N Muller

..During antipsychotic therapy with neuroleptics, the specific TH-1-related immune answer becomes activated, but in addition the B cell system and antibody production increase...

..The authors conducted a trial of the new selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor celecoxib, an immunomodulatory drug, in schizophrenic patients to evaluate its therapeutic effects...

..During antipsychotic therapy with neuroleptics, the specific TH-1 related immune answer becomes activated, but also the B-cell system and the antibody production increases...

..Both disorders show disturbances of the multiple functional pathways, which seem to be involved in the pathophysiology of both. The clinical overlap of TS and of schizophrenia may be due to a final common pathophysiological pathway...

..During therapy with antipsychotics, the specific TH-1 related immune answer becomes activated, but the B-cell system and the antibody production become activated too...

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..The finding of a possible autoimmune origin of TS has implications for both pathophysiology and future therapeutic strategies...

..An autoimmune reaction, however, has to be taken into account. In predisposed persons, infection with various agents including M. pneumoniae should be considered as at least an aggravating factor in TS...

..The aim of this study was to assess the cognitive effects of aripiprazole in inpatients with schizophrenia...

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..Moreover, the fact that treatment with an anti-inflammatory drug showed beneficial effects on MD indicates that inflammation is related to the pathomechanism of the disorder, although the exact mechanisms remain to become elucidated...

..We found statistically significant decreased CSF concentrations of IL-6 (P<0.001) and of the sIL-6R (P<0.001) of patients with MD. Levels of sgp130 showed no statistically significant difference between patients and controls...

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..Furthermore, sgp130 CSF levels were decreased in MS, suggesting a possibly altered IL-6 regulation in the CSF...

..We thus prospectively investigated risperidone serum concentrations in relation to clinical efficacy and side-effects and genotyped major CYP2D6 polymorphisms to determine their effect upon these parameters...

..Zotepine, a D (2)5HT (2A) antagonist, was compared to placebo in this clinical trial to address these issues...

..To elucidate their role in schizophrenia, the authors investigated antibody titers to heat shock proteins in unmedicated and medicated patients with schizophrenia...

..We suggest that combined measurement of all parameters of the IL-6-receptor complex could yield more insight in a probably altered IL-6 function...

..Our findings show NSS in schizophrenic patients, independently of neuroleptics. Further, the hypothesis of lateralization of cerebral structures generating NSS towards the right hemisphere in schizophrenia is supported...

..Our findings support the theory that a postinfectious immune mechanism may play a role in the pathogenesis of TS. The mechanism still needs to be elucidated...

..This suggests that neuroleptic therapy has a differentiated immunomodulatory effect...

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..This model describes the pathway of immune-mediated glutamatergic-dopaminergic dysregulation, which may lead to the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia. Therapeutic consequences (e.g. cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors) are discussed...

..These preliminary clinical data are encouraging for therapeutic effects of the selective COX-2 inhibitors in psychiatric disorders, although these effects have to be confirmed in bigger clinical studies...

..Therefore, translation into psychiatric practice may be difficult...

..To examine influencing variables of neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia and to predict cognition during antipsychotic treatment...

..These results suggest that the loudness dependence of primary auditory cortex evoked activity is well suitable to assess serotonergic dysfunction in schizophrenia...

..Besides the immunological abnormalities, this subgroup is further characterized by more pronounced negative symptoms and poor therapy outcome. There is evidence that this subgroup might be caused by a prenatal viral infection...

..A reduced amplitude of the auditory evoked P300 was interpreted as a trait marker of schizophrenia but reports about correlations between schizophrenic psychopathology and P300 amplitude indicate also a state character...

..Furthermore, quetiapine produced a significantly greater improvement in reaction quality/attention than olanzapine...

..9 % polymorphic allele). Moreover, we did not find any association between genotype and psychopathology, as measured by PANSS. The different results between these two studies may be due to ethnic differences...

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..5 +/- 12.0%; p < 0.01). These preliminary results support the hypothesis that immunological mechanisms (such as an enhanced lymphocyte endothelium interaction) could be part of the migraine pathophysiology in humans...

