Psychotic symptoms may occur in 15-64% of individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, suggesting that the syndrome could be subtyped in a similar fashion to mood disorders. In our study of 1800 psychiatric out-patients who completed comprehensive diagnostic interviews, the lifetime prevalence of psychotic symptoms in people with PTSD was 17% (odds ratio (OR) = 3.48, 95% CI 2.32-5.21). Howe...

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of memantine on negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective. Methods: This is a double- blind randomized clinical trial. 58 patients participated in the study, 29 patients were randomly assigned to the memantine group and 29 patients to the placebo group. For assessing negative signs, and we used scale for the assess...

Recent evidence has suggested that psychosis could develop not only in people at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) but also in those with clinical risk syndromes for emergent nonpsychotic mental disorders. The proportion of people with these clinical risk syndromes who will develop psychosis rather than to other nonpsychotic mental disorders is undetermined. Electronic databases were sea...

BACKGROUND The psychosis phenotype appears to exist in the population as a continuum, but it is not clear if subclinical psychotic symptoms and psychotic disorders share the same neurobiology. We investigated whether the dopaminergic dysfunction seen in psychotic disorders is also present in healthy, well-functioning people with hallucinations. METHODS We compared dopamine synthesis capacity ...

BACKGROUND Patients suffering from psychotic disorders have an increased risk of comorbid somatic diseases such as cardiovascular disorders and diabetes mellitus. Doctor-related factors, such as unfamiliarity with these patients, as well as patient-related factors, such as cognitive disturbance and negative symptoms, contribute to suboptimal health care for these patients.General practitioners ...

CONTEXT Psychotic symptoms are commonly experienced in nonclinical populations of adolescents and adults and have been shown to be predictive of later schizophreniform disorders. Associations between adverse experiences in childhood and psychotic symptoms in adulthood have been demonstrated. OBJECTIVE To examine whether peer victimization is associated with psychotic symptoms in a population-...

Estimating the incidence and the prevalence of psychotic disorders in the province of Quebec has been the object of some interest in recent years as a contribution to the epidemiological study of the causes of psychotic disorders being carried out primarily in UK and Scandinavia. A number of studies have used administrative data from the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) that includ...

Psychotic experiences are far more prevalent in the population than psychotic disorders and are associated with a wide range of depressive, anxiety and behavioral disorders, as well as increased risk for psychotic disorder. Recently, psychotic experiences have been highlighted as a potentially valuable clinical marker of risk for suicidal behavior. There have been few studies to date, however, ...

INTRODUCTION Continuity of care has been demonstrated to be important for service users and carer groups have voiced major concerns over disruptions of care. We aimed to assess the experienced continuity of care in carers of patients with both psychotic and non-psychotic disorders and explore its association with carer characteristics and psychological well-being. METHODS Friends and relative...

Andrew Clark has been Senior Lecturer in Adolescent Psychiatry in Manchester since 1997 (McGuinness Unit, Mental Health Services of Salford NHS Trust, Bury New Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 3BL; e-mail: [email protected]) and was previously Consultant in Adolescent Psychiatry within the West Midlands region from 1990 to 1997. He has particular interests in the assessment and treatment of...