Rinat Yoffe - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Rinat Yoffe
Schizophrenia research, Jan 17, 2015
Suicide is a major cause of death in schizophrenia. Identifying factors which increase the risk o... more Suicide is a major cause of death in schizophrenia. Identifying factors which increase the risk of suicide among schizophrenia patients might help focus prevention efforts. This study examined risk of suicide in male schizophrenia patients using population-based data, examining the timing of suicide in relation to the last hospital discharge, and the effect of premorbid IQ on risk of suicide. Data on 930,000 male adolescents from the Israeli military draft board were linked with data from the Israeli Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry and vital statistics from the Israeli Ministry of Health. The relationship between premorbid IQ and risk for suicide was examined among 2881 males hospitalized with schizophrenia and compared to a control group of 566,726 males from the same cohort, who were not hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder, using survival analysis methods. Over a mean follow-up period of 9.9years (SD=5.8, range: 0-22years), 77/3806 males with schizophrenia died by su...
Israel journal of medical sciences
Sera from 872 healthy subjects among the Jewish population of Israel were examined for antibodies... more Sera from 872 healthy subjects among the Jewish population of Israel were examined for antibodies to varicella zoster virus (VZV) by a simplified technique for the detection of immunofluorescent antibody to membrane antigen. The difference in the geometric mean titer of antibodies to the virus among the the different age groups was highly significant (P less than 0.0001). The highest titers were found in the five-to-seven-years and 21-to-30-years age groups. In 211 subjects, aged 17 to 40 years, the antibody titres were not influenced by sex or ethnic origin. The percentage of seronegative subjects (titer less than 2) was relatively high--between 18.7 and 32.9% in the 21-to-60-years age groups--and it was 19.5% in the population of childbearing age. The importance of screening for VZV immune status in pregnant women is emphasized.
Israel journal of medical sciences
Jewish women have been considered to be at low risk for genital herpes simplex virus Type 2 (HSV-... more Jewish women have been considered to be at low risk for genital herpes simplex virus Type 2 (HSV-2) infections. During the period 1973 to 1981, genital herpes simplex infections were laboratory confirmed in 129 cases (81 women and 48 men). Until 1976, only sporadic cases were reported to our laboratory. Since then, the number of cases has gradually increased, reaching 31 new reported cases in 1981. The age distribution was typical for a sexually transmitted disease, with the peak of infection at childbearing age (20 to 39 years). As a result, rising morbidity of neonates--due to active genital herpes virus infection in the mother during delivery--could be expected, and monitoring of high-risk pregnancies for prevention of perinatal infections was introduced. Of 14 pregnant women monitored, herpesvirus was isolated in 4 in the last week before delivery, and cesarean section was advised. In addition, during the last 3 years, neonatal herpes was confirmed in six, and suspected in three neonates whose mothers were not monitored for genital herpesvirus infection during pregnancy.
Medicine and law
Several years ago, the Ministry of Health published a report on the epidemiology of involuntary p... more Several years ago, the Ministry of Health published a report on the epidemiology of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations. Many developments (advances in human rights advocacy, mental health legislation and the nascent Psychiatric Reform) have occurred in the mental health field in Israel since 1990 when the earlier report was released. Those favorable developments in mental health care were thought to have the capacity to modify the admission rates. We explored several parameters to check the hospitalization patterns (eg, by demographic factors, diagnosis) and found no substantial modifications. The case for an analytic study was clearly established.
Israel journal of medical sciences
Ninety-eight cases of genital herpes simplex virus infection (HSV-2) were confirmed by laboratory... more Ninety-eight cases of genital herpes simplex virus infection (HSV-2) were confirmed by laboratory examinations during the years 1973-80. Until 1975 there were less than five cases per year, but from 1976 the number of cases gradually increased, reaching 24 in 1980. The age distribution is typical of a sexually transmitted disease; and since the peak of susceptibility is at childbearing age, an increase in neonatal HSV infection could be expected. In 1980, laboratory testing confirmed neonatal HSV infection in four newborns. The need to monitor pregnancies in women at high risk for HSV-2 infection is stressed.
