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Surguladze SA, Chkonia ED, Kezeli AR, Roinishvili MO, Stahl D, David AS. The McCollough effect and facial emotion discrimination in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected relatives. Schizophr Bull 2012; 38:599-607. [PMID: 21123854 PMCID: PMC3329994 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbq141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Abnormalities in visual processing have been found consistently in schizophrenia patients, including deficits in early visual processing, perceptual organization, and facial emotion recognition. There is however no consensus as to whether these abnormalities represent heritable illness traits and what their contribution is to psychopathology. Fifty patients with schizophrenia, 61 of their first-degree healthy relatives, and 50 psychiatrically healthy volunteers were tested with regard to facial affect (FA) discrimination and susceptibility to develop the color-contingent illusion [the McCollough Effect (ME)]. Both patients and relatives demonstrated significantly lower accuracy in FA discrimination compared with controls. There was also a significant effect of familiality: Participants from the same families had more similar accuracy scores than those who belonged to different families. Experiments with the ME showed that schizophrenia patients required longer time to develop the illusion than relatives and controls, which indicated poor visual adaptation in schizophrenia. Relatives were marginally slower than controls. There was no significant association between the measures of FA discrimination accuracy and ME in any of the participant groups. Facial emotion discrimination was associated with the degree of interpersonal problems, as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire in relatives and healthy volunteers, whereas the ME was associated with the perceptual-cognitive symptoms of schizotypy and positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Our results support the heritability of FA discrimination deficits as a trait and indicate visual adaptation abnormalities in schizophrenia, which are symptom related.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon A. Surguladze
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, PO Box 69, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 9AF, UK,To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: +442078480363, fax: +44207848572; e-mail:
| | - Eka D. Chkonia
- Department of Psychiatry, Tbilisi State Medical University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
| | - Archil R. Kezeli
- Department of Behaviour and Cognitive Functions, Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
| | - Maya O. Roinishvili
- Department of Behaviour and Cognitive Functions, Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia
| | - Daniel Stahl
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, PO Box 69, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 9AF, UK
| | - Anthony S. David
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, PO Box 69, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 9AF, UK
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Surguladze SA, Chu EM, Marshall N, Evans A, Anilkumar APP, Timehin C, McDonald C, Ecker C, Phillips ML, David AS. Emotion processing in schizophrenia: fMRI study of patients treated with risperidone long-acting injections or conventional depot medication. J Psychopharmacol 2011; 25:722-33. [PMID: 20360158 DOI: 10.1177/0269881110363316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
We employed two event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks using the pictures of mild and intense facial emotions of fear or happiness. The sample comprised 16 chronic schizophrenia patients treated with risperidone long-acting injections (RLAI), 16 patients treated with conventional antipsychotic depots (CONV) and 16 healthy controls (HC). The HC and RLAI groups demonstrated greater activation in the left amygdala in response to intensively fearful faces, and in right cerebellum to intensively happy faces compared with CONV patients. The CONV group demonstrated under-activation in the right temporal pole in response to intensively happy faces (compared with HC) and over-activation in ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in response to both intensively happy and fearful expressions, compared with HC and RLAI groups. Our results suggest that networks implicated in the allocation of attentional resources (VMPFC) and emotion processing (amygdala, cerebellum) are differentially affected in patients on CONV versus RLAI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon A Surguladze
- Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
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Kremen WS, Vinogradov S, Poole JH, Schaefer CA, Deicken RF, Factor-Litvak P, Brown AS. Cognitive decline in schizophrenia from childhood to midlife: a 33-year longitudinal birth cohort study. Schizophr Res 2010; 118:1-5. [PMID: 20153140 PMCID: PMC3184642 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2010.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2009] [Revised: 01/20/2010] [Accepted: 01/22/2010] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND We examined cognitive deficits before and after onset of schizophrenia in a longitudinal study that: 1) covers a long time interval; 2) minimizes test unreliability by including the identical measure at both childhood and post-onset cognitive assessments; and 3) minimizes bias by utilizing a population-based sample in which participants were selected neither for signs of illness in childhood nor for being at risk for schizophrenia. METHODS Participants in the present study, Developmental Insult and Brain Anomaly in Schizophrenia (DIBS), were ascertained from an earlier epidemiologic study conducted in Oakland, CA. The original version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), a test of receptive vocabulary, was administered at age 5 or 9 and repeated as part of the DIBS study at an average age of 40. There were 10 DIBS cases with DSM-IV schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 15 demographically similar DIBS controls with both child and adult PPVT scores. RESULTS Cases scored significantly lower than controls in childhood (d=0.95) and adulthood (d=1.67). Residualized scores indicating the number of SDs above or below one's predicted adult score revealed a mean case-control difference of -1.51SDs, consistent with significant relative decline over time among the cases (p<0.0013). CONCLUSIONS In this prospective study, individuals who developed adult schizophrenia manifested impaired receptive vocabulary during childhood and further relative deterioration (or lack of expected improvement) between childhood and midlife. Limitations should also be acknowledged, including the small sample size and the fact that we cannot be certain when the continued deterioration took place.
