精神分裂症首次发病患者的磁共振弥散张量显像研究

目的探讨从未用过药的精神分裂症首次发病(以下简称首发)患者的重要白质及部分灰质区的磁共振弥散张量显像(DTI)的特点。方法选取9例首发精神分裂症患者(患者组)及9名年龄、性别、受教育程度与患者组相配对的健康者,应用DTI成像技术检测脑额颞交界处、内囊等白质区和颞中回灰质、中央前回、中央后回等灰质区的各向异性(FA)、表观扩散系数(ADC)及双侧海马体积。结果患者组及对照组组内左右两侧兴趣区FA值及ADC值的差异无统计学意义(P>0.05);患者组与对照组各感兴趣区FA值差异无统计学意义(P>0.05),但患者组颞中回灰质(8.655×10-9)、中央前回(7.816×10-9)、中央后回(7.855×10-9)ADC值高于对照组(分别为7.428×10-9,6.921×10-9,7.013×10-9;P=0.049,0.009,0.005);两组内及组间双侧海马体积比较,差异均无统计学意义(P>0.05)。结论首发精神分裂症患者与健康者DTI参数之间没有明显区别。     

丙戊酸钠合并氯丙嗪治疗精神分裂症的对照研究

目的观察丙戊酸钠合用氯丙嗪治疗精神分裂症的疗效与不良反应。方法符合CCMD-3诊断标准的精神分裂症住院患者,丙戊酸钠合用氯丙嗪组(研究组)35例,单用氯丙嗪组(对照组)31例。以PANSS、CGI、TESS量表评定观察12周。结果研究组总体疗效自第2周起明显优于对照组(P<0.05),其中研究组兴奋症状分及攻击因子分自第4周起缓解明显优于对照组(P<0.05)。研究组较对照组副反应较少且程度较轻(P<0.05)。结论丙戊酸钠合并氯丙嗪治疗精神分裂症疗效肯定,安全性与耐受性较好。     

A path-analytical approach to differentiate between direct and indirect drug effects on negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients

The hypothesis that differences in drug effects of risperidone and haloperidol on negative symptoms in schizophrenia are secondary to effects on positive, extrapyramidal, and depressive symptoms was investigated by means of an analysis of the data from the USA-Canada risperidone double-blind randomized clinical trial of 523 chronic schizophrenic patients. Regression analyses in the total sample and within treatment groups confirmed a strong relationship between changes in negative symptoms and the other variables studied (R²=0.50–0.51,p<0.001). Only depressive symptoms did not contribute significantly to these results (p>0.10). Path analysis showed that the greater mean change (p<0.05) of negative symptoms with risperidone compared to haloperidol could not be fully explained by correlations with favourable effects on positive and extrapyramidal symptoms. The relationship between shift in extrapyramidal symptoms and shift in negative symptoms failed to reach statistical significance; however, there was a clear tendency in the expected direction in both treatment groups.     

待分类的精神病性和非精神病性精神障碍与精神分裂症的对比分析

目的 探讨待分类的精神病性和非精神病性精神障碍临床特征。方法 对待分类的精神病性和非精神病性精神障碍与精神分裂症临床资料进行对比分析。结果 待分类的精神病性障碍与精神分裂症在发病年龄、复发率、阳性家族史、治疗和疗效上无显著性差异；待分类的非精神病性精神障碍在复发率、阳性家族史及治愈率上与前两者有显著性差异。结论 待分类的精神病性障碍与精神分裂症可能具有同源性，部分非精神病性精神障碍与两者可能不同源。     

一次和多次住院精神分裂症患者再住院分析

目的 :比较 1次和≥ 2次住院精神分裂症患者出院后的再住院率 ,初步探讨影响再住院的相关因素。　方法 :1999年度出院的 833例住院精神分裂症患者纳入调查 ,使用自制的再住院及其相关因素调查表 ,于 2 0 0 3年 12月底前电话或入户调查出院后至少 4 8个月的情况。　结果 :6 6 4例完成调查 ,分为 1次住院组 (333例 )和多次住院组 (331例 )。用生存分析 (Kaplan Meier公式 )比较两组未再住院率 ,12个月末 (分别为 6 7 0 %和 6 1 6 % )、2 4个月末 (5 6 2 %和 4 8 9% )、36个月末 (4 6 0和 35 1% )和 4 8个月末 (4 1 1%和 2 8 7% )。Cox回归风险比例模型分析影响再住院的相关因素显示 ,与药物依从性、生活事件、自知力和家庭照顾相关 (P <0 0 5 ) ,药物依从性对再住院的贡献值 (1 719)最大。　结论 :1次住院精神分裂症患者出院后的再住院率较多次住院者低。药物依从性是影响再住院的主要因素     

