Jayashri Kulkarni

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..Accumulating evidence suggests that estrogens may have therapeutic effects in severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, via neuromodulatory and neuroprotective activity...

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..Second generation antipsychotics have been available for use in psychosis for nearly a decade. In Australia they are considered to be first line treatment for a number of psychotic disorders...

..Findings do, however, suggest further exploration of a therapeutic role for adjunctive estradiol treatment in men with schizophrenia is warranted...

..The positive impact of oestrogen treatment on psychotic symptoms via a multiplicity of possible actions (see accompanying articles in this issue) may prove clinically useful in the overall treatment of women with schizophrenia...

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..The MPA group improved more than the placebo group. Further exploration of tamoxifen as a useful adjunct in the treatment of acute manic symptoms in women with Bipolar Affective Disorder is warranted...

..The purpose of the present paper was to provide an overview of different applications of adjunctive hormones, as treatments for symptoms of severe mental illness in women...

..However, our findings highlight that the detection of subtle changes in cognition in well women require the development of sensitive instruments and large randomized, controlled trials...

..The demonstrated benefit of adjunctive treatment with 120 mg/day raloxifene hydrochloride offers support for the potential role of this selective estrogen receptor modulator in treating postmenopausal women with schizophrenia...

..The Bipolar Comprehensive Outcomes Study (BCOS) is a 2-year, observational study of participants with bipolar I or schizoaffective disorder examining clinical, functional, and economic outcomes associated with naturalistic treatment...

..Further research is required to confirm this in larger samples, or to establish whether an alternate method based on surface anatomy, including measurement from motor cortex, can be substituted for the standard 5 cm method...

..We aimed to assess brain activation related to cognitive performance during planning and working memory tasks...

..The study therefore aimed to assess the efficacy of bilateral high-frequency rTMS in the treatment of negative symptoms...

..There appears to be a significant but modest likelihood of response to left-sided TMS in patients who fail right-sided stimulation, but there is no difference in efficacy between 5- and 10-Hz stimulation...

..This review examines both new onset and relapsed depression during perimenopause, biological mechanisms of perimenopausal depression, and the role of hormonal therapies...

..We describe the psychometric properties of a new scale, the Illness Cognitions Scale (ICS), a metric of investment in the sick role...

..Response to LFR-TMS is associated with a bilateral reduction in frontal activation that does not seem to be a nonspecific effect of treatment and differs from the response to HFL-TMS...

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..They should be considered as separate and complementary outcome variables and utilized accordingly...

..Balancing the mental wellbeing of the woman and the safety and wellbeing of the baby is a complex task for both the expectant mother and the health professionals involved in her care...

..There was a significant increase and more normal task related brain activation in brain areas involved in language processing including left temporoparietal cortex after rTMS treatment...

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..2-Hz right PFC rTMS has antidepressant properties but offers no advantage over 1 Hz despite doubling pulse number...

..The authors evaluated sequentially combined high-frequency left-side rTMS and low-frequency rTMS to the right prefrontal cortex for treatment-resistant depression...

..Increased I-wave facilitation suggests deficient function of cortical inhibitory GABAergic activity. This is consistent with previous research that has found deficient cortical inhibition in patients with schizophrenia...

..All participants received treatment as usual. There was no study medication...

..We aimed to test this hypothesis in a randomized double-blind trial...

..In addition, low-frequency right prefrontal rTMS (LFR-rTMS) has also been shown to have antidepressant properties. To date only a small number of studies have directly compared the efficacy of these two approaches...

..Low-frequency stimulation to the right prefrontal cortex (LFR-TMS) has also shown promise, although it has not been assessed in treatment-resistant depression and its effects have not been compared with those of HFL-TMS...

..These studies have generally been positive, but treatment has only been provided for short periods of time and little is known about the longer-term impact of TMS on the course of hallucinations...

..Little is known about the long-term impact of the treatment on the disorder and its effectiveness when applied for repeated relapses of depression over time...

..This review explains the scientific rationale behind the estrogen hypothesis and how it can be clinically utilized to address concerns unique to the care of women with schizophrenia...

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..With further preclinical and clinical research, it is hoped that this promising field of hormone modulation can continue to evolve and eventually be translated into real therapeutic potential...

..The aim was to investigate whether AP-induced weight gain was related to leptin and NPY abnormalities and whether these were associated with a disruption of gonadal steroid production...

..The aim of this study was to investigate whether priming stimulation would enhance therapeutic response to low-frequency rTMS in patients with depression...

..The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of depressive to positive, negative and parkinsonian symptoms using the recent adaptation of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)...

..At this stage, the results of imaging studies published to date have limited capacity to inform the choice of optimal prefrontal cortical region for the use in rTMS treatment studies...

..These results suggest that cortical responses to 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation are dependent on activity at both gamma-aminobutyric acid and N-methyl-D-asparate receptor systems...

..This study was conducted to explore the efficacy and tolerability of quetiapine extended release (XR) to treat psychosis and accompanying acute behavioral disturbance in hospitalized psychiatric patients...

..Effects of estradiol treatment may be dependent on age, dose of estradiol, integrity of cholinergic innervation and baseline endogenous estrogen levels, which may in part explain the inconsistent findings in the literature...

..Therefore, the authors investigated the effects of aromatase enzyme inhibition on sexual function, well-being, and mood in estrogen- and T-replete postmenopausal women in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study...

..A particular focus is given to the management of women with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Novel treatment approaches such as oestrogen augmentation and gender-specific medication prescription are detailed...

..The initiative's aim was to facilitate closer collaboration between mental health and welfare services and develop staff capacity to better identify and support people living homeless with a mental illness...

..This study aims to discuss the oestrogen protection hypothesis of schizophrenia in particular, with an emphasis on findings from the recent literature in support of this theory...

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..g. violence and abuse); day-to-day social, cultural, and family realities; expression and experience of mental ill health and treatment needs and responses...

..Some of the issues, recommendations, and guidelines presented by the authors are taken from their experiences in establishing multicentred research projects...

..Expanding the availability of collaborative care across Australia is therefore a priority for achieving a more holistic, socially inclusive, and effective mental health care system...

..Education is required for both general practitioners and for women regarding the individual risks of psychological distress during perimenopause, as well as the knowledge of the life factors which we know to be protective...

..Increased sample size is required to validate these findings...

..New types of oestrogen compounds may provide a safer, non-feminising approach for the treatment of schizophrenia...

..This study explored the experiences of women survivors: child abuse disclosure, GP service use and thoughts on being asked about their abuse experiences...

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..These deficits appear to be of cortical origin. Their relationship to dysfunction in other cortical networks requires further elucidation...