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Affiliation(s)
- William S. Kremen
- Department of Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Genomics, University of California, San Diego, and VA San Diego Healthcare System, La Jolla, CA
| | - Sophia Vinogradov
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
| | | | | | - Raymond F. Deicken
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
| | - Pam Factor-Litvak
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY
| | - Alan S. Brown
- Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY
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Abstract
Facial emotion recognition deficits have been widely investigated in individuals with schizophrenia; however, it remains unclear whether these deficits reflect a trait-like vulnerability to schizophrenia pathology present in individuals at risk for the disorder. Although some studies have investigated emotion recognition in this population, findings have been mixed. The current study uses a well-validated emotion recognition task, a relatively large sample, and examines the relationship between emotion recognition, symptoms, and overall life quality. Eighty-nine individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypy and 27 controls completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, Penn Emotion Recognition Test, and a brief version of Lehman's Quality of Life Interview. In addition to labeling facial emotions, participants rated the valence of faces using a Likert rating scale. Individuals with schizotypy were significantly less accurate than controls when labeling emotional faces, particularly neutral faces. Within the schizotypy sample, both disorganization symptoms and lower quality of life were associated with a bias toward perceiving facial expressions as more negative. Our results support previous research suggesting that poor emotion recognition is associated with vulnerability to psychosis. Although emotion recognition appears unrelated to symptoms, it probably operates by means of different processes in those with particular types of symptoms.
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Scholten MRM, Aleman A, Kahn RS. The processing of emotional prosody and semantics in schizophrenia: relationship to gender and IQ. Psychol Med 2008; 38:887-898. [PMID: 17949518 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291707001742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Female patients with schizophrenia are less impaired in social life than male patients. Because social impairment in schizophrenia has been found to be associated with deficits in emotion recognition, we examined whether the female advantage in processing emotional prosody and semantics is preserved in schizophrenia. METHOD Forty-eight patients (25 males, 23 females) and 46 controls (23 males, 23 females) were assessed using an emotional language task (in which healthy women generally outperform healthy men), consisting of 96 sentences in four conditions: (1) neutral-content/emotional-tone (happy, sad, angry or anxious); (2) neutral-tone/emotional-content; (3) emotional-tone/incongruous emotional-content; and (4) emotional-content/incongruous emotional-tone. Participants had to ignore the emotional-content in the third condition and the emotional-tone in the fourth condition. In addition, participants were assessed with a visuospatial task (in which healthy men typically excel). Correlation coefficients were computed for associations between emotional language data, visuospatial data, IQ measures and patient variables. RESULTS Overall, on the emotional language task, patients made more errors than control subjects, and women outperformed men across diagnostic groups. Controlling for IQ revealed a significant effect on task performance in all groups, especially in the incongruent tasks. On the rotation task, healthy men outperformed healthy women, but male patients, female patients and female controls obtained similar scores. CONCLUSION The advantage in emotional prosodic and semantic processing in healthy women is preserved in schizophrenia, whereas the male advantage in visuospatial processing is lost. These findings may explain, in part, why social functioning is less compromised in women with schizophrenia than in men.