Schizophrenia bulletin, Jan 20, 2015
Although it is undisputable that patients with severe mental illness have impaired ability to wor... more Although it is undisputable that patients with severe mental illness have impaired ability to work, the extent of this is unclear. This is a nation-wide, cross-sectional survey of patients who have been hospitalized with severe mental illness earning minimum wage or above. Data from the Israeli Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry were linked with nation-wide data from the National Insurance Institute (the equivalent of US Social Security) on personal income. Hospitalization data were obtained on all consecutive admissions to any psychiatric hospital in the country between 1990-2008 with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, other nonaffective psychotic disorders, or bipolar disorder (N = 35 673). Earning minimum wage or more was defined as earning at least 1000 USD/month, which was equivalent to minimum wage in Israel in December 2010. The percentages of patients with only 1 admission who were earning minimum wage or above in December 2010 were as follows: 10.6% of patients with a dia...
Schizophrenia research, 2014
The effects of pre-natal-, early-life- and indirectly-initiated exposures to protracted maximum a... more The effects of pre-natal-, early-life- and indirectly-initiated exposures to protracted maximum adversity on the course of schizophrenia are unknown. To compare the aforementioned Holocaust directly exposed subgroups with an indirectly exposed subgroup on the course of schizophrenia. The study population were: Israeli Jews in-uterus or born in Nazi-occupied or dominated European nations by the end of the persecution of the Jews, who were alive in 1950, and who had a last discharge diagnosis of schizophrenia in the Israel National Psychiatric Case Registry by 2013 (N=4933). The population was disaggregated into subgroups who (1) migrated after WWII and who had (1a) pre-natal (n=584, 11.8%) and (1b) early-life (n=3709, 75.2%) initiated exposures to the maximum adversities of the Holocaust, and (2) indirectly exposed individuals to the Holocaust who migrated before the Nazi-era persecution begun (n=640, 13%). Recurrent event survival analyses were computed to examine the psychiatric re...
European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2014
Psychotic disorders are associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts, the etiology of wh... more Psychotic disorders are associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts, the etiology of which remains unknown across diagnoses. Thus it is relevant to understand how genetic and environmental factors contribute to the liability of suicide attempts in psychosis. The current study aims to examine the role of genetic and environmental factors in suicide attempts across psychotic disorders in twins concordant for psychosis. The study population consisted of all twin pairs in the Israeli National Psychiatric Case Registry hospitalized with a last discharge diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. Twin pairs (N=116) were born between 1900 and 1993 and hospitalized from 1964 to 2001. Competing genetic models were examined to decompose the variance in suicide attempts into: the individual-specific environment (unique), shared-family environment, and genetic effects. Across schizophrenia, psychosis and non-affective psychosis comparison of genetic models showed a model combining shared-fami...
Schizophrenia research, 2012
Psychiatric hospitalization registries are utilized to investigate the incidence and prevalence o... more Psychiatric hospitalization registries are utilized to investigate the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia for both research and administrative purposes. The assumption behind this is that most individuals with schizophrenia will be hospitalized at least once in their life-time. In an epidemiological survey conducted in the 1980s, a population-based sample (n = 4914) of Israel-born individuals then aged 25-34 were screened in the community, and 29 (0.6%) were subsequently diagnosed by psychiatrists using SADS/RDC criteria. Twenty four years later we linked data from the epidemiological survey with the Israeli National Psychiatric Hospitalization Registry. Twenty seven of the 29 individuals (93%) diagnosed with schizophrenia in the survey were identified in the hospitalization registry with the same diagnosis. Fifty-two (1.0%) participants not diagnosed during the survey with schizophrenia were identified in the psychiatric hospitalization registry 24 years later with schizophr...
The Biochemical journal, Jan 15, 1983
The dose-response curve of histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation in monolayer cultures of primar... more The dose-response curve of histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation in monolayer cultures of primary foetal-bovine articular chondrocytes was displaced to the right by cimetidine. In addition, H2 but not H1 antagonists prevented the histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation, suggesting histamine activates chondrocyte adenylate cyclase through an H2 receptor.
The Biochemical journal, Jan 15, 1985
Purified mast cells derived from rat peritoneal fluids and dog mastocytomas were extracted with 1... more Purified mast cells derived from rat peritoneal fluids and dog mastocytomas were extracted with 1 M-NaCl and sonication techniques. The mast-cell products increased the production of mononuclear cell factor from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in culture, as judged by the enhanced stimulation of prostaglandin E (2-5 fold) and collagenase (3-11-fold) production by cultured adherent synovial cells. Heparin alone (1-10 micrograms/ml) induced a similar stimulation of mononuclear-cell-factor production by monocyte cultures, whereas histamine (1-10 micrograms/ml) had no effect. The stimulatory effect of mast-cell products and heparin represented a direct effect on mononuclear cells; they did not potentiate the effect of monokine on the synovial cells. These results suggest that mast-cell-macrophage interactions may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of inflammation and connective-tissue degradation.
The Biochemical journal, Jan 15, 1985
Histamine (1-100 microM) induced a concentration-dependent increase in intracellular cyclic AMP i... more Histamine (1-100 microM) induced a concentration-dependent increase in intracellular cyclic AMP in monolayer cultures of human, canine and foetal-bovine articular chondrocytes. The dose-response curve for histamine in each culture was progressively displaced to the right with increasing concentrations of cimetidine, an H2-receptor antagonist. The histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation in human articular chondrocytes was also significantly decreased by ranitidine, another H2 antagonist, but not by the H1 antagonists mepyramine and chlorpheniramine. These findings indicate that histamine activates chondrocyte adenylate cyclase through an H2 receptor. The cyclic AMP response of human chondrocytes to histamine was many times greater than that measured for synovial fibroblasts under similar conditions. Such findings suggest that mast-cell-chondrocyte interactions in vivo may contribute to changed chondrocyte metabolism in joint disease.
PLOS ONE, 2015
Psychotic experiences are common in the general population, and predict later psychotic illness. ... more Psychotic experiences are common in the general population, and predict later psychotic illness. Much less is known about negative symptoms in the general population. This study utilized a sample of 4,914 Israel-born individuals aged 25-34 years who were screened for psychopathology in the 1980's. Though not designed to specifically assess negative symptoms, data were available on 9 self-report items representing avolition and social withdrawal, and on 5 interviewer-rated items assessing speech deficits, flat affect and poor hygiene. Psychotic experiences were assessed using the False Beliefs and Perceptions subscale of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview. Psychiatric hospitalization was ascertained 24 years later using a nation-wide psychiatric hospitalization registry. After removing subjects with diagnosable psychotic disorders at baseline, 20.2% had at least one negative symptom. Negative symptoms were associated with increased risk of later schizophrenia only in the presence of strong (frequent) psychotic experiences (OR = 13.0, 9% CI: 2.1-79.4). Negative symptoms are common in the general population, though the majority of people with negative symptoms do not manifest a clinically diagnosed psychiatric disorder. Negative symptoms and psychotic experiences critically depend on each other's co-occurrence in increasing risk for later schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Research, 2012
Schizophrenia Research, 2012
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
The hypothesized role of CNS infection during childhood in increasing later risk of brain malfunc... more The hypothesized role of CNS infection during childhood in increasing later risk of brain malfunction manifested as schizophrenia has been supported by some but not other studies. We sought to contribute to this debate by linking data on persons who had been hospitalized for meningitis as children, with a National Psychiatric Hospitalization Registry. Data were gathered on 3599 persons who had been hospitalized for a CNS infection before the age of 16, and 6371 controls who had been hospitalized as children for gastroenteritis. Both groups were followed for later hospitalization for schizophrenia between 1970 and 2007 using the Israeli National Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry. Data were analyzed using Cox regression analyses. The mean age of the subjects at hospitalization for a CNS infection was 3.4 ± 3.6 years, mean age of the subjects at follow up was 29.3 ± 6.0 years. Compared to controls, hospitalization for any CNS infection during childhood was not associated with an increased risk of later hospitalization for schizophrenia, adjusted HR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.5-1.32. Overall there was no significant association between childhood CNS infection and schizophrenia. These data do not support the presence of an infectious etiology of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
