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Background: Foreign language syndrome is a rare neuropsychiatric phenomenon typically following general anesthesia. To date, foreign language syndrome has not been associated with neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) in the literature. This case aims to broaden the clinical understanding of NMS by presenting an atypical manifestation of foreign language syndrome and emphasizing the need for prompt recognition of such presentations for accurate diagnosis and management., Case Presentation: A 34-year-old Caucasian male with a history of schizoaffective disorder and recurrent psychiatric hospitalizations was admitted for a depressive episode. His condition worsened hours after the administration of intramuscular chlorpromazine, leading to NMS characterized by agitation, muscle rigidity, hyperthermia, autonomic instability, abnormal laboratory findings, and altered mental status, including foreign language syndrome. Management included the discontinuation of the prior psychopharmacotherapy, intravenous hydration, and medications (biperiden, lorazepam). The patient showed significant improvement, with resolution of NMS symptoms and normalized sleep patterns by the time of discharge., Conclusion: Foreign language syndrome is an exceptionally rare occurrence, with only nine documented cases to date, all involving male patients. This case presents a novel instance of foreign language syndrome in the context of NMS in a male patient, providing insight into the potential sex-specific mechanisms underlying this rare phenomenon. This case adds valuable evidence to the understanding of the clinical spectrum of NMS and highlights the importance of recognizing atypical presentations in managing patients with neuropsychiatric conditions., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the conduct of this study was approved by the ethics committee of the Institute of Mental Health in Belgrade, Serbia. Consent for publication: Consent for publication was obtained from patient presented in the case-report. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).) more...

Objective: Bipolar disorders (BD) are characterized by highly recurrent nature, necessitating adequate maintenance treatment for long-term disorder control. This study aimed to investigate real-world prescribing patterns among outpatients with BD, focusing on the utilisation of antidepressants (AD) and benzodiazepines (BDZ)., Methods: We analysed prescription patterns of the five main groups of psychotropic medications (antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, AD, BDZ, and anticholinergic medications) and their relationships with basic socio-demographic and clinical data in a sample of 107 clinically stable BD outpatients (75.7% female, age 44.8 ± 11.7)., Results: Maintenance therapy predominantly involved polypharmacy (92.5%), with mood stabilizers (87.9%) and antipsychotics (80.4%, predominantly second-generation) being the most commonly prescribed. Our findings highlight a high percentage of patients prescribed AD (50.5%) and BDZ (54.2%). BDZ patients, compared to the non-BDZ group in maintenance treatment, were significantly older with longer psychiatric history and a decreased likelihood of comorbid personality disorder diagnoses., Conclusions: This study offers insights into prescribing practices within a university psychiatric clinic in the Western Balkans. The prevalent use of polypharmacy in real-world clinical settings, along with high percentage of patients prescribed AD and BDZ, suggests a gap between guideline recommendations and clinical practice, indicating a lack of consensus or standardized approaches in clinical practice. more...

Background: People with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) frequently present cognitive impairments. Here, we investigated whether the exposome score for schizophrenia (ES-SCZ) - a cumulative environmental exposure score - was associated with impairments of neurocognition, social cognition, and perception in patients with SSD, their unaffected siblings, and healthy controls., Methods: This cross-sectional sample consisted of 1200 patients, 1371 siblings, and 1564 healthy controls. Neurocognition, social cognition, and perception were assesed using a short version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III), the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR), and the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFR), respectively. Regression models were used to analyze the association between ES-SCZ and cognitive domains in each group., Results: There were no statistically significant associations between ES-SCZ and cognitive domains in SSD. ES-SCZ was negatively associated with T-score of cognition in siblings (B=-0.40, 95% CI -0.76 to -0.03) and healthy controls (B=-0.63, 95% CI -1.06 to -0.21). Additionally, ES-SCZ was positively associated with DFAR-total in siblings (B=0.83, 95% CI 0.26 to 1.40). Sensitivity analyses excluding cannabis use history from ES-SCZ largely confirmed the main findings., Conclusions: Longitudinal cohorts may elucidate how environmental exposures influence the onset and course of cognitive impairments in trans-syndromic psychosis spectrum., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Celso Arango has been a consultant to or has received honoraria or grants from Acadia, Angelini, Biogen, Boehringer, Gedeon Richter, Janssen Cilag, Lundbeck, Medscape, Menarini, Minerva, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sage, Servier, Shire, Schering Plough, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Sunovion and Takeda. Julio Bobes has received research grants and served as a consultant, advisor, or speaker within the last 5 years for AB-Biotics, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Alkermes, Allergan, Ambrosetti-Angelini, Biogen, Casen Recordati, D&A Pharma, Exeltis, Gilead, Indivior, GW Pharmaceuticals, Janssen-Cilag, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Lundbeck, Mundipharma, Newron, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, Sage Therapeutics, Servier, Schwabe Farma Ibérica, Shire, and Takeda and has received research funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness –Centro de Investigación Biomedica en Red area de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III– and the Spanish Ministry of Health. Maria Paz García-Portilla has been a consultant to and/or has received honoraria/grants from Angelini, Otsuka-Lundbeck Alliance, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Janssen-Cilag, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, and Sage Therapeutics. Pilar A. Sáiz has been a consultant to and/or has received honoraria/research grants from Adamed, Alter Medica, Angelini Pharma, CIBERSAM, Ethypharm Digital Therapy, European Commission, Government of the Principality of Asturias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Janssen-Cilag, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas, and Servier. Miguel Bernardo has been a consultant for, received grant/research support and honoraria from, and been on the speakers/advisory board of ABBiotics, Adamed, Angelini, Casen Recordati, Janssen-Cilag, Menarini, Rovi and Takeda., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.) more...

