The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was originally designed as a rating system that provides balanced representation of positive and negative symptom features. Evidence from recent factor-analytic studies suggests that a five-dimensional solution appears to best fit the psychopathological data as assessed with the PANSS. To investigate the dimensional structure, we administered the...

Background Bipolar disorder is associated with an increased risk of aggression. However, effective management of hostility and/or agitation symptoms may prevent patients from becoming violent. This analysis investigated the efficacy of the antipsychotic asenapine on hostility and agitation in patients with bipolar I disorder. Methods Data were pooled from three randomized, double-blind, place...

BACKGROUND Depressive symptoms are common in schizophrenia and are considered core features of the disorder. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and subjective well-being in newly admitted patients with schizophrenia. METHODS Eighty newly admitted patients were comprehensively evaluated for subjective well-being, schizophrenic symptoms,...

PALMFlexS, a prospective multicentre, open-label, 6-month, phase IIIb interventional study, explored tolerability, safety and treatment response in adults (n = 231) with non-acute but symptomatic schizophrenia switching to flexibly dosed paliperidone palmitate (PP) after unsuccessful treatment with risperidone long-acting injectable therapy (RLAT) or conventional depot antipsychotics (APs). Tre...

The purpose of this study was to test the reliability, validity, and factor structure of a Chinese version of the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scale (PSYRATS) in 198 and 202 adult patients with recent-onset and chronic psychosis, respectively. The PSYRATS has been translated into different language versions and has been validated for clinical and research use mainly in chronic psychotic patients bu...

Introduction: This study aims to compare the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia in patients who had psychotic symptoms more than one month after discontinuation of methamphetamine abuse. These factors were analyzed by the PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) questionnaire. Materials and Methods: 60 participants were selected from patients referred to Iran Psychiatric Hospi...

BACKGROUND Alternative and traditional healing methods are common and popular in Sudan, particularly for treating people with mental disorders, but little information is available about the outcome of theses traditional healing approaches. OBJECTIVES To study the outcome of treating patients with psychotic disorders by traditional healers, and to understand the type of services, interventions...

AIM The aim of the present study was twofold: 1. to compare the efficacy of three antipsychotics (ziprasidone, olanzapine and perazine) in schizophrenia 2. to compare the improvement in cognitive functioning between groups treated with the three different neuroleptics. METHOD A total of 58 Caucasian patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia were recruited into the study group. We used th...

OBJECTIVE To investigate possible correlations between the tendency towards alexithymia and the depressive state, globally and with regard to the Toronto Alexithymia scale (TAS-20) subscales and the Hamilton rating scale for depression (HAM-D) subscales. METHODS 75 patients, suffering from Unipolar Depression, were assessed through the HAM-D and the TAS-20 and compared to the control group (n...

Schizophrenia is one of the most devastating of all mental illnesses, and has dimensional characteristics that include both positive and negative symptoms. One problem reported in schizophrenia patients is that they tend to show deficits in face emotion processing, on which negative symptoms are thought to have stronger influence. In this study, four event-related potential (ERP) components (P1...