and 16 s OFF-period task performed in the scanner. Participants were instructed to stay relaxed b... more and 16 s OFF-period task performed in the scanner. Participants were instructed to stay relaxed but alert between stimulations and to attend to the stimuli when they occurred. fMRI data acquisition: Scanning was performed on a 3T Philips Achieva MRI scanner (Philips, Netherlands). 167 whole-head BOLD contrast gradient-echo echo-planar images were acquired using an eight-channel SENSE head coil with SENSE factor 2 in anterior-posterior direction, TR/TE 1436/35 ms, and a voxel size of 3 mm×3 mm×4 mm 3 . fMRI data analysis: Group independent component analysis was performed on preprocessed BOLD data (GIFT toolbox; http://icatb.sourceforge.net). 6 spatial components were identified. These represented the salience network (insula and ACC); the central executive network (left fronto-parietal and right frontoparietal cortex); and the DMN (medio-frontal and medio-parietal cortex). FNC was assessed using constrained-lagged correlation between components (FNC toolbox; http://icatb.sourceforge.net). Maximal lagged correlation (-5 to + 5 seconds) was examined between all pairwise combinations of components. Maximum Pearson correlation value and corresponding lag were calculated for each participant and averaged for each group. Group comparisons were performed on the maximal correlation coefficients. Results: Widespread FNC was found in both groups. Significantly reduced FNC was observed in schizophrenia compared to controls between: (i) the insula and ACC; (ii) insula and medio-frontal DMN; and (iii) left central executive network and medio-parietal DMN. There was no evidence of increased FNC during information processing in schizophrenia. Calculation of event-related average components in addition to the FNC analysis revealed that, while in healthy individuals insula activity preceded ACC activity, in individuals with schizophrenia this temporal relationship was weaker. Discussion: Reduced salience network connectivity during information processing in individuals with schizophrenia suggests a pathophysiological disturbance to the system which effects changes between contextually-relevant functional brain states. This aberrance may in turn provide a mechanistic explanation of several clinical features of the disorder.
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
Schizophrenia research, Jan 17, 2015
Suicide is a major cause of death in schizophrenia. Identifying factors which increase the risk o... more Suicide is a major cause of death in schizophrenia. Identifying factors which increase the risk of suicide among schizophrenia patients might help focus prevention efforts. This study examined risk of suicide in male schizophrenia patients using population-based data, examining the timing of suicide in relation to the last hospital discharge, and the effect of premorbid IQ on risk of suicide. Data on 930,000 male adolescents from the Israeli military draft board were linked with data from the Israeli Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry and vital statistics from the Israeli Ministry of Health. The relationship between premorbid IQ and risk for suicide was examined among 2881 males hospitalized with schizophrenia and compared to a control group of 566,726 males from the same cohort, who were not hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder, using survival analysis methods. Over a mean follow-up period of 9.9years (SD=5.8, range: 0-22years), 77/3806 males with schizophrenia died by su...
Israel journal of medical sciences
Sera from 872 healthy subjects among the Jewish population of Israel were examined for antibodies... more Sera from 872 healthy subjects among the Jewish population of Israel were examined for antibodies to varicella zoster virus (VZV) by a simplified technique for the detection of immunofluorescent antibody to membrane antigen. The difference in the geometric mean titer of antibodies to the virus among the the different age groups was highly significant (P less than 0.0001). The highest titers were found in the five-to-seven-years and 21-to-30-years age groups. In 211 subjects, aged 17 to 40 years, the antibody titres were not influenced by sex or ethnic origin. The percentage of seronegative subjects (titer less than 2) was relatively high--between 18.7 and 32.9% in the 21-to-60-years age groups--and it was 19.5% in the population of childbearing age. The importance of screening for VZV immune status in pregnant women is emphasized.
