Background: The contents of traditional communication media and new internet social media reflect the interests of society. However, certain barriers and a lack of attention towards mental disorders have been previously observed. Objective: The objective of this study is to measure the relevance of influential American mainstream media outlets for the distribution of psychiatric information and the interest generated in these topics among their Twitter followers. Methods: We investigated tweets generated about mental health conditions and diseases among 15 mainstream general communication media outlets in the United States of America between January 2007 and December 2016. Our study strategy focused on identifying several psychiatric terms of primary interest. The number of retweets generated from the selected tweets was also investigated. As a control, we examined tweets generated about the main causes of death in the United States of America, the main chronic neurological degenerative diseases, and HIV. Results: In total, 13,119 tweets about mental health disorders sent by the American mainstream media outlets were analyzed. The results showed a heterogeneous distribution but preferential accumulation for a select number of conditions. Suicide and gender dysphoria accounted for half of the number of tweets sent. Variability in the number of tweets related to each control disease was also found (5998). The number of tweets sent regarding each different psychiatric or organic disease analyzed was significantly correlated with the number of retweets generated by followers (1,030,974 and 424,813 responses to mental health disorders and organic diseases, respectively). However, the probability of a tweet being retweeted differed significantly among the conditions and diseases analyzed. Furthermore, the retweeted to tweet ratio was significantly higher for psychiatric diseases than for the control diseases (odds ratio 1.11, CI 1.07-1.14; P < .001). Conclusions: American mainstream media outlets and the general public demonstrate a preferential interest for psychiatric diseases on Twitter. The heterogeneous weights given by the media outlets analyzed to the different mental health disorders and conditions are reflected in the responses of Twitter followers.

Background: The contents of traditional communication media and new internet social media reflect the interests of society. However, certain barriers and a lack of attention towards mental disorders have been previously observed. Objective: The objective of this study is to measure the relevance of influential American mainstream media outlets for the distribution of psychiatric information and the interest generated in these topics among their Twitter followers. Methods: We investigated tweets generated about mental health conditions and diseases among 15 mainstream general communication media outlets in the United States of America between January 2007 and December 2016. Our study strategy focused on identifying several psychiatric terms of primary interest. The number of retweets generated from the selected tweets was also investigated. As a control, we examined tweets generated about the main causes of death in the United States of America, the main chronic neurological degenerative diseases, and HIV. Results: In total, 13,119 tweets about mental health disorders sent by the American mainstream media outlets were analyzed. The results showed a heterogeneous distribution but preferential accumulation for a select number of conditions. Suicide and gender dysphoria accounted for half of the number of tweets sent. Variability in the number of tweets related to each control disease was also found (5998). The number of tweets sent regarding each different psychiatric or organic disease analyzed was significantly correlated with the number of retweets generated by followers (1,030,974 and 424,813 responses to mental health disorders and organic diseases, respectively). However, the probability of a tweet being retweeted differed significantly among the conditions and diseases analyzed. Furthermore, the retweeted to tweet ratio was significantly higher for psychiatric diseases than for the control diseases (odds ratio 1.11, CI 1.07-1.14; P < .001). Conclusions: American mainstream media outlets and the general public demonstrate a preferential interest for psychiatric diseases on Twitter. The heterogeneous weights given by the media outlets analyzed to the different mental health disorders and conditions are reflected in the responses of Twitter followers.

The symptoms of schizophrenia might be mediated by a cortical network disconnection which may disrupt the cortical oscillatory activity. Steady-state responses are an easy and consistent way to explore cortical oscillatory activity. A chirp-modulated tone (increasing the frequency of the modulation in a linear manner) allows a fast measure of the steady-state response to different modulation rates. With this approach, we studied the auditory steady-state responses in two groups of patients with schizophrenia (drug-naive and treated with atypical antipsychotic drugs), in order to assess the differences in their responses with respect to healthy subjects, and study any potential effect of medication. Drug-naive patients had reduced amplitude and inter-trial phase coherence of the response in the 30-50Hz range, and reduced amplitude of the response in the 90-100Hz range, when compared to controls. In the treated patients group, the response in the 30-50Hz range was normalized to values similar to the control group, but the reduction in amplitude in the 90-100Hz range remained as in the drug-naive group. These results suggest that gamma activity impairment in schizophrenia is a complex phenomenon that affects a wide band of frequencies and may be influenced by antipsychotic treatment.