A sexually dimorphic ratio of orbitofrontal to amygdala volume is altered in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Neuroanatomic sexual dimorphisms have been correlated with behavioral differences between healthy men and women. We have reported higher orbitofrontal cortex to amygdala ratio (OAR) in women than men. Although gender differences in schizophrenia are evident clinically and correlate with neuroanatomic measures, their relationship to OAR has not been examined. METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 31 neuroleptic-na?ve schizophrenic patients (16 men) and 80 healthy volunteers (34 men), aged less than 50 years. An automated tissue segmentation procedure was combined with expert-guided parcellation of orbitofrontal and amygdala volumes. RESULTS: Men with schizophrenia had increased OAR relative to healthy men, whereas women had decreased OAR. Increased OAR in men with schizophrenia reflected abnormally low amygdala volumes, whereas decreased OAR in women reflected abnormally low orbitofrontal volumes. Less severe negative symptoms were associated with increased OAR in men but with decreased OAR in women. In men, increased amygdala volume was associated with greater symptom severity, whereas in women higher volumes of both amygdala and orbitofrontal regions were associated with lesser severity of negative symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These opposite OAR abnormalities, whereby men show feminization and women masculinization, suggest gender-mediated effects of the underlying neuropathologic processes. The correlations with symptom severity suggest that neuroanatomic abnormalities in OAR reflect compensatory brain changes.     

An alternative mechanism of actions for neuroleptic and antidepressant drugs

It has earlier been proposed by the author that the aetiology of schizophrenic symptomatology may be due to the presence of abnormally connected interhemispheric fibres which link specialised functions in the brains of schizophrenics that are not connected in normal subjects, and that the neuroleptic drugs may produce their action through a local anaesthetic-like effect in suppression of conduction in these fibres. This line of thought has been extended here to consider the possible mechanism of action of the neuroleptic drugs in more detail, as well as that of the tricyclic antidepressant drugs which are derivatives of the phenothiazine group. Pharmacological similarities with the local anaesthetics both structurally and functionally have been considered, as well as the effects that these drug groups may have in common with the lithium salts. It has been suggested that these drugs all produce their primary effect on cell membranes, though not necessarily at the synapse, that the time course of their clinical effect may correlate with their incorporation into various cell membranes within the CNS, and that they may thus bring about a fundamental alteration in cell membrane microstructure. The possible role of electroconvulsive therapy has also been considered. The corollary of this argument is that the affective disorders may be genetically determined diseases of cell membrane microstructure.     

Retroviruses and schizophrenia in Jamaica

Reports of an 18-fold higher incidence of schizophrenia among second-generation Afro-Caribbeans, and especially Jamaican migrants in the United Kingdom were soon called “an epidemic of schizophrenia,” with the inference that a novel virus, likely to be perinatally transmitted, was a possible etiological agent. This intriguing observation led us to explore a possible link with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type one (HTLV-I), because it is a virus that is endemic in the Caribbean Islands, is perinatally transmitted, known to be neuropathogenic, and the cause of a chronic myelopathy (tropical spastic paraparesis/ HTLV-I associated myelopathy). We therefore examined inpatients at the Bellevue Mental Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica and did standard serological tests for retroviruses HTLV-I and HTLV-II and HIV-I and HIV-II on 201 inpatients who fulfilled ICD-9 and DSM III-R criteria for schizophrenia. Our results produced important negative data, since the seropositivity rates for HTLV-I, the most likely pathogen, were no greater than the seropositivity range for HTLV-I carriers in this island population, indicating that HTLV-I and the other retroviruses tested do not play a primary etiological role in Jamaican schizophrenics.