Israel journal of medical sciences
Jewish women have been considered to be at low risk for genital herpes simplex virus Type 2 (HSV-... more Jewish women have been considered to be at low risk for genital herpes simplex virus Type 2 (HSV-2) infections. During the period 1973 to 1981, genital herpes simplex infections were laboratory confirmed in 129 cases (81 women and 48 men). Until 1976, only sporadic cases were reported to our laboratory. Since then, the number of cases has gradually increased, reaching 31 new reported cases in 1981. The age distribution was typical for a sexually transmitted disease, with the peak of infection at childbearing age (20 to 39 years). As a result, rising morbidity of neonates--due to active genital herpes virus infection in the mother during delivery--could be expected, and monitoring of high-risk pregnancies for prevention of perinatal infections was introduced. Of 14 pregnant women monitored, herpesvirus was isolated in 4 in the last week before delivery, and cesarean section was advised. In addition, during the last 3 years, neonatal herpes was confirmed in six, and suspected in three neonates whose mothers were not monitored for genital herpesvirus infection during pregnancy.
Medicine and law
Several years ago, the Ministry of Health published a report on the epidemiology of involuntary p... more Several years ago, the Ministry of Health published a report on the epidemiology of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations. Many developments (advances in human rights advocacy, mental health legislation and the nascent Psychiatric Reform) have occurred in the mental health field in Israel since 1990 when the earlier report was released. Those favorable developments in mental health care were thought to have the capacity to modify the admission rates. We explored several parameters to check the hospitalization patterns (eg, by demographic factors, diagnosis) and found no substantial modifications. The case for an analytic study was clearly established.
Israel journal of medical sciences
Ninety-eight cases of genital herpes simplex virus infection (HSV-2) were confirmed by laboratory... more Ninety-eight cases of genital herpes simplex virus infection (HSV-2) were confirmed by laboratory examinations during the years 1973-80. Until 1975 there were less than five cases per year, but from 1976 the number of cases gradually increased, reaching 24 in 1980. The age distribution is typical of a sexually transmitted disease; and since the peak of susceptibility is at childbearing age, an increase in neonatal HSV infection could be expected. In 1980, laboratory testing confirmed neonatal HSV infection in four newborns. The need to monitor pregnancies in women at high risk for HSV-2 infection is stressed.
Schizophrenia bulletin, Jan 20, 2015
Although it is undisputable that patients with severe mental illness have impaired ability to wor... more Although it is undisputable that patients with severe mental illness have impaired ability to work, the extent of this is unclear. This is a nation-wide, cross-sectional survey of patients who have been hospitalized with severe mental illness earning minimum wage or above. Data from the Israeli Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry were linked with nation-wide data from the National Insurance Institute (the equivalent of US Social Security) on personal income. Hospitalization data were obtained on all consecutive admissions to any psychiatric hospital in the country between 1990-2008 with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, other nonaffective psychotic disorders, or bipolar disorder (N = 35 673). Earning minimum wage or more was defined as earning at least 1000 USD/month, which was equivalent to minimum wage in Israel in December 2010. The percentages of patients with only 1 admission who were earning minimum wage or above in December 2010 were as follows: 10.6% of patients with a dia...
Schizophrenia research, 2014
The effects of pre-natal-, early-life- and indirectly-initiated exposures to protracted maximum a... more The effects of pre-natal-, early-life- and indirectly-initiated exposures to protracted maximum adversity on the course of schizophrenia are unknown. To compare the aforementioned Holocaust directly exposed subgroups with an indirectly exposed subgroup on the course of schizophrenia. The study population were: Israeli Jews in-uterus or born in Nazi-occupied or dominated European nations by the end of the persecution of the Jews, who were alive in 1950, and who had a last discharge diagnosis of schizophrenia in the Israel National Psychiatric Case Registry by 2013 (N=4933). The population was disaggregated into subgroups who (1) migrated after WWII and who had (1a) pre-natal (n=584, 11.8%) and (1b) early-life (n=3709, 75.2%) initiated exposures to the maximum adversities of the Holocaust, and (2) indirectly exposed individuals to the Holocaust who migrated before the Nazi-era persecution begun (n=640, 13%). Recurrent event survival analyses were computed to examine the psychiatric re...
