Mental Health

Abstract Despite many differences, autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorder share environmental risk factors, genetic predispositions as well as neuronal abnormalities, and show similar cognitive deficits in working memory, perspective taking, or response inhibition. These shared abnormalities are already present in subclinical traits of these disorders. The literature proposes that changes in the inhibitory GABAergic and the excitatory glutamatergic system could explain underlying neuronal commonalities and differences. Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H-MRS), we investigated the associations between glutamate concentrations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the left/right putamen, and left/right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and psychotic-like experiences (Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire) and autistic traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient) in 53 healthy individuals (26 women). To investigate the contributions of glutamate concentrations in differe...

This work may not be copied, distributed, displayed, published, reproduced, transmitted, modified, posted, sold, licensed, or used for commercial purposes. By downloading this file, you are agreeing to the publisher's Terms & Conditions. S turge-Weber syndrome (SWS) is a rare embryological neurocutaneous malformation involving the excessive uncontrolled proliferation of blood vessels, with subsequent calcifications over time. 1 Blood vessel proliferation is predominant in 3 areas of the head—the brain (leptomeningeal angiomas), the eyes (glaucoma), and the face (facial capillary hemangioma). SWS has a prevalence of occurrence among 1 in 20,000–50,000 live births with more predominance in White individuals and those of female biological sex. 1,2 Thus far, very little is known about the extensive manifestation of SWS, especially in adulthood. In terms of etiology, the GNAQ gene mutation overexpression in genome-wide association studies has been attributed to the pathology....

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Comparative efficacy and tolerability of pharmacological ...    The Lancet

BAY CITY, MI — Throughout his life, Brian S. Vega battled mental illness, causing him to live in adult foster care facilities in recent years. When things were going well, staff at the facilities questioned if it was necessary to house him there. At other times, when he had an episode, it was clear he needed professional assistance. "He had been struggling with bipolar disorder for 45 years and he couldn't handle stress," said his sister, Patricia Finerty. At the same time, she remembered her younger brother as "a quiet soul." Vega at about 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25, walked away from the facility he lived at in the 1400 block of Fifth Street. Just about 48 hours later, a passerby spotted Vega's body floating in the Saginaw River near Wenonah Park in downtown Bay City. Vega had no children but had been married once, that union ending in divorce. Born in Bridgeport, Vega was a carpenter by trade, Finerty said. For more than a decade, Vega lived in a facility i...

Animals can suffer from many of the same mental illnesses that humans do, such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But there's one mental illness that, at least as far as we can tell, that animals don't get: schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and Animals Admittedly, it would be difficult to know if an animal were suffering from schizophrenia. The National Library of Medicine describes the symptoms of schizophrenia as including hallucinations, most commonly auditory but often involving hallucinatory visions, smells or even tastes, as well. In addition, schizophrenia can cause delusions, such as thinking that you're George Washington or Napoleon, that you're the focus of an evil plot or even that you're being controlled by beings from other planets or dimensions. If something like that were going on in the mind of, say, your dog, how would you even know? Meanwhile, cats certainly appear to hear voices tha...

Abstract Background Motivational deficits are a central feature of the negative syndrome in schizophrenia. They have consistently been associated with reduced willingness to expend physical effort in return for monetary rewards on effort based decision making (EBDM) paradigms. Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying such altered performance are not well characterised, and it remains unclear if they are driven purely by negative symptoms, or also in part by cognitive impairment, antipsychotic treatment or even positive symptoms. Here we investigated the impact of all these factors using a paradigm that has not previously been used to measure EBDM in schizophrenia. Methods Forty treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS) patients on clozapine and matched controls (N  = 80) completed a well validated EBDM task which offers monetary rewards in return for physical effort. Choice and reaction time data was analysed using logistic regressions, as well as Bayesian hierarchical drift diffusion mod...