Nagasaki Schizophrenia Study: Relationship Between Ultralong-term Outcome (after 28 years) and Duration of Untreated Psychosis

Objective: Numerous studies have shown a relationship between the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in schizophrenia and short-termoutcome. However, few studies have investigated the relationships between DUP and the medium-term and long-term outcomes. Furthermore,we are unaware of any reports regarding the relationship between DUP and the ultralong-term outcome. This study aimed to investigate therelationship between DUP and ultralong-term outcome at 28 years in patients with schizophrenia.Method: Patients with schizophrenia completed an interview survey 28 years after their initial psychiatric examination during the period 1979-1980. It was possible to conduct the survey using suitable assessment scales in 31 patients in whom DUP was confirmed. These patients weredivided into a short DUP group and a long DUP group on the basis of the median DUP, and the outcomes of these two groups were compared.Results: Longer DUP correlated significantly with poorer symptomatic outcome; degree of social adjustment; and, global functioning. Multiplelinear regression analysis found no changes in these results even after controlling for various factors, including gender, age at onset, mode ofonset, diagnostic subtype, and premorbid adjustment.Conclusion: DUP adversely affected ultralong-term outcome of schizophrenia after 28 years. This finding supports the need to establish asystem to enable early detection and appropriate intervention for patients with schizophrenia to reduce the risk of a deleterious outcome aftermore than 25 years

Effects of a 1.5 T time-varying magnetic field on cell volume regulation of bovine adrenal chromaffin cells in hyposmotic media

Effects of a time-varying magnetic field on cell volume regulation by hyposmotic stress in cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells were examined. Through regulatory volume decrease (RVD), cell volume of chromaffin cells that were incubated in a hypotonic medium initially increased, reached a peak and finally recovered to the initial value. Two hour exposure to a magnetic field and addition of cytochalasin D increased peak value and delayed return to initial value. Intracellular F-actin contents initially decreased but returned to normal levels after 10 sec. Two hour exposure to the magnetic field and addition of cytochalasin D continuously reduced the F-actin content. Results suggest that exposure to the magnetic field stimulated disruption of the actin cytoskeleton and that the disruption delayed the recovery to the volume prior to osmotic stress