European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2014
Psychotic disorders are associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts, the etiology of wh... more Psychotic disorders are associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts, the etiology of which remains unknown across diagnoses. Thus it is relevant to understand how genetic and environmental factors contribute to the liability of suicide attempts in psychosis. The current study aims to examine the role of genetic and environmental factors in suicide attempts across psychotic disorders in twins concordant for psychosis. The study population consisted of all twin pairs in the Israeli National Psychiatric Case Registry hospitalized with a last discharge diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. Twin pairs (N=116) were born between 1900 and 1993 and hospitalized from 1964 to 2001. Competing genetic models were examined to decompose the variance in suicide attempts into: the individual-specific environment (unique), shared-family environment, and genetic effects. Across schizophrenia, psychosis and non-affective psychosis comparison of genetic models showed a model combining shared-fami...
Schizophrenia research, 2012
Psychiatric hospitalization registries are utilized to investigate the incidence and prevalence o... more Psychiatric hospitalization registries are utilized to investigate the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia for both research and administrative purposes. The assumption behind this is that most individuals with schizophrenia will be hospitalized at least once in their life-time. In an epidemiological survey conducted in the 1980s, a population-based sample (n = 4914) of Israel-born individuals then aged 25-34 were screened in the community, and 29 (0.6%) were subsequently diagnosed by psychiatrists using SADS/RDC criteria. Twenty four years later we linked data from the epidemiological survey with the Israeli National Psychiatric Hospitalization Registry. Twenty seven of the 29 individuals (93%) diagnosed with schizophrenia in the survey were identified in the hospitalization registry with the same diagnosis. Fifty-two (1.0%) participants not diagnosed during the survey with schizophrenia were identified in the psychiatric hospitalization registry 24 years later with schizophr...
The Biochemical journal, Jan 15, 1983
The dose-response curve of histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation in monolayer cultures of primar... more The dose-response curve of histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation in monolayer cultures of primary foetal-bovine articular chondrocytes was displaced to the right by cimetidine. In addition, H2 but not H1 antagonists prevented the histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation, suggesting histamine activates chondrocyte adenylate cyclase through an H2 receptor.
The Biochemical journal, Jan 15, 1985
Purified mast cells derived from rat peritoneal fluids and dog mastocytomas were extracted with 1... more Purified mast cells derived from rat peritoneal fluids and dog mastocytomas were extracted with 1 M-NaCl and sonication techniques. The mast-cell products increased the production of mononuclear cell factor from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in culture, as judged by the enhanced stimulation of prostaglandin E (2-5 fold) and collagenase (3-11-fold) production by cultured adherent synovial cells. Heparin alone (1-10 micrograms/ml) induced a similar stimulation of mononuclear-cell-factor production by monocyte cultures, whereas histamine (1-10 micrograms/ml) had no effect. The stimulatory effect of mast-cell products and heparin represented a direct effect on mononuclear cells; they did not potentiate the effect of monokine on the synovial cells. These results suggest that mast-cell-macrophage interactions may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of inflammation and connective-tissue degradation.
The Biochemical journal, Jan 15, 1985
Histamine (1-100 microM) induced a concentration-dependent increase in intracellular cyclic AMP i... more Histamine (1-100 microM) induced a concentration-dependent increase in intracellular cyclic AMP in monolayer cultures of human, canine and foetal-bovine articular chondrocytes. The dose-response curve for histamine in each culture was progressively displaced to the right with increasing concentrations of cimetidine, an H2-receptor antagonist. The histamine-induced cyclic AMP elevation in human articular chondrocytes was also significantly decreased by ranitidine, another H2 antagonist, but not by the H1 antagonists mepyramine and chlorpheniramine. These findings indicate that histamine activates chondrocyte adenylate cyclase through an H2 receptor. The cyclic AMP response of human chondrocytes to histamine was many times greater than that measured for synovial fibroblasts under similar conditions. Such findings suggest that mast-cell-chondrocyte interactions in vivo may contribute to changed chondrocyte metabolism in joint disease.
