OBJECTIVE Smaller temporal lobe cortical gray matter volumes, including the left superior temporal gyrus, have been reported in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of patients with chronic schizophrenia and, more recently, in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. However, it remains unknown whether there are progressive decreases in temporal lobe cortical gray matter volumes in patien...

Bipolar disorder is a lifelong episodic illness requiring long-term treatment, yet there remains a need for well-tolerated and clinically effective maintenance of effect and continuation therapies. Aripiprazole has a novel pharmacological profile; partial agonism at dopamine D 2 and D 3 and serotonin 5-HT 1A receptors, and antagonism at 5-HT 2A receptors. 1–5 Aripiprazole has been shown to impr...

INTRODUCTION Understanding factors affecting the time to recovery from acute mania is critical in the management of manic syndromes. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of HIV infection on time to recovery from acute mania. METHODS We performed a retrospective study in which medical charts of individuals who were treated for acute mania were reviewed. Survival analysis with Cox ...

The main subject of criminal proceedings is that of criminal responsibility, from this point of view bipolar disorders sometimes seem to be a neglected subject in legal scholarship. Yet they may affect decision-making across the spectrum of the law, especially when manic and psychotic symptoms are implicated. This case studies a 37-year-old woman, diagnosed with bipolar affective in disorder, w...

Introduction: For the past few decades there have been many breakthroughs in modern psychiatry, one of which is the usage of atypical antipsychotics (AAP) and mood stabilizers (MS) in bipolar disorder. But the choice of medication has been a subject of debate among doctors worldwide. The goal of this pharmacologic analysis was to characterize the first line medication choice and combination med...

Changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity constitute a key component of bipolar mania, but the extent and nature of these alterations are not fully understood. We use here the lateral hypothalamic-kindled (LHK) rat model to deliberately induce an acute manic-like episode and measure serum corticosterone concentrations to assess changes in HPA axis activity. A mathematica...

BACKGROUND The Heschl gyrus and planum temporale have crucial roles in auditory perception and language processing. Our previous investigation using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indicated smaller gray matter volumes bilaterally in the Heschl gyrus and in left planum temporale in patients with first-episode schizophrenia but not in patients with first-episode affective psychosis. We sought t...