Dear Colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of 2012.
In our first article Kebir and Krebs provide a review on in utero diethylstilbestrol (DES) exposure and an increased risk of psychiatric disorders. They concluded that the role of prenatal exposure to DES as an environmental risk factor requires more evidence to confirm the hypothesis.
Zervas and colleagues examined the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for schizophrenia. The results suggest that catatonic patients were most responsive to the treatment and that combing ECT with medication seems more effective than either treatment alone.
Zhang et al. investigated the involvement of the N-acylsphingosine amidohydrolase 1 gene (ASAH1) in the susceptibility to schizophrenia in a Han Chinese population. They concluded that the ASAH1 gene may be a potential candidate gene for schizophrenia in this population.
Catts and colleagues assessed the DNA damage response in immortalised lymphoblasts from schizophrenic patients. According to their findings, the role of aberrant DNS damage response signalling in protecting schizophrenia patients from cancer remains unclear.
Fernandez-Castillo et al. examined a possible contribution of 16 genes to cocaine dependence. Single and multiple marker analyses revealed a strong association of cocaine dependence with the N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor (NSF) gene. NSF may predispose not only to cocaine dependence, but also to an early onset of the dependence.
Dresler and colleagues sought to evaluate the recovery of cortical functioning in abstinent alcohol-dependent patients. They detected an increase in frontal brain activity from alcohol dependence over abstinence up to normal functioning. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the recovery processes in alcohol dependence.
Olbrich et al. present a brief report on cancer related fatigue (CRF), in which they compared the electroencephalographic (EEG)-vigilance regulation in patients with CRF and healthy controls. Their findings suggest an unstable vigilance regulation in CRF patients and may provide a neurophysiological framework for the reported efficacy of psychostimulants in CRF.
Mulert and colleagues investigated the role of interhemispheric auditory connectivity in schizophrenic patients with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). They concluded that in addition to local deficits in the left auditory cortex and disturbed fronto-temporal connectivity, the interhemispheric auditory pathway might be involved in the pathogenesis of AVH.
Yours sincerely,