Quetiapine-induced improvement of tardive dyskinesia in three patients with schizophrenia

There are very rare cases indicating the effectiveness of the atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of tardive dyskinesia except clozapine. We report three patients with schizophrenia who demonstrated improvement of tardive dyskinesia following treatment with quetiapine; two of them were unable to use clozapine because of intolerable side-effects

Event-related potentials and neuropsychological tests in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Objective: Previous studies have provided evidence from event-related potentials (ER-Ps) and neuropsychological testing of abnormal cognitive processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The aim of this study was to further characterize the cognitive functions of the patients with OCD by utilizing ERPs and neuropsychological tests. Methods: ERPs were recorded in a group of 31 drug-free OCD patients without depression and 30 normal controls following verbal auditory stimuli using an oddball paradigm. The specific neuropsycho logical tests administered to assess cognitive functions in all participants were the Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, Design Fluency Test, Controlled Word Association Test (Verbal Fluency test). Results: The patient group showed shorter P300 duration compared to normal controls. In neuropsycho logical tests, no significant differences were found between the two groups. Negative correlations between Stroop duration and P300 amplitudes in occipital, parietal, and temporal anterior regions were observed. Conclusion: Shorter P300 duration may indicate an acceleration in the P300 process, and speeding of cognitive processing, dysfunction of cortico-subcortical circuits, or some combination of all of the above. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved

Association of Wider Social Environment with Relapse in Schizophrenia: Registry Based Six-Year Follow-Up Study.

Introducton: The impact of social environment on the frequency and prevalence of schizophrenia is well known. However, in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, there are few studies which investigate the effect of social environment on disease prognosis and relapse. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of neighborhood social capital level and address change on relapse in schizophrenia and similar psychotic disorders

Tc-99m HMPAO brain perfusion SPECT in drug-free obsessive-compulsive patients without depression

The aim of this study was to confirm prior results of brain-imaging studies on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a sample of Turkish patients, as a cross-cultural study. Tc-99m HMPAO brain perfusion SPECT imaging was performed in nine drug-free OCD patients without depression and six controls. The patients' Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores were < 16. The severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms was rated with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Rating Scale (YBOCS). Quantitative evaluation of regional cerebral blood flow revealed that right thalamus, left frontotemporal cortex and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex showed significant hyperperfusion in patients with OCD compared with controls. YBOCS scores did not show any correlation with hyperperfusion in regional cerebral blood flow in these areas. Results of this cross-cultural study may support orbitofrontal and thalamic dysfunction in OCD in a sample of Turkish patients. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved