The Relationship Between Air Pollution and Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers in Taiwan

Introduction

For never-smokers (smoked <100 lifetime cigarettes), lung cancer (LC) has emerged as an important issue. We aimed to investigate the effects of prevalence changes in tobacco smoking and particulate matter (PM) 2.5 (PM_2.5) levels on LC in Taiwan, in relation to contrasting PM_2.5 levels, between Northern Taiwan (NT) and Southern Taiwan (ST).

Comparison of the Heritability of Schizophrenia and Endophenotypes in the COGS-1 Family Study

Background:

Twin and multiplex family studies have established significant heritability for schizophrenia (SZ), often summarized as 81%. The Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS-1) family study was designed to deconstruct the genetic architecture of SZ using neurocognitive and neurophysiological endophenotypes, for which heritability estimates ranged from 18% to 50% (mean = 30%). This study assessed the heritability of SZ in these families to determine whether there is a “heritability gap” between the diagnosis and related endophenotypes.

Methods:

Nuclear families (N = 296) with a SZ proband, an unaffected sibling, and both parents (n = 1366 subjects; mean family size = 4.6) underwent comprehensive endophenotype and clinical characterization. The Family Interview for Genetic Studies was administered to all participants and used to obtain convergent psychiatric symptom information for additional first-degree relatives of interviewed subjects (N = 3304 subjects; mean family size = 11.2). Heritability estimates of psychotic disorders were computed for both nuclear and extended families.

Results:

The heritability of SZ was 31% and 44% for nuclear and extended families. The inclusion of bipolar disorder increased the heritability to 37% for the nuclear families. When major depression was added, heritability estimates dropped to 34% and 20% for nuclear and extended families, respectively.

Conclusions:

Endophenotypes and psychotic disorders exhibit comparable levels of heritability in the COGS-1 family sample. The ascertainment of families with discordant sibpairs to increase endophenotypic contrast may underestimate diagnostic heritability relative to other studies. However, population-based studies also report significantly lower heritability estimates for SZ. Collectively, these findings support the importance of endophenotype-based strategies and the dimensional view of psychosis.Key words: schizophrenia, psychosis, endophenotypes, cognition, biomarkers, heritability     

Prognostic implications of paranoia and thought disorder in new onset psychosis

This study follows a group of 174 young people with new onset of schizotypal symptoms and examines factors which may lead to conversion to psychosis. These prodromal subjects were screened for symptoms and later given the Structured Clinical Interview of DSM-III-R at one year, two years and ten years post onset. We also included the Paranoia Scale of Fenigstein and Vanable and the Scale for Thought, Language and Communications of Andreasen in all interviews. Our analysis found that the addition of scales for paranoia and thought disorder enhanced prediction of conversion to psychosis and long term outcome. The early occurrence of ideas of reference and poverty of thought appear to be significant predictors of future deterioration even when considered among other high-risk variables.     

Paternal age of schizophrenia probands and endophenotypic differences from unaffected siblings

We evaluated the discrepancy of endophenotypic performance between probands with schizophrenia and unaffected siblings by paternal age at proband birth, a possible marker for de novo mutations. Pairs of schizophrenia probands and unaffected siblings (N=220 pairs) were evaluated on 11 neuropsychological or neurophysiological endophenotypes previously identified as heritable. For each endophenotype, the sibling-minus-proband differences were transformed to standardized scores. Then for each pair, the average discrepancy was calculated from its standardized scores. We tested the hypothesis that the discrepancy is associated with paternal age, controlling for the number of endophenotypes shared between proband and his or her sibling, and proband age, which were both associated with paternal age. The non-significant association between the discrepancy and paternal age was in the opposite direction from the hypothesis. Of the 11 endophenotypes only sensori-motor dexterity was significant, but in the opposite direction. Eight other endophenotypes were also in the opposite direction, but not significant. The results did not support the hypothesized association of increased differences between sibling/proband pairs with greater paternal age. A possible explanation is that the identification of heritable endophenotypes was based on samples for which schizophrenia was attributable to inherited rather than de novo/non-inherited causes.     

Bullying in clinical high risk for psychosis participants from the NAPLS-3 cohort

Purpose

Bullying is associated with a heightened risk for poor outcomes, including psychosis. This study aimed to replicate previous findings on bullying prevalence in clinical high-risk (CHR) individuals, to assess the longitudinal course of clinical and functional variables between bullied and non-bullied CHR and the association of bullying with premorbid functioning, clinical outcome, transition to psychosis and risk of violence.

Methods

The sample consisted of 691 CHR participants and 96 healthy controls. Participants reported whether they had experienced bullying and how long it had lasted. Assessments included DSM-5 diagnoses, attenuated psychotic symptoms, negative symptoms, social and role functioning, depression, stress, premorbid functioning, and risk of violence. The bullied and non-bullied CHR groups were compared at baseline and further longitudinally on clinical and functioning variables and transition to psychosis.

Results

Bullying was more prevalent among CHR individuals than healthy controls. Bullied CHR had a higher prevalence of PTSD and more severe depression and stress at baseline than non-bullied CHR. There was no impact of bullying on clinical and functional variables over time. Bullying was not related to final clinical status or transition to psychosis. However, bullied participants had poorer premorbid functioning and a greater risk of violence.

Conclusion

While bullying may not impact the likelihood of CHR individuals to transition to psychosis, it may be a risk factor for development of the at-risk state and may be related to a greater risk of violence. Future studies should consider bullying perpetration among CHR individuals.

     

Reliability of an fMRI paradigm for emotional processing in a multisite longitudinal study

Multisite neuroimaging studies can facilitate the investigation of brain‐related changes in many contexts, including patient groups that are relatively rare in the general population. Though multisite studies have characterized the reliability of brain activation during working memory and motor functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks, emotion processing tasks, pertinent to many clinical populations, remain less explored. A traveling participants study was conducted with eight healthy volunteers scanned twice on consecutive days at each of the eight North American Longitudinal Prodrome Study sites. Tests derived from generalizability theory showed excellent reliability in the amygdala ( = 0.82), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; = 0.83), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; = 0.76), insula ( = 0.85), and fusiform gyrus ( = 0.91) for maximum activation and fair to excellent reliability in the amygdala ( = 0.44), IFG ( = 0.48), ACC ( = 0.55), insula ( = 0.42), and fusiform gyrus ( = 0.83) for mean activation across sites and test days. For the amygdala, habituation ( = 0.71) was more stable than mean activation. In a second investigation, data from 111 healthy individuals across sites were aggregated in a voxelwise, quantitative meta‐analysis. When compared with a mixed effects model controlling for site, both approaches identified robust activation in regions consistent with expected results based on prior single‐site research. Overall, regions central to emotion processing showed strong reliability in the traveling participants study and robust activation in the aggregation study. These results support the reliability of blood oxygen level‐dependent signal in emotion processing areas across different sites and scanners and may inform future efforts to increase efficiency and enhance knowledge of rare conditions in the population through multisite neuroimaging paradigms. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2558–2579, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .