Aspects Of Psychiatric Illness Research Articles

Potential Role of Smartphone Technology in Advancing Work on Neurological Soft Signs with a Focus on Schizophrenia.

• Outline and Identify potential benefits of using neurological soft signs (NSS) as biomarkers of schizophrenia. Since the late 1960s, NSS have been a focus of study across psychiatric illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia in particular. Utilizing these subtle neurological impairments as biomarkers of illness has numerous benefits; NSS offer a direct connection between clinical presentation and neurological functioning, and assessments are cost-effective. However, incongruent measurement scales, confounding variables, and rating system subjectivity have hindered the advancement and scalability of NSS research and clinical implementation. This article provides a brief overview of the literature on NSS as related to schizophrenia, and proposes utilizing smartphone sensing technology to create standardized NSS assessments with objective scoring. Incorporating digital phenotyping into NSS assessment offers the potential to make measurement more scalable, accessible, and directly comparable across locations, cultures, and demographics. We conducted a narrative search in PubMed and APA PsycInfo using the following keywords: neurological soft signs, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and psychotic illnesses. No date limitations were used. There is no other direct work on NSS and new smartphone methods like digital phenotyping; though, there is related work in neurology. Harnessing advances in smartphone technology could provide greater insight into and further our understanding of specific aspects of the NSS field. For instance, it could help us distinguish trait vs. state markers and better understand how distinct groups of signs may reflect different aspects of psychiatric illness and neurological impairment. In addition, such technology can help advance research on the capabilities of NSS as an effective diagnostic tool.

Behavioural and cognitive profiles of mouse models for Prader–Willi syndrome

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with aspects of psychiatric illness caused by genetic mutations at chromosome 15q11-q13. In addition to causing PWS, this interval is also thought to be of importance more generally in the development of autism and psychotic illness. The PWS genetic interval is conserved in mammals, and consequently mice carrying genetic manipulations affecting one or all of the genes in the region of conserved synteny have been generated and used in neurobehavioural studies. Here we give an overview of these models and describe the behavioural and neurobiological analyses that have been performed, many of which have provide new insights into the molecular and neural processes influenced by genes within the PWS interval.