Schizophrenia is frequently accompanied with social cognitive disturbances. Cannabis represents one established environmental factor associated with the onset and progression of schizophrenia. The present cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the association of facial emotion recognition (FER) performance with cannabis use in 2039 patients with schizophrenia, 2141 siblings, and 2049 healthy controls (HC). FER performance was measured using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR). Better FER performance as indicated by higher DFAR-total scores was associated with lifetime regular cannabis use in schizophrenia (B = 1.36, 95% CI 0.02 to 2.69), siblings (B = 2.17, 95% CI 0.79 to 3.56), and HC (B = 3.10, 95% CI 1.14 to 5.06). No associations were found between DFAR-total and current cannabis use. Patients with schizophrenia who started to use cannabis after the age of 16 showed better FER performance than patients who started earlier (B = 2.50, 95% CI 0.15 to 4.84) and non-users (B = 3.72, 95 CI 1.96 to 5.49). Better FER performance was found also in siblings who started to use cannabis after 16 compared to non-users (B = 2.37, 95% CI 0.58 to 4.16), while HC using cannabis performed better than non-users at DFAR-total regardless of the age at onset. Our findings suggest that lifetime regular cannabis use may be associated with better FER regardless of the psychosis risk, but that FER might be moderated by age at first use in people with higher genetic risk. Longitudinal studies may clarify whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship between cannabis use and FER performance in psychotic and non-psychotic samples., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest Celso Arango has been a consultant to or has received honoraria or grants from Acadia, Angelini, Gedeon Richter, Janssen Cilag, Lundbeck, Minerva, Otsuka, Roche, Sage, Servier, Shire, Schering Plough, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Sunovion and Takeda. Maria Paz Garcia-Portilla has been a consultant to and/or has received honoraria/grants from Angelini, Alianza Otsuka-Lundbeck, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Janssen-Cilag, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, and SAGE Therapeutics., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.) more...

Background: Maintenance therapy of patients with primary psychosis spectrum disorders (PSD) in the Western Balkans has received limited interest so far. The present study aimed to investigate long-term prescription patterns among outpatients with PSD., Methods: Information about prescription of antipsychotics (AP), benzodiazepines (BZD) and other psychotropic medication over a 6-month period was collected from outpatients ( n = 134; ICD-10 diagnosis F20-29) recruited by a larger multi-site study, to find mean daily number of psychotropic drugs, AP prescription patterns (including AP daily dose, route of administration, monotherapy vs . polypharmacy) and BZD utilization (long-term add-on BZD therapy). Additionally, sex-differences in the variables were explored., Results: Clinically stable outpatients (age 41.7 ± 11.0; male 62.7%; duration of untreated illness 12.7 ± 8.7 years; mean number of lifetime hospitalizations 2.6 ± 0.7) were prescribed 2.8 ± 1.1 psychotropic medications daily. The mean 6-month AP dose was 14.2 ± 7.8 mg olanzapine equivalents. Long-acting injectable AP was prescribed to 25.2% of the patients. Long-term AP monotherapy was found in 52.7% patients and most of them were prescribed second generation AP (65.2%). Long-term AP polypharmacy (42.7%) was more common in males ( p = 0.015). The most frequent co-prescription patterns were first generation AP plus clozapine. The highest rate of long-term AP co-prescription was found for BZD (in 42.7% cases, average 6-months daily dose of 2.8 ± 2.7 mg lorazepam equivalents) and anticholinergics (33.6%)., Conclusion: Existing appropriately designed interventions aiming to safely switch the inappropriate therapeutic regimens, i.e. very high prevalence of long-term AP polypharmacy and non-rational BZD co-prescription, should be implemented in the region of Western Balkans., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Maric, Andric Petrovic, Russo, Jerotic, Ristic, Savić, Pemovska, Milutinovic, Ribic, Markovska-Simoska, Dzubur Kulenovic and Jovanovic.) more...