PLOS ONE, 2015
Psychotic experiences are common in the general population, and predict later psychotic illness. ... more Psychotic experiences are common in the general population, and predict later psychotic illness. Much less is known about negative symptoms in the general population. This study utilized a sample of 4,914 Israel-born individuals aged 25-34 years who were screened for psychopathology in the 1980's. Though not designed to specifically assess negative symptoms, data were available on 9 self-report items representing avolition and social withdrawal, and on 5 interviewer-rated items assessing speech deficits, flat affect and poor hygiene. Psychotic experiences were assessed using the False Beliefs and Perceptions subscale of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview. Psychiatric hospitalization was ascertained 24 years later using a nation-wide psychiatric hospitalization registry. After removing subjects with diagnosable psychotic disorders at baseline, 20.2% had at least one negative symptom. Negative symptoms were associated with increased risk of later schizophrenia only in the presence of strong (frequent) psychotic experiences (OR = 13.0, 9% CI: 2.1-79.4). Negative symptoms are common in the general population, though the majority of people with negative symptoms do not manifest a clinically diagnosed psychiatric disorder. Negative symptoms and psychotic experiences critically depend on each other's co-occurrence in increasing risk for later schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Research, 2012
Schizophrenia Research, 2012
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
The hypothesized role of CNS infection during childhood in increasing later risk of brain malfunc... more The hypothesized role of CNS infection during childhood in increasing later risk of brain malfunction manifested as schizophrenia has been supported by some but not other studies. We sought to contribute to this debate by linking data on persons who had been hospitalized for meningitis as children, with a National Psychiatric Hospitalization Registry. Data were gathered on 3599 persons who had been hospitalized for a CNS infection before the age of 16, and 6371 controls who had been hospitalized as children for gastroenteritis. Both groups were followed for later hospitalization for schizophrenia between 1970 and 2007 using the Israeli National Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry. Data were analyzed using Cox regression analyses. The mean age of the subjects at hospitalization for a CNS infection was 3.4 ± 3.6 years, mean age of the subjects at follow up was 29.3 ± 6.0 years. Compared to controls, hospitalization for any CNS infection during childhood was not associated with an increased risk of later hospitalization for schizophrenia, adjusted HR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.5-1.32. Overall there was no significant association between childhood CNS infection and schizophrenia. These data do not support the presence of an infectious etiology of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
and 16 s OFF-period task performed in the scanner. Participants were instructed to stay relaxed b... more and 16 s OFF-period task performed in the scanner. Participants were instructed to stay relaxed but alert between stimulations and to attend to the stimuli when they occurred. fMRI data acquisition: Scanning was performed on a 3T Philips Achieva MRI scanner (Philips, Netherlands). 167 whole-head BOLD contrast gradient-echo echo-planar images were acquired using an eight-channel SENSE head coil with SENSE factor 2 in anterior-posterior direction, TR/TE 1436/35 ms, and a voxel size of 3 mm×3 mm×4 mm 3 . fMRI data analysis: Group independent component analysis was performed on preprocessed BOLD data (GIFT toolbox; http://icatb.sourceforge.net). 6 spatial components were identified. These represented the salience network (insula and ACC); the central executive network (left fronto-parietal and right frontoparietal cortex); and the DMN (medio-frontal and medio-parietal cortex). FNC was assessed using constrained-lagged correlation between components (FNC toolbox; http://icatb.sourceforge.net). Maximal lagged correlation (-5 to + 5 seconds) was examined between all pairwise combinations of components. Maximum Pearson correlation value and corresponding lag were calculated for each participant and averaged for each group. Group comparisons were performed on the maximal correlation coefficients. Results: Widespread FNC was found in both groups. Significantly reduced FNC was observed in schizophrenia compared to controls between: (i) the insula and ACC; (ii) insula and medio-frontal DMN; and (iii) left central executive network and medio-parietal DMN. There was no evidence of increased FNC during information processing in schizophrenia. Calculation of event-related average components in addition to the FNC analysis revealed that, while in healthy individuals insula activity preceded ACC activity, in individuals with schizophrenia this temporal relationship was weaker. Discussion: Reduced salience network connectivity during information processing in individuals with schizophrenia suggests a pathophysiological disturbance to the system which effects changes between contextually-relevant functional brain states. This aberrance may in turn provide a mechanistic explanation of several clinical features of the disorder.
Schizophrenia Research, 2010
Schizophrenia Research, 2010