A clinical characteristics prospective study on 55 patients who suffer from acute psychosis disorder and temporary and 30 among them are multi acute rebellious disorder without the symptom of schizophrenia. The result showed that: the average initial age of acute psychosis disorder and temporary: 29.0 ± 11.29. There is no difference between male and female. The rate of acute rebellious disorder and temporary combine with SCTL is low:14.5%. For the multi acute psychosis disorder patient without the symptom of schizophrenia. The onset of disease is often sudden and rapid. Average duration of disease is short and is shorter significantly than that of other acute psychosis disorders as schizophrenia. All of them have delusion, especially persecution illusion (90%), most of them have more than two illusions: (86.7%); the illusion are often occur uncontinuously and temporary, illusion combine with hallucination seen in 70%. Some types of hallucination: fast hallucination: 70%, the content of its hallucination is complicate, mainly hallucination of hearing which appear uncontinuously: 66,7%, hallucination of hearing from outside are often seen: 66.7%. Emotion disorder often seen: anxiety: 50%, mania and depression:46.7%, unstable emotion: 36.7%
Psychotic Disorders ; Schizophrenia ; Diagnosis

The hallucinations are common and have an important role in diagnosing schizophrenia. Objectives: To describe and to follow-up the evolution of the hallucinations in schizopprenia. 40 schizophrenic in patients in accordance with ICD.10 criteria, who have hallucinations, are treated by anti - psychotics in National Institute of Mental Health from September 1999 to November 2000. Methods: using the method of cross - sectional study. Results: The hallucinations of the patients were: 92.5% had auditory hallucination, 12.5% had visual hallucination and 2.5% had olfactory hallucination. Most of auditory hallucinations are comment, located in head. 91.6% hallucinations are disappeared when the patients were treated by antipsychotics. Conclusions: Most of hallucinations are auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations and olfactory hallucination. Hallucinations are likely sensitive to antipsychotics
Schizophrenia ; Hallucinations ; Diagnosis

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to explore the characteristics of schizophrenic patient's PAI profiles and extract the representative profile types and test the diagnostic function of PAR and SCZ for the schizophrenia. METHODS: 252 schizophrenic patients and 168 normal adults completed PAI. The mean profiles of scizophrenia subtypes were compared and the typical profile type were extracted by Ward's hierarchical cluster analysis. The diagnostic function of PAR and SCZ were also tested by discriminant analysis. RESULTS: The scale and subscale's elevation were different in cach subtype of schizophrenic patients and 5 cluster profiles were extracted. The classification percentage of PAR and SCZ to discriminate normal adult and schizophrenic patients in the discriminant function sample were 83.3%, 79.8%, respectively. It was 86.9%, 72.6% in the holdout sample, respectively, and the overall percentage of cases correctly classified in two samples was 80.7%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that PAI scales reflect the chief complaints and related features of schizophrenic patients and the diagnostic function of PAR and SCZ scales are high, Further, these results indicate that PAI can be useful in many clinical field.
Adult ; Classification ; Diagnosis* ; Humans ; Schizophrenia* ; Weights and Measures

There is growing interest in the genetic analysis of schizophrenia using endophenotypes rather than clinical diagnosis or symptom dimensions. Endophenotypes could be alternative phenotypes for the clinical phenotypes. With their intermedicate and quantitative characteristics, endophenotypes could be functionally important links in the pathways between the genetic variation and clinical expression of the disorder. In this regard, the neurophysiological and neurocognitive endophenotypes used in the genetic analysis of schizophrenia have been reviewed.
Diagnosis ; Endophenotypes* ; Genetic Variation ; Genetics* ; Phenotype ; Schizophrenia*

