bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
T43. PREDNISOLONE VERSUS PLACEBO AS AUGMENTATION THERAPY IN PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS
Authors: Lyliana Nasib , Winter Inge , Kahn Rene , Sommer Iris 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
An increasing body of evidence suggests that immune dysregulation is involved in the pathophysiology of psychotic disorders. Some, but not all, anti-inflammatory drugs have shown positive effects on symptom severity. Given the need for new treatment options in psychosis, anti-inflammatory medication should be explored as a potential treatment to improve outcome. Being a potent glucocorticosteroid that adequately passes through the blood-brain barrier, prednisolone qualifies as a potential candidate. This proof-of-concept study aims to explore the effect of prednisolone, compared to placebo, on symptom severity in patients with a psychotic disorder who are on a stable dose of antipsychotic medication.

Methods
The study was conducted from July 2015 until April 2019 in four centers in the Netherlands and Belgium. Patients with a psychotic disorder were randomized, double blind, 1:1 to prednisolone or placebo in addition to their antipsychotic treatment. Patients randomized to prednisolone started with 40 mg/day, tapered down to zero in six weeks. Several procedures were implemented to ensure patient safety during prednisolone exposure (e.g. regular safety labs). The primary objective was to compare change in symptom severity, measured through the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), in patients treated with prednisolone versus placebo, in additional to a stable antipsychotic regimen. To this end, a mixed model repeated measures ANOVA was applied.

Results
42 participants were randomized, equally divided across the treatment arms. The six week treatment period was completed by 20 patients randomized to placebo and 19 patients randomized to prednisolone. There were no baseline differences in demographics, symptom severity, depression or global functioning between the treatment groups. There was no difference in symptom improvement between patients treated with prednisolone compared to placebo at the end of the six week treatment period (p=.304). Global functioning and depression were not significantly different between treatment arms end of treatment. No Serious Adverse Events (SAEs) occurred during the treatment phase.

Discussion
The results of this proof-of-concept study do not support the immune hypothesis of psychosis: there was no difference in symptom improvement after a six week treatment with prednisolone compared to placebo, in addition to a stable regimen of antipsychotics. The small sample size is the main limitation of this trial. Even though prednisolone did not show to be a potential candidate for augmentation therapy in psychosis, it is of interest to note that patients did not deteriorate when using prednisolone nor were there more SAE’s in the active treatment arm. This argues against the general safety concerns for prescribing prednisolone in patients with psychosis for the treatment of immune disorder, although additional research is needed.
T48. DEVIATIONS IN MICRO AND MACRO WHITE MATTER STRUCTURES IN PSYCHOSIS PRONENESS
Authors: Arslan Seda , Şahin Tuba , Şahin Didenur , Toulopoulou Timothea 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Psychotic disorders are characterized by neurobiological deviations, including in the macro and microstructure of white matter. White matter alterations are also seen in psychosis-proneness and in individuals who have a high risk of psychosis. For example, studies have indicated decreases in white matter integrity in the genu/forceps minor of corpus callosum (CC) in the latter populations. Anterior corona radiata (ACR) is one crucial white-matter tract connecting the anterior cingulate cortex to the striatum. Indeed, reductions in the white matter structure of anterior genu of CC significantly predict the transition from ultra-high risk to psychosis. However, there is a gap in the literature related to observing the psychosis-proneness by applying both micro and macrostructural brain analyses, and most of the microstructural white matter studies in psychosis focus on fractional anisotropy (FA) and not include mean diffusivity (MD). Thus, the current study aims to assess whether white matter deviations in CG, ACR, and CC, are associated with psychosis proneness by combining both tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analyses in a sample of participants with psychosis proneness (PP) and without psychosis proneness (NPP).

Methods
The study included 53 participants (29 PP vs. 24 NPP) whose ages were between 17 and 24 years. Participants were split into two groups based on their scores on Structured Interview for Schizotypy assessment, a well-validated instrument of psychosis proneness. White matter integrity was analyzed via diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and white matter volume (WMV) via VBM. Two sample t-test was used in GLM for both DTI and VBM analyses. FA, MD, and VMV were compared between two groups to observe micro and macro white matter structure alterations in the region of interest.

