT team including psychosocial rehabilitation, it is hoped that patients will continue to receive adequate psychiatric care as well as maintain sufficient skills for self-care and independent living within the community despite the well-documented deteriorating course of psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia.
 ...
PMID:Community psychiatry in Singapore: a pilot assertive community treatment (ACT) programme. 1572 27


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