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Background: Acculturation is the phenomenon that results when a group with one culture comes into continuous contact with a host culture. Aims: To investigate the correlation between acculturation and psychotic symptomatology in a group of immigrants suf- fering from psychosis and to explore differences in demographic factors related with the acculturation process between individuals with and without psychosis. Methods: Sixty-five patients and 317 non-psychotic immigrants were interviewed using the Immigrant Acculturation Scale (IAS) and a structured questionnaire for demographic data. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) and the Glbal Assessment of Functioning (GAF) were also administered to all immigrants suffering from psychosis. Results: Total IAS scores, as well as IAS everyday life scores, were positively correlated with GAF scores. IAS everyday life score in the patient group related with religion, marital status, gender and years in Greece, while in the non-psychosis group it was related with gender and years in Greece. IAS wishful orientation/nostos (the strong desire for one's home-land) related with religion in both groups. The IAS identity in the psychosis group did not show any significant relation with any of the variables, while in the non-patient group, it was related with marital status, gender and years in Greece. Age, duration of residence in Greece and higher adoption of Greek ethnic identity were the variables that differentiated the two groups of immigrants. Conclusion: Acculturation in immigrants suffering from psychosis could be seen as a process that does not correlate strongly with the severity of the symptomatology but is probably influenced by different set of factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective this study aimed to investigate the independent contribution of somatic anxiety to the severity of depression-related fatigue. Seventy-six patients (85.5% female), aged 23-65 years (mean 48.7±10.6), diagnosed with major depressive disorder and currently in a major depressive episode (ΜΙΝΙ 5.0.0.) with a 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score ≥17, were studied. Forty-nine patients (64.5%) were concurrently suf fering from anxiety disorder(s). Patients with physical diseases or other fatigue-related conditions were excluded. Reported fatigue was measured with the 14-item Fatigue Questionnaire (FQ). Based on HDRS item 11 (somatic anxiety) scores, patients were divided into those with somatic anxiety (HDRS-11≥2) and those without (HDRS-11≤1). Pearson's (r) and Spearman's (rho) correlations between FQ score, age, gender, inpatient status, HDRS score and somatic anxiety status were calculated. A multiple regression analysis was then performed, with FQ as the dependent variable. Fifty-seven patients (75%) were rated as suffering from somatic anxiety (HDRS-11≥2). Patients with somatic anxiety had significantly higher HDRS and FQ scores. The FQ score significantly correlated with the HDRS score (r=0.36, p=0.001) and somatic anxiety status (rho=0.35, p=0.002). The FQ score was independently predicted by HDRS score and somatic anxiety status, with standardised beta coefficients of 0.259 (p=0.028) and 0.255 (p=0.031), respectively. R2 was 0.185. Both the severity of depression and the presence of somatic anxiety independently correlate with the severity of reported fatigue in patients with major depression. This finding has potential implications for the management of depression-related fatigue.

Migration is considered an important risk factor for schizophrenia. However, studies on the differences in psychotic symptomatology between immigrants and native patients revealed mixed results. This study compared clinical symptoms and social functioning between immigrant and native patients with schizophrenia in Greece in order to examine the influence of social factors on the disorder's manifestation and severity. A structured questionnaire including demographic and clinical information was administered to two groups of patients with schizophrenia; the first one was comprised of 65 immigrant patients (38 men and 27 women) and the second included 58 greek patients (35 men and 23 women). Patients' psychopathology was evaluated by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF). The x2 test and the ANOVA were used for the comparisons of categorical and continuous variables respectively between the two groups of patients. Analysis of eigenvalues and multivariate analysis (MANOVA) were also used. Age and duration of illness were significant greater in the greek group of patients. Lack of insight was the only reason of hospitalization of immigrant patients. The immigrant group of patients had significantly lower scores in the negative syndrome subscale, the general psychopathology subscale and the total PANSS scale while they had significantly higher scores in the GAF scale. No between patients' groups difference was found on CDSS scores. Analysis of eigenvalues and MANOVA revealed that the national group (immigrants vs native) and the reason of admission were the only general variables with significant influence on patients' psychopathological features and functioning. Consistently with previous studies that have shown better prognosis in immigrant compared to the native patients with schizophrenia, immigrant patients in our study had milder negative and total psychotic symptomatology and were less impaired in terms of global functioning than the greek group. Being an immigrant appears to be an important factor related to these differences between our study groups. A possible explanation of our findings could be that immigrant patients with schizophrenia attending to greek mental health services have been 'filtered'because of a 'salmon bias' type phenomenon; the severe ill usually return to their country of birth due to the lack of financial and social support for immigrant patients in Greece. An alternative hypothesis is that the families and the local communities of immigrant patients with schizophrenia, being tied enough, provide support to their ill members that results in better outcome, especially with respect to negative syndrome and social functioning.

The objective of this study was to assess switching to amisulpride (AMS) in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Seven male subjects were switched to AMS and followed for 8 weeks. PANSS scores improved from 123 to 66 over this period. We conclude that AMS is of interest in the treatment of refractory schizophrenia.

Deficits of working memory (WM) are recognized as an important pathological feature in schizophrenia. Since the P600 component of event related potentials has been hypothesized that represents aspects of second-pass parsing processes of information processing, and is related to WM, the present study focuses on P600 elicited during a WM test in drug-naive first-episode schizophrenics (FES) compared to healthy controls. We examined 16 drug-naive first-episode schizophrenic patients and 23 healthy controls matched for age and sex. Compared with controls schizophrenic patients showed reduced P600 amplitude on left temporoparietal region and increased P600 amplitude on left occipital region. With regard to the latency, the patients exhibited significantly prolongation on right temporoparietal region. The obtained pattern of differences classified correctly 89.20% of patients. Memory performance of patients was also significantly impaired relative to controls. Our results suggest that second-pass parsing process of information processing, as indexed by P600, elicited during a WM test, is impaired in FES. Moreover, these findings lend support to the view that the auditory WM in schizophrenia involves or affects a circuitry including temporoparietal and occipital brain areas.

Neuroleptic-induced catatonia (NIC) and milder neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) share parkinsonian features, catatonic symptoms, mild fever, and have been described in patients receiving antipsychotic agents. We report the case of a patient with a schizophreniform disorder and a mild mental retardation who developed a condition which can be diagnosed either as NIC or as a mild form of NMS and has been treated successfully with a combination of amantadine (600 mg/day) and diazepam (30 mg/day). The overlapping between NIC and mild NMS cases might lead to an overestimation of the incidence of current NMS and reinforces the view of the existence of a 'neuroleptic toxicity spectrum'.

Fifty outpatients with concurrent psychiatric and physical illness who were referred following a suicidal attempt to the Outpatient Psychiatric Department, University of Athens, during a period of 3 years (1979-1981) were compared with a random sample of 85 psychiatric outpatients without concurrent physical illness who had attempted suicide at the same time period. Attempters suffering from both mental and physical illness were more often of an older age, married, pensioners or housewifes, were living with their own family, were suffering from organic psychotic condition or major affective disorder (depressive type) and more frequently used violent methods for attempting suicide. Among attempters the commonest physical illnesses were neurological diseases (40%), cardiovascular diseases (26%) and cancer (10%).