Results
DTI analysis revealed decreased FA values in the right ACR and right genu of the CC in the psychosis-proneness group (F(1,52)= 7.37, p= 0.009). Moreover, VBM showed a significant WMV decreases in the right CG, Brodmann areas 8, 9, and 32 in the PP group (F(1,52)= 50.85, uncorrected p&lt;0.01). However, MD did not differ between the two groups (F(1,51)= 3.65, p=0.06)

Discussion
These findings suggest that PP associated with decreased white matter integrity in ACR, genu of CC, and also reduced white matter volumes in the right CG, Brodmann areas 8, 9, and 32. Significant FA decreases might result from alterations in radial or axial diffusivity since we did not observe significant MD differences between two groups. The current findings suggested that participants with PP had both macro and micro white matter structure disruptions, mostly in frontal parts of the right cerebrum, compared to no PP group.
T59. ACOUSTIC SPEECH MARKERS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA
Authors: de Boer Janna , Voppel Alban , Wijnen Frank , Sommer Iris 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Clinicians routinely use impressions of speech as an element of mental status examination, including ‘pressured’ speech in mania and ‘monotone’ or ‘soft’ speech in depression or psychosis. In psychosis in particular, descriptions of speech are used to monitor (negative) symptom severity. Recent advances in computational linguistics have paved the way towards automated speech analyses as a biomarker for psychosis. In the present study, we assessed the diagnostic value of acoustic speech features in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that a classifier would be highly accurate (~ 80%) in classifying patients and healthy controls.

Methods
Natural speech samples were obtained from 86 patients with schizophrenia and 77 age and gender matched healthy controls through a semi-structured interview, using a set of neutral open-ended questions. Symptom severity was rated by consensus rating of two trained researchers, blinded to phonetic analysis, with the Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Acoustic features were extracted with OpenSMILE, employing the Geneva Acoustic Minimalistic Parameter Set (GeMAPS), which comprises standardized analyses of pitch (F0), formants (F1, F2 and F3, i.e. acoustic resonance frequencies that indicate the position and movement of the articulatory muscles during speech production), speech quality, length of voiced and unvoiced regions. Speech features were fed into a linear kernel support vector machine (SVM) with leave-one-out cross-validation to assess their value for psychosis diagnosis.

Results
Demographic analyses revealed no differences between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls in age or parental education. An automated machine-learning speech classifier reached an accuracy of 82.8% in classifying patients with schizophrenia and controls on speech features alone. Important features in the model were variation in loudness, spectral slope (i.e. the gradual decay in energy in high frequency speech sounds) and the amount of voiced regions (i.e. segments of the interview where the participant was speaking). PANSS positive, negative and general scores were significantly correlated with pitch, formant frequencies and length of voiced and unvoiced regions.

Discussion
This study demonstrates that an algorithm using quantified features of speech can objectively differentiate patients with schizophrenia from controls with high accuracy. Further validation in an independent sample is required. Employing standardized parameter sets ensures easy replication and comparison of analyses and can be used for cross linguistic studies. Although at an early stage, the field of clinical computational linguistics introduces a powerful tool for diagnosis and prognosis of psychosis and neuropsychiatric disorders in general. We consider this new diagnostic tool to be of high potential given its ease of acquirement, low costs and patient burden. For example, this tool could easily be implemented as a smartphone app to be used in treatment settings.
T63. TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? EXPLORING EFFORT IN SCHIZOPHRENIA WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF MOTIVATIONAL INTENSITY THEORY
Authors: Décombe Amandine , Brunel Lionel , Capdevielle Delphine , Raffard Stéphane 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Motivation impairments have long been seen as a central feature of schizophrenia. Attention has focused on the reward system and effort-based decision-making deficits. However, according to motivational intensity theory (MIT), effort mobilization and perception are not directly – and not only – determined by reward but, fundamentally, by task difficulty. At the same time, the link between effort and difficulty has been poorly studied in schizophrenia.

