Schizophrenia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Schizophrenia, including details on paranoia, symptoms, treatment, depression, medication.

Ranking of outcome domains for use in real-time outcomes feedback laboratory by patients with schizophrenia.

Pyne JM, Labbate C

Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, North Little Rock, AR 72114, USA. jmpyne@uams.edu

The purpose of this study was to prioritize real-time outcomes from the perspective of patients with schizophrenia. Thirty-eight patients were interviewed and ranked 15 outcome domains according to their preference for communicating these outcomes with their mental health provider in the context of a real-time outcomes feedback laboratory. Subjects with schizophrenia ranked overall physical health as the most important outcome domain that they wanted to communicate to their mental health provider in the context of a real-time outcomes feedback laboratory. The ranking of physical health as the most important outcome domain was true for subjects regardless of total psychosis symptom severity, positive symptom severity, age, or level of insight. Outcomes feedback interventions for patients with schizophrenia should include physical health problems in addition to the usual mental health parameters.

Published 16 April 2008 in J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 336-9.
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Articles on Schizophrenia published 16 April 2008:

Measurement of insight in patients with bipolar disorder: are self-rated scales developed for patients with schizophrenia applicable?   J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 333-5.

Our aim was to study if the Birchwood Insight Scale has acceptable psychometric properties when used for patients with bipolar disorders. Patients with schizophrenia (n = 101), bipolar I (n = 57), and bipolar II disorder (n = 37) completed the self-report scale. The items form 3 subscales, awareness of illness, relabeling of symptoms, and need for treatment. The total scale had good internal consistency for patients with schizophrenia, fairly good for bipolar I, but poor for bipolar II ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Patients' and psychiatrists' perceptions of clinical decisions during schizophrenia treatment.   J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 329-32.

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Nonverbal behavior during standardized interviews in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.   J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(4): 282-8.

Several studies have consistently shown that patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) can be distinguished from normal controls on the basis of their nonverbal behavior during standardized interviews, with considerable interactions between negative symptoms and poor facial expressivity. However, most studies have examined unmedicated patients, and gender of both interviewer and interviewee has not been taken into account. In this study we assessed the nonverbal ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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Measuring medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia is difficult and lacks a gold standard. Consequently, a great number of different methods and instruments have been proposed. Although it has been assumed that they all measure medication adherence, this study demonstrates that instruments differ significantly. Using data from an international multisite study (N = 329), we found that 3 questionnaires, designed to measure medication adherence and typical for instruments used in ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Schizophrenia published 8 April 2008:

Dysfunctional neural plasticity in patients with schizophrenia.   Arch Gen Psychiatry, 65(4): 378-85.

CONTEXT: Neural plasticity in the human cortex involves a reorganization of synaptic connections in an effort to adapt to a changing environment. In schizophrenia, dysfunctional neural plasticity has been proposed as a key pathophysiological mechanism. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate neural plasticity in unmedicated and medicated patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy subjects. DESIGN: Neural plasticity can be evaluated from the motor cortex in healthy subjects using transcranial magnetic ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Schizophrenia published 3 April 2008:

Somnolence effects of antipsychotic medications and the risk of unintentional injury.   Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf, 17(4): 354-64.

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Articles on Schizophrenia published 2 April 2008:

Dysregulation of miRNA 181b in the temporal cortex in schizophrenia.   Hum Mol Genet, 17(8): 1156-68.

Analysis of global microRNA (miRNA) expression in postmortem cortical grey matter from the superior temporal gyrus, revealed significant up-regulation of miR-181b expression in schizophrenia. This finding was supported by quantitative real-time RT-PCR analysis of miRNA expression in a cohort of 21 matched pairs of schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls. The implications of this finding are substantial, as this miRNA is predicted to regulate many target genes with potential significance to ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Cis- and trans- loci influence expression of the schizophrenia susceptibility gene DTNBP1.   Hum Mol Genet, 17(8): 1169-74.

Susceptibility to complex disease appears to be partly mediated by heritable differences in gene expression. Where cis-acting effects on a gene's expression influence disease susceptibility, other genes containing polymorphism with a trans-acting effect on expression of that gene may also be expected to modulate risk. Use of the expression of an identified disease gene as an endophenotype for quantitative linkage analysis may therefore provide a powerful method for mapping loci that modulate ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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