OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of specific personality disorder comorbidity on the course of major depressive disorder in a nationally representative sample. METHOD Data were drawn from 1,996 participants in a national survey. Participants who met criteria for major depressive disorder at baseline in face-to-face interviews (in 2001-2002) were reinterviewed 3 y...

BACKGROUND The schizotypal personality disorder is considered as a marker of schizophrenia proneness. The schizotypal personality questionnaire (SPQ) is an instrument to help to the diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder extensively studied in the literature. aim: To assess psychometric properties (reliability and factor structure) of the Arabic version of the SPQ in a sample of Tunisian...

People: 668 people (aged 18–45 years) with a diagnosed personality disorder (Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders), or major depressive disorder (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders-patient version). Included personality disorders were: schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive. Exclusions: acute substance intoxication or withdrawal; acti...

BACKGROUND Schizotypy is a range of perceptual experiences and personality features related to risk and familial predisposition to psychosis. Despite evidence that schizotypy is related to psychosis vulnerability, very little is known about the expression of schizotypal traits in individuals with a psychotic disorder, and their relationship to clinical symptoms, cognition, and psychosocial func...

The aim of this study within the Athens Study of Psychosis Proneness and Incidence of Schizophrenia (ASPIS) was the examination of the latent structure of schizotypal dimensions among a large population of young male conscripts in the Greek Air Force during their first week of military training. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on 1,355 reliable responders to the self-rated Schi...

OBJECTIVE "Cognitive" circuits anatomically link the frontal lobe to subcortical structures; therefore, pathology in any of the core components of these circuits, such as in the caudate nucleus, may result in neurobehavioral syndromes similar to those of the frontal lobe. Neuroleptic medication, however, affects the size of the caudate nucleus. For this reason, individuals diagnosed with schizo...

In light of current linkage studies in schizophrenia, research on the "schizophrenia spectrum" deserves increased attention for an exact determination of the affected phenotype: Those disorders that have a much higher prevalence among biological relatives of schizophrenia patients are supposed to share common etiological factors with "core" schizophrenia. However, there is controversy over whic...

D SM-III restricts the diagnosis of schizophrenia to those patients demonstrating overt evidence of a thought disorder or hallucination. The study describes seven patients on an inpatient alcohol treatment unit who met the criteria for schizotypal personality. Their age, mental status exam, family history, and response to medication were compatible with a schizophrenic spectrum concept of the s...