Methods
Therefore, this cross-sectional study compared effort perception in an experimental schizophrenia group with healthy controls. Participants were asked to carry various quantities of objects from one point to another using their hands. Task difficulty was manipulated by increasing the number of objects and the distance covered. Perceived difficulty, perceived effort and walking speed were assessed for all levels of difficulty. Psychotic symptoms, depression, self-efficacy and bodyweight data were also recorded.

Results
The results are consistent with MIT, in that perceived effort increased with task difficulty in both groups. Effort and difficulty perceptions were higher in the schizophrenia group, and although this was positively correlated with bodyweight and depression, there was no association with negative symptoms. Importantly, although schizophrenia patients perceived the task as more effortful, walking speed was similar between the two groups, suggesting that the schizophrenia group mobilized more effort to overcome higher perceived effort and difficulty.

Discussion
Together, these results suggest that the schizophrenia group perceived the task as more difficult, but mobilized more effort to complete it. This observation could partly explain the chronic decrease in motivation to engage in physically demanding activities, leading to a decline in such activities in daily life among schizophrenia individuals.
T75. METABOLIC SYNDROME AND HEAR RATE VARIABILITY IN SCHIZOPHRENIC INPATIENTS
Authors: Yoon Bo-Hyun , Lee Kwanghun , Kim Moon-Doo , Nam Beomwoo , Shim Se-Hoon , Lim Eun-Sung , Park Sung-Yong 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between metabolic syndrome and markers of heart rate variability (HRV) in chronic schizophrenic inpatients

Methods
A total of 99 schizophrenic inpatients was included in this study. Metabolic syndrome of patients was defined according to the revised NCEP-ATP III criteria. HRV was measured by SA-3000P (Medi-core, Seoul, Korea). Psychopathology, anxiety state of patients, psychosocial functional state and subjective well-being were examined by Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), Hamilton Anxiety Inventory (HAM-A), Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment (SOFAS) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), respectively. Comparisons of data were done between patients with metabolic syndrome and without metabolic syndrome.

Results
Fifty-four (54.5%) of 99 patients had satisfied the criteria of metabolic syndrome. Patients with metabolic syndrome showed significant higher negative symptoms scores in PANSS (p&lt;0.05) and HAM-A scores (p&lt;0.05) than patients without metabolic syndrome. Age, sex, smoking status, age at onset, duration of illness, scores of SOFAS and SWLS were not differed between two groups. Data of HRV were transformed to log values to satisfy the hypothesis of normal distribution of curve. SDNN of Time domain was significantly differed between two groups (p&lt;0.05). Activation of autonomic nerve, resistance of stress, index of stress, rate of fatigue and heart stability were also significantly differed between groups (p&lt;0.05, respectively). Multiple linear regression was done to explore which factors were associated with HRV and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome was negatively influenced to InTP, InVLF, InLF and InHF of HRV (frequency domain).

Discussion
This study suggested that metabolic syndrome was negatively influenced to the frequency domain of HRV in chronic schizophrenic patients.
T87. CHANGING RATES OF PAST-YEAR CANNABIS USE BY PEOPLE WITH A PSYCHOTIC DISORDER
Authors: Waterreus Anna , Di Prinzio Patsy , Badcock Johanna , Martin-Iverson Mat , Morgan Vera 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
General population data show that cannabis use by younger people has been declining but increasing in older adults and overall, the gap between men and women appears to be narrowing. Despite rates of past-year cannabis use by people with a psychotic disorder being much higher than that of the general population, little has been documented about sex and age differences in patterns of cannabis use over time by people with a psychotic disorder.

Methods
To better understand trends in cannabis use by people with a psychotic illness, we examined sex and age differences in rates of past-year cannabis use using nationally representative data from two cross-sectional Australian national surveys of psychosis (1997, 2010). We then compared our findings to comparable general population data collected in the Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey (1998, 2010).

