OBJECTIVE Serum prolactin is influenced by antipsychotic use but its relationships with psychopathology and general functioning are not clear. This study aimed to assess these relationships. DESIGN Serum prolactin levels were measured in patients with schizophrenia before being treated with antipsychotics and at various follow-up points. SETTING The study was conducted in a nongovernmental ...

BACKGROUND While electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used for many years, there is insufficient research regarding the indications for continuation/maintenance (C/M)-ECT, its safety and efficacy, and the characteristics of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who receive multiple ECT sessions. The aims of this study were to characterize a series of patients who received ...

objective : poor premorbid adjustment has been reported to be a predictor of more severe psychotic symptoms and poor quality of life in such psychotic disorders  as  schizophrenia.  however,  most  studies  were  performed  on chronic schizophrenic patients, and proposed the likelihood of recall biases and the effect of chronicity.  the aim of this study was to investigate these factors in a sa...

Treatment satisfaction of different mental disorders is still poorly understood, but of high clinical interest. Inpatients of a general psychiatric care hospital were asked to fill out questionnaires on satisfaction and clinical variables at admission and discharge. On the basis of an exploratory approach, differences in treatment satisfaction among diagnostic groups were examined by means of o...

AIMS To describe neurocognitive function among opioid-dependent adults seeking buprenorphine treatment and to explore the impact of lifetime psychiatric conditions on neurocognitive function. To explore the additive interaction of patient-based characteristics that may help to inform treatment. DESIGN Cross-sectional assessment of neurocognitive function, substance use, and psychiatric charac...

BACKGROUND New approaches to assess outcome in schizophrenia include multidimensional measures such as remission, cognition, psychosocial functioning, and quality of life. Clinical and psychosocial measures have been recently introduced to assess functional outcome. OBJECTIVE The study presented here was designed to examine the rates of symptomatic remission, psychosocial remission, global fu...

Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and psychosis is ubiquitous and acknowledged as a core feature of clinical expression, pathophysiology, and prediction of functioning. However, assessment of cognitive functioning is excessively time-consuming in routine practice, and brief cognitive instruments specific to psychosis would be of value. Two screening tools have recently been created to addre...

Individuals with the same neurological conditions do not necessarily manifest the same behavioral presentation, which suggests differences in resilience and vulnerability among individuals, a concept known as cognitive reserve. This study sought to explore the relationship among cognitive reserve, executive functioning, and health and safety judgment among a sample of older adult inpatients in ...

Ecological validity should be the cornerstone of any assessment of cognitive functioning. For this purpose, we have developed a preliminary study to test the Art Gallery Test (AGT) as an alternative to traditional neuropsychological testing. The AGT involves three visual search subtests displayed in a virtual reality (VR) art gallery, designed to assess visual attention within an ecologically v...