Schizophrenia (SZ) and Bipolar Disorder (BD) are associated with deficits in both timing and cognitive control functions. However, the underlying neurological dysfunctions remain poorly understood. The main goal of this study was to identify brain structures activated both by increases in cognitive activity and during timing tasks in patients with SZ and BD relative to controls. We conducted two signed differential mapping (SDM) meta-analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies assessing the brain response to increasing levels of cognitive difficulty: one concerned SZ, and the other BD patients. We conducted a similar SDM meta-analysis on neuroimaging of timing in SZ (no studies in BD could be included). Finally, we carried out a multimodal meta-analysis to identify common brain regions in the findings of the two previous meta-analyses. We found that SZ patients showed hypoactivation in timing-related cortical-subcortical areas. The dysfunction observed during timing partially coincided with deficits for cognitive control functions. We hypothesize that a dysfunctional temporal/cognitive control network underlies the persistent cognitive impairment observed in SZ.

Background: The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme plays a crucial role in dopamine degradation, and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism (rs4680) is associated with significant differences in enzymatic activity and consequently dopamine concentrations in the prefrontal cortex. Multiple studies have analyzed the COMT Val158Met variant in relation to antipsychotic response. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis examining the relationship between COMT Val158Met and antipsychotic response. Methods: Searches using PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycInfo databases (03/01/2015) yielded 23 studies investigating COMT Val158Met variation and antipsychotic response in schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder. Responders/nonresponders were defined using each study¿s original criteria. If no binary response definition was used, authors were asked to define response according to at least 30% Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale score reduction (or equivalent in other scales). Analysis was conducted under a fixed-effects model. Results: Ten studies met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. Five additional antipsychotic-treated samples were analyzed for Val158Met and response and included in the meta-analysis (ntotal=1416). Met/Met individuals were significantly more likely to respond than Val-carriers (P=.039, ORMet/Met=1.37, 95% CI: 1.02¿1.85). Met/Met patients also experienced significantly greater improvement in positive symptoms relative to Val-carriers (P=.030, SMD=0.24, 95% CI: 0.024¿0.46). Posthoc analyses on patients treated with atypical antipsychotics (n=1207) showed that Met/Met patients were significantly more likely to respond relative to Val-carriers (P=.0098, ORMet/Met=1.54, 95% CI: 1.11¿2.14), while no difference was observed for typical-antipsychotic-treated patients (n=155) (P=.65). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with response to antipsychotics in schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder patients. This effect may be more pronounced for atypical antipsychotics.

Recent studies based on biography analysis provide support for the notion that the prevalence of mental illness in the creative geniuses of art, literature and science is higher than it is in more ordinary folk. However, this relationship between madness and genius, which was also addressed by the classical philosophers, has been generalized to all branches of professional endeavour. Whilst it may hold true for illustrious personalities of the fine arts, we found that the relationship proves inappropriate to the biographies of ten individuals renowned in history for their innovative contributions to medical science. Furthermore, examination of these ten biographies invites the hypothesis that certain personality traits - especially, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to new experience - can act to enhance creativity and protect against mental illness.

he HRQOLISP-40 scale is valid and reliable for assessing patients' quality of life after a stroke. Validating quality of life assessment instruments is necessary in order to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs for Colombian stroke patients.

Timing and other cognitive processes demanding cognitive control become interlinked when there is an increase in the level of difficulty or effort required. Both functions are interrelated and share neuroanatomical bases. A previous meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies found that people with schizophrenia had significantly lower activation, relative to normal controls, of most right hemisphere regions of the time circuit. This finding suggests that a pattern of disconnectivity of this circuit, particularly in the supplementary motor area, is a trait of this mental disease. We hypothesize that a dysfunctional temporal/cognitive control network underlies both cognitive and psychiatric symptoms of schizophrenia and that timing dysfunction is at the root of the cognitive deficits observed. The goal of our study was to look, in schizophrenia patients, for brain structures activated both by execution of cognitive tasks requiring increased effort and by performance of time perception tasks. We conducted a signed differential mapping (SDM) meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies in schizophrenia patients assessing the brain response to increasing levels of cognitive difficulty. Then, we performed a multimodal meta-analysis to identify common brain regions in the findings of that SDM meta-analysis and our previously-published activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis of neuroimaging of time perception in schizophrenia patients. The current study supports the hypothe

Context processing deficits have been shown to be present in chronic and first episode schizophrenia patients and in their relatives. This cognitive process is linked to frontal functioning and is highly dependent on dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme plays a prominent role in regulating dopamine levels in PFC. Genotypic variations in the functional polymorphism Val158Met COMT appear to have an impact in dopamine signaling in the PFC of healthy subjects and schizophrenia patients. We aimed to explore the effect of the Val158Met COMT polymorphism on brain activation during the performance of a context processing task in healthy subjects, schizophrenia spectrum patients and their healthy relatives. Methods: 56 participants performed the Dot Probe Expectancy task (DPX) during the fMRI session. Subjects were genotyped and only the Val and Met homozygotes participated in the study. Results: Schizophrenia spectrum patients and their relatives showed worse performance on context processing measures than healthy control subjects. The Val allele was associated with more context processing errors in healthy controls and in relatives compared to patients. There was a greater recruitment of frontal areas (supplementary motor area/cingulate gyrus) during context processing in patients relative to healthy controls. Met homozygotes subjects activated more frontal areas than Val homozygotes subjects. Conclusions: The Val158Met COMT polymorphism influences context processing and on its underlying brain activation, showing less recruitment of frontal areas in the subjects with the genotype associated to lower dopamine availability in PFC.

El tratamiento más completo y eficaz incluye medidas higiénicas combinadas con tratamientos farmacológicos y psicoterapéuticos. Los fármacos más empleados en el tratamiento del insomnio son las benzodiacepinas y los fármacos agonistas del receptor de benzodiacepinas no benzodiacepí- nicos. Entre los tratamientos psicoterapéuticos destaca la terapia cognitivo conductual, la terapia de control de estímulos, la terapia de restricción del sueño y las terapias de relajación

Antecedentes. La medición de calidad de vida en pacientes con accidente cerebrovascular es importante, ya que puede orientar el manejo de los procesos de rehabilitación. En Colombia no existen instrumentos de medición de calidad de vida validados para pacientes con este tipo de afección. Objetivo. Realizar la adaptación transcultural de la escala Health-Related Quality of Life In Stroke Patients HRQOLISP-40 para su uso en Colombia. Materiales y métodos. Se siguieron las recomendaciones metodológicas del grupo de calidad de vida EORTC: traducción inicial, traducción inversa y estudio piloto. Resultados. Las traducciones directas fueron similares en 24/40 ítems; en 12 ítems hubo variaciones en redacción sin cambio de palabras; en las instrucciones, una opción de respuesta y en 4 ítems se requirió escoger la mejor opción de traducción de una palabra. Las traducciones inversas fueron similares entre sí y a la versión original de la escala. Por otra parte, en la prueba piloto se observó cierta dificultad de comprensión en 3 ítems, se adoptaron las sugerencias del autor respecto a las inquietudes de los pacientes, no hubo dificultades por molestia ni se sugirió un nuevo parafraseo. Conclusión. Al terminar esta fase se cuenta con la versión en español (de Colombia) de la escala HRQOLISP-40 para ser sometida a una validación previa a su uso en la evaluación de calidad de vida en pacientes con accidente cerebrovascular.

Esta revisión pretende mostrar al lector los principales hallazgos de la literatura neurocientífica y cognitiva sobre la temporalidad en la esquizofrenia. Realizaremos primero una breve introducción sobre aspectos teóricos y conceptuales para adentrarnos luego en la importancia de su alteración en este trastorno. Concretamente, las estructuras cerebrales subyacentes y la interacción que guarda con otras disfunciones cognitivas y síntomas psicopatológicos. Incluye diferentes estudios con un enfoque tanto conductual como neurocientífico, aunque especialmente se centra en las tareas de discriminación temporal en la escala de milisegundos y en los estudios que emplean técnicas de neuroimagen funcional.

We describe a case of delusional psychosis that was terminated by neurosurgical removal of a large arachnoid cyst. The patient was suffering his first psychotic episode and had symptoms typical of schizophrenia. The case underscores the importance of considering that an arachnoid cyst can induce psychopathological symptoms, even those of schizophrenia. Indeed, such symptoms may be the cyst's only clinical manifestation. In addition, the case highlights the importance of doing a structural imaging test when confronted with a first episode of psychosis, especially if the episode is relatively late in appearance. Such imaging may lead to a diagnosis that in turn can enable a definitive neurosurgical resolution of the psychosis.