..A BCB impairment was associated with high levels of sICAM-1. Our data indicate an inflammatory mechanism of BCB impairment in schizophrenics and should enrich the discussion on an expanded immunological diagnosis in schizophrenia...

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..Negative symptoms still represent a therapeutic challenge, especially in conjunction with chronic residual symptoms...

..In conclusion our study can at least partly replicate the previous findings concerning the impact of SNAP-25 gene polymorphisms on weight gain during antipsychotic treatment...

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..However most of the studies have only focused on one single pathogen and not on the impact of different infectious agents. We investigated the association between schizophrenia and various neurotophic infectious agents...

..Due to duloxetine's properties, a wide range of use will be encountered in the mid-to-long term...

..In future, further trials are needed to investigate the effect of COX-2 inhibitors on prodromal and negative symptoms of schizophrenia...

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..We report on a female patient with Tourette syndrome and a 12-month follow-up after chronic deep brain stimulation in the globus pallidus internus which resulted in excellent remission of motor and vocal tics...

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..The potential inflammatory mechanism in schizophrenia and MD, and the possible therapeutic advantages of targeting this mechanism in the treatment of these disorders is discussed in this review...

..COX-2 inhibitors have been tested in animal models of depression and in preliminary clinical trials, pointing to favorable effects in schizophrenia and in MD...

..It still remains unclear whether tic symptoms are partly due to the infection or to changes in the immune balance caused by an infection...

..Therefore, other therapeutic targets than dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmitters are being considered...

..Also, the improvements in cognition following treatment with quetiapine and risperidone may enhance long-term outcomes for these patients...

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..These preliminary clinical data are encouraging for clinical therapeutic effects of the selective COX-2 inhibitors in psychiatric disorders, although these effects have to be confirmed in larger clinical studies...

..This result of the treatment with a COX-2 inhibitor supports the view that COX-2 inhibitors show therapeutic benefit in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders in which an inflammatory process is involved in the pathophysiology...

..In schizophrenia, the effect on cognition contributes to the therapeutic effect of COX-2 inhibitors...

..The main independent factors for determining HrQoL were depression, severity of symptoms, and age. Although, treatment of tics is important, co-morbidities such as depression should be diagnosed and treated vigorously...

..Moreover, therapeutic strategies using typical and atypical antipsychotics, and also experimental therapies such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation, are critically discussed...

..Quetiapine is also well tolerated, with a lower incidence of EPS and prolactin increase than risperidone...

..Our findings demonstrate a markedly attenuated in vivo type-1 mediated cellular immune response in schizophrenic patients, further confirming the hypothesis of a relative Th2 shift in schizophrenia...

..The limitations of this concept, however, are critically discussed...

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..Herein we conducted for the first time a new approach to immunological research in panic disorder, suggesting immune changes are more related to long term disease stress...

..These observations may have important implications for further studies investigating their possible roles in cell adhesion and proliferation control within the CNS...

..These findings and the successful therapy underline reports of the literature and point to a pathogenetic mechanism of an immunologically triggered disturbance of the striatal dopaminergic system, at least in a subgroup of GTS...

..The further search for new antidepressant therapeutic mechanisms should take into regard anti-inflammatory substances, e.g. cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX-2)-inhibitors...

..While the first trial using celecoxib as add-on therapy to an atypical antipsychotic showed a significant beneficial effect, recent studies demonstrated that this effect may be limited to patients with recent-onset schizophrenia...

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..All findings point to organic brain dysfunctions in these patients which extend beyond the period of withdrawal...

..A final version of our complete training programs will be published as an appendix to this paper along with information regarding the abbreviated test battery...

..Moreover, the risk for chronic disorder increases with every relapse of the patient. Therefore relapse prevention is a primary focus in the treatment of schizophrenia...

..Therapeutic consequences, e.g., the use of anti-inflammatory cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors, which can also decrease KYNA directly, are discussed...

..Monthly outpatient ECT sessions were arranged in order to sustain the positive treatment outcome. Since then, remission of both disorders has been maintained successfully for more than a year...

..This contribution shows that Kraepelin himself questioned his dichotomy of dementia praecox and manic depressive insanity, a discussion which is lively still today--more than 80 years later...