Background: Social cognition impairments, such as facial emotion recognition (FER), have been acknowledged since the earliest description of schizophrenia. Here, we tested FER as an intermediate phenotype for psychosis using two approaches that are indicators of genetic risk for schizophrenia: the proxy-genetic risk approach (family design) and the polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-SCZ)., Methods: The sample comprised 2039 individuals with schizophrenia, 2141 siblings, and 2049 healthy controls (HC). The Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR) was applied to measure the FER accuracy. Schizotypal traits in siblings and HC were assessed using the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R). The PRS-SCZ was trained using the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium results. Regression models were applied to test the association of DFAR with psychosis risk, SIS-R, and PRS-SCZ., Results: The DFAR-total scores were lower in individuals with schizophrenia than in siblings (RR = 0.97 [95% CI 0.97, 0.97]), who scored lower than HC (RR = 0.99 [95% CI 0.99-1.00]). The DFAR-total scores were negatively associated with SIS-R total scores in siblings (B = -2.04 [95% CI -3.72, -0.36]) and HC (B = -2.93 [95% CI -5.50, -0.36]). Different patterns of association were observed for individual emotions. No significant associations were found between DFAR scores and PRS-SCZ., Conclusions: Our findings based on a proxy genetic risk approach suggest that FER deficits may represent an intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia. However, a significant association between FER and PRS-SCZ was not found. In the future, genetic mechanisms underlying FER phenotypes should be investigated trans-diagnostically., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) more...

Aim: Unequal development of early detection (ED) and early intervention (EI) programs/services for psychosis has been shown across Europe. The present report aims to fill in the knowledge gap regarding the implementation and several other important aspects of ED/EI services in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), a region with highly underdeveloped mental health service research., Methods: A 17-item questionnaire was created to address the information regarding ED/EI organization and factors limiting their implementation. This questionnaire was distributed to professionals recognized as experts in the field from 23 CEE countries. The data were collected between December 2017 and February 2018., Results: We found that ED/EI services were rather an exception than a rule in CEE. The majority of the countries involved in the present survey reported no national plans or programmes for ED/EI development. The existing services were mostly state-funded, hospital-based, healthcare sites for both adolescent and adult help-seekers. The lack of adequate infrastructure, finances and governmental support, as well as the insufficient number of staff, were identified as the most important factors limiting service implementation., Conclusions: Although ED/EI services for psychosis exist in some CEE countries, this could be largely attributed to enthusiastic individuals and organizations, rather than to a strategic development. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first mapping of ED/EI development in the region, which could be used as a starting point to plan the improvement of services, to accelerate their implementation and to facilitate timely detection of and intervention in psychosis across Europe., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.) more...

