Dear Colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of 2011.
In our first article Duenas et al. addressed the question of sexual dysfunction and treatment effectiveness during serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or duloxetine therapy. It emerged that sexual dysfunction in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) treated with duloxetine was lower than in those treated with the SSRI paroxetine. Moreover, significant differences in effectiveness were observed in favour of duloxetine.
Hosseini and colleagues from Iran investigated the effects of depression and anxiety symptoms on cardiac mortality following myocardial infarctation (MI) in a 2-year follow-up study. Although symptoms of depression and anxiety did not predict mortality after MI, physicians and cardiologists should not ignore the negative results regarding the impact of depression on cardiac outcome.
The effect of short-term antidepressant treatment on early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) in Turkish patients with major depressive and/or panic disorder was studied by Atalay et al. Based on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF), it emerged that depressive mood states were more likely to activate EMSs compared to anxious mood states, and treating these mood states with antidepressants improved the activation of these schemas. They concluded that half of the schemas might be accepted as treatment-resistant EMSs.
Tsai and colleagues examined the association of serum levels of leptin, ghrelin and adiponectin in schizophrenic patients. Those levels play important roles in the regulation of body weight, food intake and energy homeostasis. The results showed that serum leptin levels were higher than those of ghrelin and adiponectin in schizophrenic patients; however, studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these results.
Colleagues Kadasah, Arfin and Tariq investigated the HLA-DRB1 association in schizophrenic patients in Saudi Arabia. The frequency of DRB1*03 was found to be significantly higher in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls. The study suggests a positive association between DRB1*03 with schizophrenia and a negative association between DRB1*06 and schizophrenia in Saudi Arabs. As it is not clear if DRB1*03 alleles have a direct causal role in the aetiology of schizophrenia, further studies are warranted to confirm the observations reported in this study.
Sungur et al. addressed the important issue of optimal treatment for schizophrenia. Over a 2-year period they compared clinical and social benefits of routine schizophrenia treatment with those of evidence-based pharmacological and psychosocial treatment strategies. Turkish patients were randomly assigned to 24 months of either optimal case management (OCM) or routine case management (RCM). Both statistically and clinically significant advantages were observed for OCM versus RCM. They concluded that psychosocial interventions in the treatment of schizophrenia should be implemented into routine clinical practice with additional clinical and social benefits.
The last article on schizophrenia in this issue tackles the problem of antipsychotic prophylaxis after remission from a first psychotic episode. Boonstra and colleagues assessed the effect of withdrawal from antipsychotic treatment on relapse risk in remitted first-episode schizophrenia patients. It was evident that discontinuation of antipsychotic medication significantly increased the risk of relapse.
The factors influencing clinicians’ prescribing choice when using depot antipsychotics in New Zealand were explored by Miles and colleagues. A qualitative exploration of the attitudes to and knowledge about risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) was conducted. It emerged that outdated views on long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics contribute to a gap between actual practice and what is thought desirable.
Mendez et al. investigated the relationship between changes in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) core symptoms and changes in academic outcome of Asian children treated with atomoxetine. Despite significant independent improvements in core ADHD symptoms and academic grades over 24 weeks, the mean improvements observed in these measures did not appear to be correlated.
Ceskova and colleagues present a short report on the safety of amisulpride in combination with antidepressants (ADs) under common clinical practice conditions. Combinations of amisulpride with ADs, most frequently, SSRIs, were administered to patients suffering from depression. Most frequent adverse events were weight gain, headache, fatigue and sleepiness. The results suggest that advantages of AD combinations include administration of low doses and a reduction of adverse events associated with higher doses of individual ADs.