Laterality of visuo-spatial attention in acute and chronic schizophrenia, major depression and in healthy controls

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1091-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. O'Carroll ◽  
A. Rogers ◽  
S. M. Lawrie ◽  
C. Murray ◽  
M. Van Beck ◽  
...  

SYNOPSISPrevious studies have suggested that schizophrenia is characterized by an asymmetry of visuo-spatial attention, in particular that acute unmedicated schizophrenics demonstrate relative inattention to right hemispace, whereas chronically medicated patients demonstrate the opposite pattern. In the present study, 30 unmedicated schizophrenic patients, 32 chronically medicated schizophrenic patients, 30 patients suffering from major depression and 60 healthy controls were assessed using two measures of hemispatial attentional neglect, namely letter and star cancellation. The results demonstrated that the chronic schizophrenic group made more total omissions for star cancellation (in both right and left hemispace), but that there was no difference between the groups in terms of omission asymmetry for either letter or star cancellation.

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Propert

SynopsisThe distribution of the immunoglobulin allotypic markers G1m(1), G1m(2), G1m(3), G3m(5) and Km(1) was determined in 168 hospitalized Caucasian chronic schizophrenic patients and compared with that in healthy controls. No association between Gm or Km phenotypes and chronic schizophrenia is apparent.


1971 ◽  
Vol 118 (545) ◽  
pp. 429-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner H. Schimmelbusch ◽  
Peter S. Mueller ◽  
Jack Sheps

Various abnormalities have been demonstrated in schizophrenic patients in response to injected insulin. Thomaset al.(22), Harris (8), Freemanet al.(7), Mayer-Gross (10), and Bracelandet al.(4) have shown a delayed or decreased response of blood glucose to insulin in schizophrenic patients. Meduna and McCulloch (11) observed that those schizophrenic patients who suffered from confusion and clouding of the sensorium particularly displayed a delayed or decreased response to injected insulin as well as a urinary hyperglycaemic factor and decreased tolerance to oral and intravenous glucose. Subsequent studies by Mueller (12, 13) demonstrated a rise or lack of fall in the plasma free fatty acids (FFA) following the administration of insulin intramuscularly or intravenously in chronic schizophrenic patients. Van Sickleet al.(23) confirmed these findings of insulin resistance in chronic schizophrenia and noted that this low FFA response was neither related to an abnormal release of, nor response to, epinephrine.


1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. N. Ferrier ◽  
P. M. Cotes ◽  
T. J. Crow ◽  
E. C. Johnstone

SynopsisLH, FSH, PRL and testosterone were estimated by radioimmunoassay in serial venous samples from 20 male chronic schizophrenic patients, 17 age-matched controls, 3 patients in remission from acute schizophrenia, and in single samples from age–sex matched populations. LH and FSH, but not testosterone or PRL, were significantly reduced in patients with chronic schizophrenia. There was an associated reduction in the frequency, but not amplitude, of LH secretory episodes in patients with chronic schizophrenia. No abnormalities of LH secretion were detected in those patients in remission from acute schizophrenia. Fourteen of the chronic schizophrenic patients were retested at a later date with similar results, except in the case of the few patients who had been started on neuroleptic medication. Some relationships were established between hormonal secretion and the clinical features of these patients. The possible significance of these findings is discussed in the context of the complex control of gonadotrophin secretion from the anterior pituitary and the natural history and nature of chronic schizophrenia.


2003 ◽  
Vol 131 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Ivkovic ◽  
Aleksandar Damjanovic ◽  
Vladimir Paunovic

Contemporary aetiopathogenetic considerations, based on neuro-imaging genetic and developmental neurobiology studies, suggest neurodevelopmental origin of schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence including structural abnormalities on in vivo brain imaging, the excess of prenatal and obstetric complications and the association of congenital and minor physical anomalies with schizophrenia, strongly indicate the neurodevelopmental pathogenesis of schizophrenia. On the other hand, controversial concept of psychotic continuum suggests schizophrenia and depression sharing the same genetic contribution to the pathogenesis. If this would be the case, depression could also be considered as neuro developmental disorder. The aims of the study were to investigate the association between: a) pregnancy and birth complications (PBC), and b) minor physical anomalies (MPA) and schizophrenia or depression. Experimental groups consisted of 60 schizophrenic, 28 major depression patients and 30 healthy controls. All patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV. Schizophrenic group was divided with regard to PANSS score into positive (n=32) and negative form (n=28) subgroups. PBC information were gathered from maternal recall while MPA were examined by using Waldrop scale for adults. The results showed that negative and positive schizophrenic subgroups had significantly more PBC than depressive group (p<0,05), as well than controls (p<0,001; p<0,05; respectively). There was no significant trend for more PBC in negative than in positive subgroup. All schizophrenic patients had higher rates of MPA than depressives (p<0,05). This trend for more MPA was not significant in comparison with healthy controls. These findings suggest that schizophrenia, especially its negative forms, could be considered as a member of the spectrum of neuro developmental disorders, which does not seem to be the case with depression. PBC and MPA could also be valuable in evaluation of risks for schizophrenia and possible predictive indicators of its development.


