Background: Mental health services for patients intellectual disabilities (ID) and additional mental illnesses are only sparsely studied. Objective: The objective was to describe a representative sample of patients with ID in a specialized psychiatric department. Methods: Data were collected from case files in a 7-year period. Of 143 invited…

Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have complex mental health needs and may seek specialized ID psychiatric services. This study reports on predictors of specialized inpatient admissions for 234 individuals with ID who received outpatient services at a psychiatric hospital. Overall, from 2007-2012, 55 of the 234 outpatients were triaged…

Objective: A substantial gap exists between patients and their mental health providers about patient's perceived barriers, facilitators, and motivators (BFMs) for taking antipsychotic medications. This article describes how we used an intervention mapping (IM) framework coupled with qualitative and quantitative item-selection methods to…

Schizophrenia is characterized by heterogeneous brain abnormalities involving cerebral regions implied in the executive functioning. The dysexecutive syndrome is one of the most prominent and functionally cognitive features of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, it is not clear to what extend executive deficits are heterogeneous in schizophrenia…

Evidence of association between duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and negative symptoms of schizophrenia in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients is inconsistent in the recent literature. In the present study, DUP, schizophrenia symptoms, duration of medication, and diagnosis were obtained from hospital archives in a sample of FEP patients.…

Objective: Both the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in youth remain the subject of debate. In the Treatment of Early Age Mania (TEAM) study, risperidone was more effective than lithium or divalproex in children diagnosed with bipolar mania and highly comorbid with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We searched for…

The efficacy of olanzapine in treating schizophrenia was tested through a placebo-controlled trial involving one hundred seven inpatient and outpatients adolescents. Patients who took olanzapine experienced significant symptom improvement.

A high prevalence of deficits in explicit learning has been reported for schizophrenic patients, but it is less clear whether these patients are impaired in implicit learning. Deficits in implicit learning indicative of a fronto-striatal dysfunction have been reported using a serial reaction-time task (SRT), but the impact of typical neuroleptic…

Background: While clozapine is an effective treatment for refractory schizophrenia, its use is limited by haematological side effects. Treatment options that allow continued prescription of clozapine by tackling these side effects will greatly aid patients for whom this medication is all too often their only hope of recovery. Method: In this case…

This article presents responses to the question of whether clozapine is ever appropriate to use in the pediatric population. Among others, Jean A. Frazier also agreed that clozapine is appropriate for use in the pediatric population. Clozapine has truly revolutionized the treatment of refractory patients with schizophrenia at any age. This agent…

Objective: Weight gain is a serious side effect of atypical antipsychotics, especially in childhood. In this study, the authors examined six weight gain-related hormones in patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) after 6 weeks of clozapine treatment. Method: Fasting serum samples for 24 patients with COS and 21 matched healthy controls…

There are not many studies on the use of clozapine in patients with intellectual disability (ID). The authors describe a case series of patients treated with clozapine, drawn from a medium secure unit, a low secure assessment and treatment service and a community team in the London region. A retrospective file-review of patients treated in these…

Objective: To investigate which cognitive and affective features contribute most to responder/non-responder group separation during a switching trial with atypical antipsychotic. Design: A prospective open trial with an atypical antipsychotic (olanzapine). Patients: One hundred and thirty-four patients meeting diagnostic criteria for…

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms are a common feature of schizophrenia, and high rates of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been reported in schizophrenic patients. Effective pharmacotherapeutic options are available for both OCD and schizophrenia, and for some patients combining medications targeted at both conditions may be a helpful…

Background: Childhood onset schizophrenia (COS) is a rare disorder. Comparative data on the effect of differential age of onset on clinical profile in schizophrenia are very few. Method: Subjects with COS (n = 15), adolescence onset schizophrenia (AdOS, n = 20) and adulthood onset schizophrenia (AOS, n = 20) were compared on socio-demographic,…