Psychiatry research
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Psychiatry research · Oct 2000
Serum cholesterol levels in paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia associated with physical violence or suicide attempts in Taiwanese.
A review of medical charts over a 1-year period was carried out in a population of 213 Taiwanese psychiatric inpatients that included 106 patients with schizophrenia. In subgroup analyses within the group of patients with schizophrenia, no significant differences in serum cholesterol levels were found between paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenic patients, between patients with and without physical violence, or between patients who had and had not made a suicide attempt.
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Psychiatry research · May 2000
Hippocampal pathology in schizophrenia: magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy studies.
The hippocampus is a site of previously reported structural and functional abnormalities in schizophrenia. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to measure gray matter volumes, the neuronal marker N-acetylaspartate (NAA), and the combination of glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), designated Glx. Measurements were obtained of the medial temporal lobe, centered on the hippocampus, in 10 male patients with schizophrenia (3 neuroleptic-medicated and 7 medication-free), and 10 matched normal volunteers. ⋯ The Glx/Cho laterality index showed a relative right-sided excess in this region in the patients (-0.23+/-0.20) compared to the controls (+0.06+/-0.20), which was not confounded by tissue composition or placement variability of the MRS voxels. Hippocampal volume deficit and asymmetry were not significant, and other MRS measures showed no differences between patients and controls. The preliminary finding of a lateralized abnormality in Glx is consistent with postmortem findings of asymmetric neurochemical temporal lobe abnormalities in schizophrenia.
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Psychiatry research · May 2000
Thalamic abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia revealed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Recent investigations suggest that thalamic abnormalities may underlie symptom formation in schizophrenia. We previously demonstrated reduced concentrations of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in tissue from the thalamus of schizophrenic patients using in vitro proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). ⋯ There was no significant correlation in the schizophrenic patients between the NAA/Cr or Cho/Cr ratio and other clinical data including clinical symptoms or neuroleptic dosage. These findings may further support other studies suggesting decreased thalamic volume or neuronal number and/or thalamic dysfunction, and reduction in size of white matter tracts adjacent to the thalamus in schizophrenia, as well as our previous postmortem MRS study.
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Psychiatry research · Dec 1999
EEG theta activity and pain insensitivity in self-injurious borderline patients.
The principal aim of this study was to investigate possible neurophysiological underpinnings of self-injurious behavior in women with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Pain report and EEG power spectrum density during a laboratory pain procedure, a 4-min 10 degrees C cold pressor test (CPT), were compared among four groups; female inpatients with BPD who do (BPD-P group, n = 22) and do not (BPD-NP group, n = 19) report pain during self-injury, female inpatients with major depression (n = 15), and normal women (n = 20). The BPD-NP group reported less pain intensity during the CPT compared to the other groups. ⋯ Dissociative Experience Scale scores were significantly higher in the BPD-NP group compared to the Depressed and Normal groups (maximum P = 0.0004), and significantly higher in the BPD-P group compared to the Normal group (P = 0.0016). Beck Depression Inventory and Sheehan Patient Rated Anxiety Scale scores were significantly lower in the Normal group compared to all patient groups. Theta activity was significantly correlated with pain rating (Pearson partial r = -0.43, P = 0.0001) and Dissociative Experiences Scale score (Pearson partial r = 0.32, P = 0.01).
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Psychiatry research · Nov 1999
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in pharmacotherapy-refractory major depression: comparative study of fast, slow and sham rTMS.
In previous studies, fast repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with a frequency > 1 Hz demonstrated substantial antidepressant effects compared to sham rTMS. However, it is not clear whether fast rTMS is superior to slow rTMS (frequency < or = 1 Hz) which is safe at therapeutically promising higher intensities. The aim of this double-blind study was to compare the action of fast, slow and sham rTMS. ⋯ However, the effect was clinically marginal and not reflected by self-rating scores. Verbal memory and reaction performance were not impaired after rTMS, and there was even a statistically significant time x group interaction with improvement of verbal memory performance after fast rTMS. In conclusion, this study further supported the safety of rTMS but does not show any clinically meaningful antidepressant efficacy of rTMS at 250 daily stimuli over 5 days in pharmacotherapy-refractory major depression.