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Affiliation(s)
- M R M Scholten
- Department of Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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Ehlis AC, Herrmann MJ, Pauli P, Stoeber G, Pfuhlmann B, Fallgatter AJ. Improvement of prefrontal brain function in endogenous psychoses under atypical antipsychotic treatment. Neuropsychopharmacology 2007; 32:1669-77. [PMID: 17203015 DOI: 10.1038/sj.npp.1301293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Typical and atypical antipsychotics are thought to exert their effects on different neurotransmitter pathways with specific action of atypical compounds on the prefrontal cortex, but studies directly investigating the effect of those drugs on neurophysiological measures of prefrontal brain function are sparse. We therefore investigated the influence of different antipsychotics on an electrophysiological marker of prefrontal brain function (NoGo anteriorization, NGA) and neuropsychological test scores. For this purpose, 38 patients with endogenous psychoses were investigated at the beginning of a stationary psychiatric treatment and at a 6-week-follow-up. Patients were treated with typical or atypical antipsychotics, or a combination of both. They underwent psychopathological diagnostic and neuropsychological testing, as well as electrophysiological investigations during a Continuous Performance Test. The results indicate that typical and atypical antipsychotics differentially affected the development of the NGA over the course of the treatment, typical antipsychotics tending to result in decreased values at follow-up, and atypical antipsychotics stabilizing, or increasing this parameter. Performance in tests of frontal lobe function generally declined under typical antipsychotics and improved with atypical compounds, changes in Stroop interference correlated with changes in the NGA. We conclude that typical and atypical antipsychotics differ regarding their effect on prefrontal brain function in schizophrenia, atypical neuroleptics often showing a more favorable impact than conventional antipsychotics on respective parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann-Christine Ehlis
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany.
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Harris JG, Minassian A, Perry W. Stability of attention deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2007; 91:107-11. [PMID: 17306962 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.12.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2006] [Revised: 12/08/2006] [Accepted: 12/14/2006] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Deficits in attention and concentration are consistently identified as an enduring feature of schizophrenia and interfere significantly with successful social and occupational functioning in individuals with this illness. The short-term effects of hospitalization (2 weeks) on attention dysfunction in individuals with schizophrenia were studied in comparison to nonpsychiatric, healthy individuals. In addition, patients who remained stable on medications throughout hospitalization were compared to patients initiating an antipsychotic regimen upon admission. Attention and concentration were significantly enhanced after two weeks in the previously unmedicated group. However, improvement failed to reach the level of performance of comparison subjects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josette G Harris
- University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, C268-71, 4200 E. 9th Avenue, Denver, CO 80262, United States.
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Gur RE, Calkins ME, Gur RC, Horan WP, Nuechterlein KH, Seidman LJ, Stone WS. The Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia: neurocognitive endophenotypes. Schizophr Bull 2007; 33:49-68. [PMID: 17101692 PMCID: PMC2632287 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbl055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 264] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
The Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS) is a 7-site collaboration that examines the genetic architecture of quantitative endophenotypes in families with schizophrenia. Here we review the background and rationale for selecting neurocognitive tasks as endophenotypic measures in genetic studies. Criteria are outlined for the potential of measures as endophenotypic vulnerability markers. These include association with illness, state independence (ie, adequate test-retest stability, adequate between-site reliability, impairments in patients not due to medications, impairments observed regardless of illness state), heritability, findings of higher rates in relatives of probands than in the general population, and cosegregation within families. The COGS required that, in addition, the measures be "neurocognitive" and thus linked to neurobiology and that they be feasible in multisite studies. The COGS neurocognitive assessment includes measures of attention, verbal memory, working memory, and a computerized neurocognitive battery that also includes facial processing tasks. Here we describe data demonstrating that these neurobehavioral measures meet criteria for endophenotypic candidacy. We conclude that quantitative neurocognitive endophenotypes need further evidence for efficacy in identifying genetic effects but have the potential of providing unprecedented insight into gene-environment interaction related to dimensions of brain and behavior in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raquel E Gur
- Neuropsychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, 10 Gates, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
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Kanes SJ, Tokarczyk J, Siegel SJ, Bilker W, Abel T, Kelly MP. Rolipram: a specific phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor with potential antipsychotic activity. Neuroscience 2006; 144:239-46. [PMID: 17081698 PMCID: PMC3313447 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2006.09.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2006] [Revised: 09/12/2006] [Accepted: 09/16/2006] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Currently available antipsychotic medications work primarily by antagonizing D2 dopamine receptors, thus raising intracellular cAMP levels. We hypothesized that intracellular stimulation of cAMP levels in the CNS would have similar effects to treatment with antipsychotic medication. To test this hypothesis, we studied the effect of an acute treatment of rolipram, an inhibitor of type 4 phosphodiesterases that degrade cAMP, on acoustic startle and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response in C57BL/6J mice known to exhibit poor PPI. PPI is disrupted in schizophrenia patients, and the ability of a drug to increase PPI in mice is predictive of antipsychotic efficacy. We show here that acute treatment with rolipram significantly increases PPI at doses that do not alter the acoustic startle response (lowest effective dose 0.66 mg/kg). In addition, rolipram (0.66 mg/kg) blocks the disruptive effects of amphetamine (10 mg/kg) on PPI. At a slightly higher dose (1.0 mg/kg), rolipram also induces catalepsy. Thus, phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibition has many of the same behavioral effects as traditional antipsychotic medications. In contrast to traditional antipsychotics, these effects are achieved through alteration of an intracellular second messenger system rather than antagonism of neurotransmitter receptors. Given previous reports showing rolipram improves cognition, we conclude that PDE4 represents an important novel target for further antipsychotic drug development.