Results
Prevalence of past-year cannabis use by people with psychotic illness dropped significantly from 38.2% to 33.7%. Both sexes showed a decline in use. The steeper decline in use by men aged 18–29 years (70.2% to 47.8%) contributed to a narrowing of the sex gap. Conversely, use by men aged 55–64 increased from 4.8% to 18.8%. In comparison, general population data showed a similar pattern of change across sex and age groups including a steeper decline in use by men aged 18–29 years, but only a very modest increase in use from 3% to 5%, by men aged 55 and over.

Discussion
Despite declining rates of past-year cannabis use in people with a psychotic illness, rates remain more than double that of the general population. Traditionally, men were more likely to use cannabis than women, but convergence in rates in younger people shows this is changing. Furthermore, cannabis use is not restricted to young people. Increasing use of cannabis by older men will place additional demands on drug and alcohol services.
T222. IMPAIRED COST-BENEFIT COMPUTATION IN SOCIAL CONTEXT IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
Authors: Yan Chao , Shao Yu-xin , Wang Xuan , Chu Min-yi , Lv Qin-yu , Yi Zheng-hui 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Social withdrawal is one of core negative symptoms in schizophrenia, which dampens their social outcomes and prognosis. However, the underlying behavioral mechanisms of this symptom are poorly understood. In the present study, we aimed to explore the capacity of cost-benefit computation under social context in schizophrenia patients.

Methods
We recruited twenty-six patients, who met the criteria for diagnosis of schizophrenia, and thirty-one healthy controls matched for their age and gender ratio. All the participants were administrated to Effortful Job Interview Task, which is a novel behavioral paradigm where participants were asked to make an effort to get job offers. Before their taking effort, they were required to decide whether they would like to get involved in a less challenging job interview with no bonus point or a more challenging one with varied bonus points (i.e., 5, 15, 25 points, higher points indicate higher chance of getting a job offer).

Results
In healthy controls, there was a main effect of prize on the choice percentage of challenging job interview (F (2, 90) = 68.577, p &lt;0.001), with higher percentage of picking challenging interview under large (25) and medium (15) bonus points than low bonus point (5). Schizophrenia patients, however, exhibited lower percentage of challenging interview choices under medium (p =.015) and large (p &lt;.01) bonus points than healthy controls, as reflected by a significant Group x Prize interaction effect (F (2, 110) = 6.478, p &lt;0.01). In addition, we observe significant negative correlations between percentage of challenging interview choices under large bonus and amotivation sub-score on the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (r = -0.49, p = 0.01). Interestingly, patients with schizophrenia displayed spared experience of pleasantness when they received a job offer as compared with healthy controls (p = .09). But, they showed blunted aversive experience towards the outcomes of failure as compared to healthy controls (p &lt; .01).

Discussion
These findings suggest that impaired social cost-benefit computation may play a central role in the symptoms of social withdrawal in schizophrenia, which may facilitate the clinical intervention of negative symptoms.
M1. INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND PSYCHIATRIC DISEASE USING MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES
Authors: Haidl Theresa , Hedderich Dennis , Rosen Marlene , Lichtenstein Thorsten , Kaiser Nathalie , Seves Mauro , Ruef Anne , Schultze-Lutter Frauke , Upthegrove Rachel , Salokangas Raimo K R , Pantelis Christos , Meisenzahl Eva , Wood Stephen J , Brambilla Paolo , Borgwardt Stefan , Lencer Rebekka , Ruhrmann Stephan , Kambeitz Joseph , Koutsouleris Nikolaos 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Childhood trauma (CT) is associated with an increased risk for psychiatric disorders like major depression and psychosis. However, the pathophysiological relationship between CT, psychiatric disease and structural brain alterations is still unknown.