Objectives: We hypothesize that time perception and executive functions are interrelated and share neuroanatomical basis, and that fluctuations in levels of cognitive effort play a role in mediating that relation. The main goal of this study was to identify brain structures activated both by increases in cognitive activity and during time perception tasks. Methods: We performed a multimodal meta-analysis to identify common brain regions in the findings of (a) an SDM meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies assessing the brain response to increasing levels of cognitive difficulty, and (b) an ALE meta-analysis on neuroimaging of time perception (Ortuño, Guillén-Grima, López-García, Gómez, & Pla, 2011). Results and Conclusions: Consistent with results of previous, separate meta-analyses, the current study supports the hypothesis that there exists a group of brain regions engaged both in time perception tasks and during tasks requiring cognitive effort. Thus, brain regions associated with working memory and executive functions were found to be engaged during time estimation tasks, and regions associated with time perception were found to be engaged by an increase in the difficulty of non-temporal tasks. The implication is that temporal perception and cognitive processes demanding cognitive control become interlinked when there is an increase in the level of cognitive effort demanded.

Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is a core feature and seems to be related mainly to dopaminergic dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The functional polymorphism Val158Met of the COMT (catechol-. O-methyltransferase) gene could mediate the relationship between cognition and dopamine activity in PFC. The present study tested the influence of this polymorphism on the cognitive performance of schizophrenia spectrum patients and their relatives, using some subtests of the neuropsychological battery, the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery, and evaluated the impact of this polymorphism on a specific prefrontal cognitive function using a cognitive neuroscience paradigm. A Group of 74 schizophrenia spectrum disorder patients, 48 relatives and 67 controls performed some subtests of the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. In addition, 40 schizophrenia spectrum disorder patients, 26 relatives and 63 controls performed the Dot Pattern Expectancy Task (DPX) to study context processing. For the neuropsychological battery, no differences in any of the cognitive domains were found according to genotype. The DPX task was sensitive to genotype effects in patients as well as in relatives. Context processing deficits in schizophrenia patients and their relatives may be mediated by COMT genotype. The influence of the COMT genotype on cognition is more relevant in specific cognitive tasks related to prefrontal function. These results should be replicated in larger samples.

Background: As marker genes for bipolar disorder (BP) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not fully identified, we carried out a complete genome analysis to search for genes differentially expressed in ADHD and BP. Materials and methods: We recruited 39 patients (30 ADHD, 9 BP), aged 7 to 23 years. For evaluation of the psychiatric diagnosis, we used a semi-structured interview based on the K-SADS-PL (DSM-IV). RNA was extracted from peripheral blood and analyzed with the GeneChip (R) Human Genome U133-Plus 2.0 (Affymetrix). For the validation of differentially expressed genes, real-time PCR was used. Results: Hybridization and subsequent statistical analysis found 502 probe-sets with significant differences in expression in ADHD and BP patients. Of these, 82 had highly significant differences. Neuregulin (NRG1), cathepsins B and D (CTSB, CTSD) and prostaglandin-D2-synthase (FTGDS) were chosen for semi-quantitative mRNA determination. The expression of PTGDS was statistically increased in ADHD relative to BP patients (p = 0.01). We found no such differential expression with NRG1, CTSB and CTSD genes (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The gene coding for FTGDS was found to be more expressed in patients with ADHD relative to patients with BP, indicating a possible link with the differential etiology of ADHD. The experimental approach we have used is, at least in part, validated by the detection of proteins directly concerned with brain functions, and shows a possible way forward for studies of the connection between brain function genes and psychiatric disorders. Limitations: Confirmation of our findings requires a larger sample of patients with clearly-defined phenotypes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been associated with progressive changes in grey matter (GM) volume. However, the temporal trajectories of these changes are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to assess longitudinal changes in grey matter volume subsequent to the first episode of schizophrenia and of affective psychoses. Adolescent patients with a first episode psychosis (n=26) were scanned twice using magnetic resonance imaging, at first presentation and after a 3-year follow-up period. An age-matched group of healthy volunteers (n=17) was scanned at the same time points. Within-group and between-group changes in regional grey matter volume were examined using voxel-based morphometry. There were significant group by time interactions (p(FDRcorr)<0.05) in the frontal, temporal, parietal, cerebellar cortex, and in the thalamus, mainly reflecting longitudinal reductions in the controls but not in the patients. Subdivision of the patient group revealed that there were similar longitudinal reductions in patients with affective psychoses as in the controls but no volumetric changes in patients with schizophrenia. Psychosis with onset in adolescence or early adulthood may be associated with a delay or a loss of longitudinal reductions in regional grey matter volume that normally occur at this stage of development. These changes may be specific to schizophrenia.

Volumetric brain abnormalities are evident in young adults presenting with a first episode of both affective psychoses and schizophrenia, but there are also significant differences between these two patient groups. Clinical outcome after the first episode may be related to the severity of volumetric abnormalities at presentation.