Virtual reality technology is now being used in neuropsychological assessment and real-world applications of many psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, child psychiatric disorders, dementia, and substance related disorders. These applications are growing rapidly due to recent evolution in both hardware and software of virtual reality. In this paper, we review these current applications and discuss the future work of clinical, ethical, and technological aspects needed to refine and expand these applications to psychiatry.
Anxiety Disorders ; Child ; Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVES: The protective effects of estrogen against the development of schizophrenia have been investigated in various perspectives. Previous studies showed patients with earlier age of menarche had later onset of schizophrenia and less frequent admissions. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of the age of menarche on subsequent courses including hospitalizations, suicidal attempts, physical harm to others, and psychotic symptoms in women with schizophrenia. METHODS: Self-report menarche age, onset of psychotic symptoms, and clinical status were collected in a sample of 108 premenopausal women with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. RESULTS: There was significant correlation between the age of menarche and the frequency of admissions (r=.321, p=.006). Also, patients with history of physical harms to others showed later age of menarche than those without (t=2.025, df= 106, p=.045). CONCLUSION: In women with schizophrenia, the age of onset of menarche affects subsequent courses indicated by frequency of admissions and violent behaviors. It is suggested that identifying the age of menarche might be helpful to predict the courses in women with schizophrenia. Further investigations regarding the relationship between estrogen and the courses of schizophrenia in women are needed.
Age of Onset ; Diagnosis ; Estrogens ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Menarche* ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVES: The protective effects of estrogen against the development of schizophrenia have been investigated in various perspectives. Previous studies showed patients with earlier age of menarche had later onset of schizophrenia and less frequent admissions. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of the age of menarche on subsequent courses including hospitalizations, suicidal attempts, physical harm to others, and psychotic symptoms in women with schizophrenia. METHODS: Self-report menarche age, onset of psychotic symptoms, and clinical status were collected in a sample of 108 premenopausal women with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. RESULTS: There was significant correlation between the age of menarche and the frequency of admissions (r=.321, p=.006). Also, patients with history of physical harms to others showed later age of menarche than those without (t=2.025, df= 106, p=.045). CONCLUSION: In women with schizophrenia, the age of onset of menarche affects subsequent courses indicated by frequency of admissions and violent behaviors. It is suggested that identifying the age of menarche might be helpful to predict the courses in women with schizophrenia. Further investigations regarding the relationship between estrogen and the courses of schizophrenia in women are needed.
Age of Onset ; Diagnosis ; Estrogens ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Menarche* ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVES: Primary, enduring negative symptoms have been used to define the deficit syndrome of schizophrenia, and the diagnostic validity of the deficit syndrome has been demonstrated by clinical, biological and neuropsychological studies. This study aims at evaluating the long-term stability of the diagnostic category of deficit syndrome using direct patient assessments. METHODS: The subjects were thirty-two patients with schizophrenia who were categorized into deficit or non-deficit subgroup using the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome (SDS) in their remission or partial remission state maintained by long-term treatments with antipsychotics (mostly atypical drugs). These patients were re-assessed based on the same deficit syndrome criteria an average of 5.6 years after having been initially categorized. Lifetime presence of clinical symptoms were evaluated using the Krawiecka Scale. RESULTS: The majority (87.5%) of the patients who were classified as non-deficit at the initial assessment continued to remain non-deficit during the follow-through period. However, only 37.5% of the patients classified as deficit at the initial assessment remain classified as showing deficit syndrome. Compared to the non-deficit group, patients of the deficit group at the final assessment showed significantly higher scores of positive symptoms at their previous psychotic states. Among the individual items of SDS, 'poverty of speech' was the most predictable of the long-lasting deficit syndrome. CONCLUSION: This study showed insufficient long-term stability of the deficit syndrome categorized by SDS criteria. This could be explained by low validity of SDS criteria for the identification of the trait-dependent deficit syndrome. It might also suggest that deficit symptoms could be improved by optimal long-term treatment with atypical antipsychotics.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Appointments and Schedules ; Diagnosis* ; Follow-Up Studies* ; Humans ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to identify the predictors of short-term treatment response to rieperidone from first-episode schizophrenia. METHOD: Eighteen first episode schizophrenic patients were recruited and received treatment with risperidone for 8 weeks. Clinical response was measured using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Clinical Global Impression(CGI) scale. Demographic(age, sex), clinical(family history, age at onset, premorbid and baseline levels of functioning, premorbid IQ, duration of illness, baseline psychopathologies, extrapyramidal symptoms after 1 week treatment) and neurocognitive number of correct responses and reaction time for Continuous Attention Test) characteristics and their correlations with treatment response indices(improvement rates in positive, negative and general psychopathology subscales of PANSS) were analysed. Stepwise multiple regression was performed to identify the predictors for each treatment response index. RESULTS: Significant improvement was observed for each subscale of PANSS during 8 weeks of treatment. Longer duration of illness before treatment was highly related to poor treatment response for each response index. Extrapyramidal symptoms after 1 week treatment was also related with poor treatment response. According to the regression analysis, duration of illness strongly predicts all response indices (deltaR2=0.42-0.79), and the higher functioning level in the past predicts the improvement rate in general psychopathology. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that early diagnosis and intervention could increase the rate of short-term treatment response to risperidone. In addition to the duration of illness, extrapyramidal symptoms of early treatment phase and the level of premorbid functioning also predict treatment responses.
Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Psychopathology ; Reaction Time ; Risperidone* ; Schizophrenia*

OBJECTIVE: Patterns of clinical use of antipsychotics have changed greatly in the past decade. The authors' goal was to examine trends in the use of typical and atypical antipsychotic medications in a inpatient unit at a university hospital between 1997 and 2003. METHODS: We evaluated medication use in inpatients treated with antipsychotic drugs during Jan-Dec 2003 and compared the results with inpatients treated with antipsychotics in 1997. RESULTS: The distribution of psychiatric diagnosis in 2003 was different from that in 1997 (chi2=36.57, p<0.001). The proportion of patients with illness other than schizophrenia spectrum disorders was increased in 2003 (chi2=33.56, p<0.001). An atypical agent was prescribed for 193 (93.7%) patients in 2003, and there was significant increase in the proportion of patients receiving atypical antipsychotics (chi2=68.80, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study confirm that atypical antipsychotic medication have replaced typical antipsychotic medications for a wide range of diagnoses in Korea. We think it reflects the current progress of psychopharmacology and clinical complexity of antipsychotic treatment in a changing environment.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Korea ; Mental Disorders ; Psychopharmacology ; Schizophrenia