Methods
PRONIA (‘Personalized Prognostic Tools for Early Psychosis Mangement’) is a prospective collaboration project funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme (grant agreement n° 602152). Considering a broad set of variables (sMRI, rsMRI, DTI, psychopathological, life event related and sociobiographic data, neurocognition, genomics and other blood derived parameters) as well as advanced statistical methods, PRONIA aims at developing an innovative multivariate prognostic tool enabling an individualized prediction of illness trajectories and outcome. Seven clinical centers in five European countries and in Australia participate in the evaluation of three clinical groups (subjects clinically at high risk of developing a psychosis (CHR), patients with a recent onset psychosis (ROP) and patients with a recent onset depression (ROD)) as well as healthy controls (HC). To investigate the high-dimensional patterns of CT experience, measured by the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ), in HC and our three patient groups (PAT) (n=643), we used a Support Vector Machine (SVM). Furthermore, we tested whether patient-specific CT exposure is associated with structural brain changes by VBM analyses.

Results
We found that patients and HC could be separated very well by their CTQ pattern, whereas the different patient groups showed no specific CTQ pattern. Furthermore, an association with extensive grey matter changes suggests an impact on brain maturation which may put individuals at increased risk for mental disease.

Discussion
We have demonstrated in this large multi-center cohort that adverse experiences in childhood contribute transdiagnostically to the riskr for developing a psychiatric disease. The observed association between CTQ scores and structural changes suggests an impact of adverse childhood experiences on brain development. Resulting alterations may add to a neurobiological vulnerability for depression and psychosis. A role of both features for other mental disorders could be assumed and warrants further investigation.
M11. ALTERED TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC MARKERS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA
Authors: Voineskos Daphne , Zomorrodi Reza , Daskalakis Zafiris 
Published: May 2020

Abstract

Background
Cortical inhibition is a neurophysiological process in which cortical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) inhibitory interneurons modulate the activity of pyramidal neurons in the cerebral cortex. Multiple lines of evidence, including neurophysiological and neuropathological, report that individuals with schizophrenia have deficits in cortical inhibition. Combining transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography is a reliable approach to measure inhibitory processes in the cortex. The overall waveform produced by TMS-EEG may index cortical reactivity as a whole and previous investigations have linked the N45 component peak and the N100 component peak with GABA-A and GABA-B inhibitory neurotransmission, respectively. The aim of this study was to stimulate the DLPFC with TMS and examine resultant differences in the TMS-EEG waveform peaks between patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects. We hypothesized that individuals with schizophrenia will have smaller TMS-evoked potentials, specifically the amplitudes of the N100 and N45 components, those previously related to GABA-ergic inhibition.

Methods
We applied TMS over the left DLPFC and recorded EEG activity in 48 healthy subjects (mean age: 33.8±5.3) and 46 patients with schizophrenia (mean age: 43.3±6.4). Monophasic TMS pulses were administered using a 7-cm figure-of-8 coil, and two Magstim 200 stimulators connected via a Bistim module. Single pulse TMS was administered over the left DLPFC with 100 total pulses, which were delivered every 5s. Resultant waveforms were extracted and analyzed through custom MATLAB scripts. The TMS-evoked potential waveform was examined through Global Mean Field Amplitude (GMFA) analysis of waveform peaks in each the two groups. Normality of the distribution of each variable was assessed and a Mann Whitney U test was then performed for each variable of interest to assess differences between groups.

Results
Individuals in the schizophrenia group demonstrated smaller measures of cortical inhibition in the DLPFC. Specifically, smaller amplitudes of the N45 (U=724.00, p=0.004) and N100 peaks (U=831.00, p=0.039), although the overall AUC of the waveform did not differ between groups (U=969.00, p=0.307). Further analysis is underway to examine medication and symptom cluster effects.

Discussion
These results demonstrate novel findings of deficits in both GABA-A and GABA-B associated measures of cortical inhibition as indexed by single pulse TMS-EEG. This reinforces previous evidence from different research modalities demonstrating overall GABAergic inhibitory deficits in schizophrenia, and specifically provides new support which confirms recent findings of aberrant GABA-Aergic inhibitory neurotransmission in schizophrenia.