Psychopathology in never-treated schizophrenia

Abstract The effect of drug treatment and its adverse effects confound studies on symptoms and associated factors in schizophrenia. Knowledge of psychopathology in the untreated state would identify the natural state of the illness and is relevant to understand pathology underlying the illness. We report here symptoms of schizophrenia as measured by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale in 143 patients with schizophrenia living in the community never treated with antipsychotic drugs. Positive symptoms were more frequent than negative ones. Negative subscale scores correlated negatively with positive subscale scores and positively with general psychopathology subscale scores. Age correlated negatively with negative and general psychopathology subscale scores independent of duration of illness. Duration of illness and the proportion of life spent in psychosis did not correlate with any Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores. The factors (negative, positive, anxiety-depression, motor, and excitement) extracted by a forced 5-factor analysis explained 56% of variance. This factor structure resembled that of treated patients reported in most studies except for the identification of a motor symptom cluster. Psychopathology in the never-treated schizophrenia varied in some aspects from descriptions in the treated state. The differences can be said to demarcate the natural features of the illness from medication effects on the relationship of symptoms with one another and to sex, age, duration of illness, and age at onset.

The persistent shadow of the supermassive black hole of M 87

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration reported the first-ever event-horizon-scale images of a black hole, resolving the central compact radio source in the giant elliptical galaxy M 87. These images reveal a ring with a southerly brightness distribution and a diameter of ∼42 μas, consistent with the predicted size and shape of a shadow produced by the gravitationally lensed emission around a supermassive black hole. These results were obtained as part of the April 2017 EHT observation campaign, using a global very long baseline interferometric radio array operating at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. Here, we present results based on the second EHT observing campaign, taking place in April 2018 with an improved array, wider frequency coverage, and increased bandwidth. In particular, the additional baselines provided by the Greenland telescope improved the coverage of the array. Multiyear EHT observations provide independent snapshots of the horizon-scale emission, allowing us to confirm the persistence, size, and shape of the black hole shadow, and constrain the intrinsic structural variability of the accretion flow. We have confirmed the presence of an asymmetric ring structure, brighter in the southwest, with a median diameter of 43.3−3.1+1.5 μas. The diameter of the 2018 ring is remarkably consistent with the diameter obtained from the previous 2017 observations. On the other hand, the position angle of the brightness asymmetry in 2018 is shifted by about 30° relative to 2017. The perennial persistence of the ring and its diameter robustly support the interpretation that the ring is formed by lensed emission surrounding a Kerr black hole with a mass ∼6.5 × 109 M⊙. The significant change in the ring brightness asymmetry implies a spin axis that is more consistent with the position angle of the large-scale jet

Case Report - Folie a Famille: Delusional parasitosis affecting all the members of a family

Delusional parasitosis (Ekbom syndrome) is an uncommon psychiatric disorder that presents with a delusion of being infested with parasites. Treatment of this condition is difficult as patients with this paranoid disorder reject psychiatric diagnosis and treatment and often consult a dermatologist. Sharing the delusional beliefs of the paranoid patient by other people living in close emotional bonding with him/her could occur. We report here the clinically interesting phenomenon of delusion of parasitosis occurring simultaneously in all the members of a family. There was a pathological bonding between the members of the family who all presented to the dermatologist and rejected treatment. Dermatologists need to be aware of this uncommon clinical picture

Event Horizon Telescope imaging of the archetypal blazar 3C 279 at an extreme 20 microarcsecond resolution

3C 279 is an archetypal blazar with a prominent radio jet that show broadband flux density variability across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. We use an ultra-high angular resolution technique - global Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) at 1.3 mm (230 GHz) - to resolve the innermost jet of 3C 279 in order to study its fine-scale morphology close to the jet base where highly variable gamma -ray emission is thought to originate, according to various models. The source was observed during four days in April 2017 with the Event Horizon Telescope at 230 GHz, including the phased Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), at an angular resolution of similar to 20 mu as (at a redshift of z=0.536 this corresponds to similar to 0.13 pc similar to 1700 Schwarzschild radii with a black hole mass M-BH=8x10(8) M-circle dot). Imaging and model-fitting techniques were applied to the data to parameterize the fine-scale source structure and its variation. We find a multicomponent inner jet morphology with the northernmost component elongated perpendicular to the direction of the jet, as imaged at longer wavelengths. The elongated nuclear structure is consistent on all four observing days and across different imaging methods and model-fitting techniques, and therefore appears robust. Owing to its compactness and brightness, we associate the northern nuclear structure as the VLBI "core". This morphology can be interpreted as either a broad resolved jet base or a spatially bent jet. We also find significant day-to-day variations in the closure phases, which appear most pronounced on the triangles with the longest baselines. Our analysis shows that this variation is related to a systematic change of the source structure. Two inner jet components move non-radially at apparent speeds of similar to 15 c and similar to 20 c (similar to 1.3 and similar to 1.7 mu as day(-1), respectively), which more strongly supports the scenario of traveling shocks or instabilities in a bent, possibly rotating jet. The observed apparent speeds are also coincident with the 3C 279 large-scale jet kinematics observed at longer (cm) wavelengths, suggesting no significant jet acceleration between the 1.3 mm core and the outer jet. The intrinsic brightness temperature of the jet components are less than or similar to 10(10) K, a magnitude or more lower than typical values seen at >= 7 mm wavelengths. The low brightness temperature and morphological complexity suggest that the core region of 3C 279 becomes optically thin at short (mm) wavelengths