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Affiliation(s)
- S. J. Kanes
- Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - J. Tokarczyk
- Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - S. J. Siegel
- Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - W. Bilker
- Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - T. Abel
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 422 Lynch Labs, 433 South University Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - M. P. Kelly
- Department of Psychiatry and Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 422 Lynch Labs, 433 South University Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Correspondence to: M. P. Kelly, Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 422 Lynch Labs, 433 South University Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Tel: +1-215-898-3155; fax: +1-215-898-8780. (M. P. Kelly)
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Halari R, Mehrotra R, Sharma T, Ng V, Kumari V. Cognitive impairment but preservation of sexual dimorphism in cognitive abilities in chronic schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 2006; 141:129-39. [PMID: 16427141 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2005.07.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2004] [Revised: 06/15/2005] [Accepted: 07/26/2005] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Neurocognitive impairment in schizophrenia is well established, though sex differences on cognitive tasks have produced equivocal findings. The present study was designed to examine performance of schizophrenia patients on a sexually dimorphic cognitive battery. The cognitive battery comprising tests of spatial (mental rotation, computerized version of the Benton Judgment of Line Orientation) and verbal abilities (phonological and semantic fluency) was administered to men (n = 22) and women (n = 21) with schizophrenia and healthy controls (n = 21 men and 21 women). A series of multivariate analyses showed that the patient group performed worse than controls on all the cognitive tasks. Cognitive sexual dimorphism on all spatial tasks favoring men and verbal tasks favoring women remained. Within the patient sample, correlational data demonstrated that earlier age at onset of illness related to poorer spatial performance. It is concluded that normal sexual dimorphism is undisturbed on both spatial and verbal tasks by the schizophrenia disease process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rozmin Halari
- Centre for Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, PO 46, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK.
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Conroy B, Zorowitz R, Horn SD, Ryser DK, Teraoka J, Smout RJ. An Exploration of Central Nervous System Medication Use and Outcomes in Stroke Rehabilitation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2005; 86:S73-S81. [PMID: 16373142 DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2005.08.129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2005] [Revised: 08/24/2005] [Accepted: 08/31/2005] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Conroy B, Zorowitz R, Horn SD, Ryser DK, Teraoka J, Smout RJ. An exploration of central nervous system medication use and outcomes in stroke rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE To study associations between neurobehavioral impairments, use of neurotropic medications, and outcomes for inpatient stroke rehabilitation, controlling for a variety of confounding variables. DESIGN Observational cohort study of post-stroke rehabilitation. SETTING Six inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the United States. PARTICIPANTS Patients with moderate or severe strokes (N=919). INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Discharge disposition, FIM score change, and rehabilitation length of stay (LOS). RESULTS Neurobehavioral impairments and use of many medications, including first-generation selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, older traditional antipsychotic medications, and anti-Parkinsonian neuro-stimulants, have a statistical association with poorer outcomes, whereas use of the atypical antipsychotic medications has a positive association with improvement in motor FIM scores. Counter-intuitively, use of opioid analgesics is associated with a larger motor FIM score change but not an increase in LOS or reduced percentage of discharge to community. There was significant variation in use of neurotropic medications among the 6 study sites during inpatient stroke rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS There are many opportunities to enhance a stroke survivor's ability to benefit from acute inpatient stroke rehabilitation through improved understanding of associations of neurotropic medications with outcomes for different patient groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brendan Conroy
- Stroke Recovery Program, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, DC, USA
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Stratta P, Donda P, Rossi A, Rossi A. Executive function assessment of patients with schizophrenic disorder residual type in olanzapine treatment: an open study. Hum Psychopharmacol 2005; 20:401-8. [PMID: 15991259 DOI: 10.1002/hup.703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive deficits are a fundamental feature of the schizophrenic disorder, but the effect of antipsychotic treatment is still debated. The study assesses the effect of olanzapine on neurocognitive functioning and symptomatology of patients with schizophrenic disorder residual type. Executive function evaluation by the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) was performed on 39 patients treated with olanzapine (5-20 mg/day); the efficacy of drug in improving symptomatology, safety and quality of life was also evaluated. After 7 months of treatment, the mean number of WCST categories tended to increase. Correct responses increased with a statistically significant change from the baseline. The total and unique errors decreased significantly. At all post-baseline visits a decrease from baseline in the PANSS total, positive and negative scores was seen. The proportion of patients with less severe illness (CGI), increased over the course of the study with a corresponding decrease of patients with more severe illness. The quality of life scores also tended to improve during treatment. The Simpson Angus scale, Barnes-akathisia and abnormal involuntary movement scale scores decreased consistently. The most common treatment emergent drug related adverse events were weight gain, insomnia, agitation and anxiety. Neurocognitive functioning in terms of executive performance and symptomatology improved in people with schizophrenia residual type.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paolo Stratta
- Department of Mental Health, A.U.S.L. 4 L'Aquila, Italy.
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Volk DW, Lewis DA. GABA Targets for the Treatment of Cognitive Dysfunction in Schizophrenia. Curr Neuropharmacol 2005; 3:45-62. [PMID: 22545031 DOI: 10.2174/1570159052773396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive deficits, including impairments in working memory that have been linked to the prefrontal cortex, are among the most debilitating and difficult to treat features of schizophrenia. Consequently, the identification of potential targets informed by the pathophysiology of the illness is needed to develop novel pharmacological approaches for ameliorating these deficits. Postmortem studies of the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia subjects have revealed disturbances restricted to a subpopulation of inhibitory neurons that includes chandelier neurons, whose axon terminals synapse on the axon initial segment of pyramidal neurons. Chandelier neurons play an important role in synchronizing pyramidal neuron activity and appear to be a critical component of the prefrontal cortical circuitry that subserves working memory function. Therefore, in this paper we review evidence suggesting that drugs which selectively enhance chandelier neuron-mediated inhibition of prefrontal pyramidal neurons may improve working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. Potential novel targets for such agents include GABA(A) receptors that contain the α(2) subunit. In addition, we discuss potential complementary mechanisms for enhancing inhibitory input to pyramidal cell bodies, including drugs with activity at the CB1 receptor of the endocannabinoid system. The development of pathophysiologically-based treatments that selectively remediate disturbances in specific neural circuits underlying working memory may provide an effective approach to improving cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- David W Volk
- Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260
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Wang HD, Dunnavant FD, Jarman T, Deutch AY. Effects of antipsychotic drugs on neurogenesis in the forebrain of the adult rat. Neuropsychopharmacology 2004; 29:1230-8. [PMID: 15085089 DOI: 10.1038/sj.npp.1300449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 131] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The generation of new cells in the adult mammalian brain may significantly modify pathophysiological processes in neuropsychiatric disorders. We examined the ability of chronic treatment with the antipsychotic drugs (APDs) olanzapine and haloperidol to increase the number and survival of newly generated cells in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and striatal complex of adult male rats. Animals were treated with olanzapine or haloperidol for 3 weeks and then injected with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) to label mitotic cells. Half of the animals continued on the same APD for two more weeks after BrdU challenge, with the other half receiving vehicle during this period. Olanzapine but not haloperidol significantly increased both the total number and density of BrdU-labeled cells in the PFC and dorsal striatum; no effect was observed in the nucleus accumbens. Continued olanzapine treatment after the BrdU challenge did not increase the survival of newly generated cells. The newly generated cells in the PFC did not express the neuronal marker NeuN. Despite the significant increase in newly generated cells in the PFC of olanzapine-treated rats, the total number of these cells is low, suggesting that the therapeutic effects of atypical APD treatment may not be due to the presence of newly generated cells that have migrated to the cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui-Dong Wang
- Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
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