1989 ◽  
Vol 155 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Rigby ◽  
S. M. Wood ◽  
R. H. S. Mindham

The admission records of 271 long-stay chronic schizophrenic patients, resident in a large psychiatric hospital, were examined in order to identify those who had presented in stupor at the onset of their illness. Twelve patients were found (ten men and two women). When compared, in terms of current mental state and behaviour, with a similar sample of schizophrenics in whom stupor had been absent, significant differences between the two groups were detected, with those presenting in stupor demonstrating a less favourable outcome.


1984 ◽  
Vol 144 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand K. Pandurangi ◽  
Mantosh J. Dewan ◽  
Seungho Howard Lee ◽  
Tarakad Ramachandran ◽  
Benjamin F. Levy ◽  
...  

SummaryTwenty-three chronic schizophrenic patients and 23 controls, all males between 20 and 40 years of age, were evaluated by CT scan. The lateral, third and fourth ventricles, the Sylvian fissures, and the largest sulcus from each of the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, were measured in order to determine whether the previously reported ventriculomegaly in schizophrenics was perhaps due to a disturbance of CSF flow or to atrophy, two common causes of ventricular enlargement. We found that in the schizophrenic group the third and fourth ventricles and both Sylvian fissures were significantly enlarged, but not the lateral ventricles or cerebral sulci. Our data suggest that these ventricular changes are not due to a disturbance of CSF flow or to cerebral atrophy. Other possible explanations are discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ketteler ◽  
Anastasia Theodoridou ◽  
Simon Ketteler ◽  
Matthias Jäger

Due to the deficits of schizophrenic patients regarding the understanding of vague meanings (D. Ketteler and S. Ketteler (2010)) we develop a special test battery called HOLF (high order linguistic function test), which should be able to detect subtle linguistic performance deficits in schizophrenic patients. HOLF was presented to 40 schizophrenic patients and controls, focussing on linguistic features such as ambiguity, synonymy, hypero-/hyponymy, antinomy, and adages. Using the HOLF test battery we found that schizophrenic patients showed significant difficulties in discriminating ambiguities, hypero- and hyponymy, or synonymy compared to healthy controls. Antonyms and adages showed less significant results in comparing both groups. The more difficult a linguistic task was, the more confusion was measured in the schizophrenic group while healthy controls did not show significant problems in processing high order language tasks.


1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. D. Frith

SynopsisThe performance of 21 chronic schizophrenic patients was investigated on two tests of feature selection. It was found that patients with negative symptoms (muteness, withdrawal, etc.) were characterized by an extreme lack of persistence, but selected usual features; whereas patients with positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, etc.) had a normal degree of persistence, but selected unusual features.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 1403-1412 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. LORENTE-ROVIRA ◽  
E. POMAROL-CLOTET ◽  
R. A. McCARTHY ◽  
G. E. BERRIOS ◽  
P. J. McKENNA

ABSTRACTBackgroundA form of confabulation has been documented in schizophrenia and appears to be related to the symptom of thought disorder. It is unclear whether it is associated with the same pattern of neuropsychological deficits as confabulation in neurological patients.MethodThirty-four patients with chronic schizophrenia, including those with and without thought disorder, and 17 healthy controls were given a fable recall task to elicit confabulation. They were also examined on a range of executive, episodic and semantic memory tests.ResultsConfabulation was seen at a significantly higher rate in the schizophrenic patients than the controls, and predominated in those with thought disorder. Neuropsychologically, it was not a function of general intellectual impairment, and was not clearly related to episodic memory or executive impairment. However, there were indications of an association with semantic memory impairment.ConclusionsThe findings support the existence of a form of confabulation in schizophrenia that is related to thought disorder and has a different neuropsychological signature to the neurological form of the symptom.


1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-237
Author(s):  
A. L. C. Pottash ◽  
Marks Gold ◽  
Margaret Pottenger ◽  
Brigitte A. Prusoff

Forty-two chronic schizophrenic patients were evaluated for extent of hedonic deficit and compared with a demographically matched sample of normals. Schizophrenics rated themselves as experiencing significantly less pleasure on four of ten pleasure factors. When the schizophrenic sample was divided into depressed and non-depressed subgroups, the depressed subgroup was found to account for these differences in pleasure between schizophrenics and normals. Psychobiological implications of these results are discussed.


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