Introduction: White noise speech illusions index liability for psychotic disorder in case-control comparisons. In the current study, we examined i) the rate of white noise speech illusions in siblings of patients with psychotic disorder and ii) to what degree this rate would be contingent on exposure to known environmental risk factors (childhood adversity and recent life events) and level of known endophenotypic dimensions of psychotic disorder [psychotic experiences assessed with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) scale and cognitive ability]. Methods: The white noise task was used as an experimental paradigm to elicit and measure speech illusions in 1,014 patients with psychotic disorders, 1,157 siblings, and 1,507 healthy participants. We examined associations between speech illusions and increasing familial risk (control -> sibling -> patient), modeled as both a linear and a categorical effect, and associations between speech illusions and level of childhood adversities and life events as well as with CAPE scores and cognitive ability scores. Results: While a positive association was found between white noise speech illusions across hypothesized increasing levels of familial risk (controls -> siblings -> patients) [odds ratio (OR) linear 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-1.21, p = 0.019], there was no evidence for a categorical association with sibling status (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.79-1.09, p = 0.360). The association between speech illusions and linear familial risk was greater if scores on the CAPE positive scale were higher ( p interaction = 0.003; OR low CAPE positive scale 0.96, 95% CI 0.85-1.07; OR high CAPE positive scale 1.26, 95% CI 1.09-1.46); cognitive ability was lower ( p interaction < 0.001; OR high cognitive ability 0.94, 95% CI 0.84-1.05; OR low cognitive ability 1.43, 95% CI 1.23-1.68); and exposure to childhood adversity was higher ( p interaction < 0.001; OR low adversity 0.92, 95% CI 0.82-1.04; OR high adversity 1.31, 95% CI 1.13-1.52). A similar, although less marked, pattern was seen for categorical patient-control and sibling-control comparisons. Exposure to recent life events did not modify the association between white noise and familial risk ( p interaction = 0.232). Conclusion: The association between white noise speech illusions and familial risk is contingent on additional evidence of endophenotypic expression and of exposure to childhood adversity. Therefore, speech illusions may represent a trait-dependent risk marker., (Copyright © 2019 Schepers, Lousberg, Guloksuz, Pries, Delespaul, Kenis, Luykx, Lin, Richards, Akdede, Binbay, Altınyazar, Yalınçetin, Gümüş-Akay, Cihan, Soygür, Ulaş, Şahin Cankurtaran, Ulusoy Kaymak, Mihaljevic, Andric Petrovic, Mirjanic, Bernardo, Cabrera, Bobes, Saiz, García-Portilla, Sanjuan, Aguilar, Luis Santos, Jiménez-López, Arrojo, Carracedo, López, González-Peñas, Parellada, Maric, Atbaşoğlu, Ucok, Alptekin, Can Saka, Arango, Rutten and van Os.) more...

Background: Previous studies examining sex-differences in facial emotion recognition (FER) in psychosis yielded inconsistent results. Although females are considered to be superior in FER in health, it remains unclear whether the specific sex-difference is present in psychosis. We aimed to examine whether women and men differ in FER ability in health and in psychosis, and to explore potential sex differences in the illness' effects on FER., Methods: Remitted psychotic patients and controls were assessed using the CANTAB Emotion Recognition Task (ERT) examining accuracies/response latencies in identifying basic emotional expressions. General linear model was performed to assess the effects of group, sex and their interactions on ERT performance., Results: Healthy females showed FER advantage in comparison to healthy males, while the aforementioned sex-difference was not observed in remitted psychotic patients. Our results also demonstrated the existence of overall FER deficit in psychosis in comparison to healthy controls, as well as the differential illness' effects on the recognition accuracy of facial expression of anger in males and females-suggesting that females with psychotic disorders undergo more profound deterioration of FER ability than their male counterparts., Conclusion: The assessment of sex-differences in FER and other important features of psychosis is important for better understanding of its neurobiological basis and for the development of targeted treatments for improved functioning. more...

There is much concern about the widespread long-term use of benzodiazepines. Our manuscript addressed its use in the region of Southeastern Europe, which seems extensive, but insufficiently explored. At nine university psychiatric hospitals (Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia), we retrospectively analyzed discharge summary documents to find the prevalence of discharge benzodiazepine prescriptions and the prescribed benzodiazepine doses. This study included 1047 adult subjects and showed that 81.9% of them had benzodiazepines prescribed in the discharge summary document, with high mean daily dose of around 5mg lorazepam equivalents. Factors associated with the prescriptions were exclusively clinical factors (diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, more lifetime hospitalizations, psychiatric comorbidity, co-prescription of antidepressant or mood stabilizer, shorter duration of the hospitalization), while socio-demographic factors were not found to influence benzodiazepine discharge prescriptions. Similarly, factors which influenced the prescription of higher daily benzodiazepine dose were more lifetime psychiatric hospitalizations and co-prescription of antidepressant or mood stabilizer, as well as the diagnosis of mental/behavioral disorders due to substance use and co-prescribed antipsychotic. Our data are emphasizing an urgent need for guidelines and improved education of both health care professionals and patients, in order to prevent long term benzodiazepine (mis)use and related side-effects., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) more...