Schizotypal traits are of interest and importance in their own right and also have theoretical and clinical associations with schizophrenia. These traits comprise attenuated psychotic symptoms, social withdrawal, reduced cognitive capacity, and affective dysregulation. The link between schizotypal traits and psychotic disorders has long since been debated. The status of knowledge at this point ...

Lack of insight, very frequent in schizophrenia, can be considered a deficit in Theory of Mind (ToM) performances, and is also found in other psychiatric disorders. In this study, we used the first- to third-person shift to examine subjects with psychotic and psychotic mood disorders. 92 patients were evaluated with SANS and SAPS scales and asked to talk about their delusions. They were asked t...

Context: Different paradoxical theories are available regarding psychiatric disorders. The current study aimed to establish a more comprehensive overall approach. Evidence Acquisition: This basic study examined ancient medical books. “The Canon” by Avicenna and “Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry” by Kaplan and Sadock were the most important and frequently consulted books in this study. Resul...

This study examined the concordance and predictive validity of two empirical and two operational classification systems of psychotic disorders. Latent class analysis (LCA) was applied to 16 index episode and to their corresponding 16 lifetime symptom ratings of 660 psychotic inpatients, who were also diagnosed according to DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. The resulting classes or diagnoses were vali...

BACKGROUND Individuals with schizophrenia use psychoactive substances more frequently than the general population. The genetic vulnerability to develop schizophrenia may also increase risk for the development of substance use disorders. We examine this hypothesis by assessing the rates of substance use disorders and nicotine use in non-psychotic siblings of individuals with schizophrenia. MET...

Psychotic experiences in young people are substantially more common than psychotic disorders, and are associated with distress and functional impairment. Family history of depression as well as of schizophrenia increases risk for psychotic experiences, but the prevalence of such experiences and their clinical relevance in offspring of depressed parents is unknown. Our objectives were to explore...

The association between disorders of thyroid function and psychiatric symptoms is well established. Generally, hypothyroidism is recognized as being able to induce psychotic symptoms. However, psychotic symptoms without affective and cognitive disturbances are rare in hyperthyroidism. We presented a patient with Graves’ disease who suffered from delusions and hallucinations without affective an...

OBJECTIVE To describe the living conditions and sociability among people with severe mental disorders living in slums. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES A qualitative study was carried out among adults living in slums in the central region of Santos, Southeastern Brazil, conducted in 2004-2006. Ethnographic observations were made in four slum properties, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were c...

Previous research on schizophrenia suggests that context-processing disturbances are one of the core cognitive deficits present in schizophia. However, it is not clear whether such deficits are specific to schizophrenia as compared with other psychotic disorders. To address this question, the authors administered a version of the AX Continuous Performance Test designed to assess context process...