Psychosis Flashcards
What is the prevalence of schizophrenia?
What factors increase the chances of developing schizophrenia?
- Increased risk in lower SES groups, childhood trauma
- Increased risk with environmental insults:
- First trimester exposure to famine, epidemic, summer, perinatal trauma or anoxia
- Heritability of Schizophrenia
- 1% concordance in unrelated individuals
- 5% in parents of proband with SCZ
- 10% in siblings, children
- 50% in identical twins
- Many spontaneous cases
Describe the onset of schizophrenia.
Late adolescence and early adult hood: when there is brain maturation, lots of neuronal change
- Onset typically teens to 20s
- Rare after age 45
Describe the gender difference in the onset of schizophrenia.
- Later onset, better premorbid function in women
- Better medication response in women (at least to FGAs)—first generation antipsychotics
- Estrogen has neuroprotective effects and inhibits D2 receptors
Describe the natural course of schizophrenia.
o Prodromal phase: social, cognitive deficits may precede active phase by many years
o First Episode: highly treatment responsive
o Active phase: full syndrome, typically 3-4 decades (teens or 20’s to 50’s)
o Residual phase: ~1/3 remission, ~1/3 attenuation of symptoms in older years
What are the (social) complications of schizophrenia?
Complications of Schizophrenia
- Homelessness: ~50% of homeless have severe mental illness
- Unemployment, underemployment
- Undereducation
- Impaired relationships
- Family discord
- Suicide: 20-40% attempt, 10% complete
- 20-50 x general population suicide rate
- Typically in first decade of illness, between psychotic episodes
- May be related to frustration and decreased functionality – between psychotic episodes
- Violence: Increased risk associated with command hallucinations or persecutory delusions
How likely is it that a patient with schizophrenia will become violent?
- Violence: Increased risk associated with command hallucinations or persecutory delusions
- Violence no more likely than gen pop when stable
- Clozapine reduces risk of suicide & violence
What is the life expectancy of a patient with schizophrenia?
10-30 yrs shortened
- Shortest in untreated
What factors contribute to a shortened life expectancy in schizophrenia?
- Co-occuring substance disoders – substance use destabilizes schizophrenia
- Chronic medical conditions (COPD, DM-2)
- Poor self-care (nutrition, exercise)
- Suicide
- Medication effects
- Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome
- QTc prolongation
- Metabolic (i.e. weight gain –> increase risk of hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia)
What is the prevalence of substance use disorders in patients with schizophrenia?
Co-occuring substance disorders—substance destabilize schizophrenia
- Schizophrenia associated with 50% lifetime, 25% current diagnosis with SUD
- 3-5 X odds of SUD
- Even moderate substance use destabilizes schizophrenia
What is the prevalence of tobacco use in patients with schizophrenia?
- 70-90% people with schizophrenia smoke
- Nicotine administration - reduce cognitive deficits
- Nicotine is a cholinergic agonist
- Lung disease significantly elevated
Side note: Frequent caffeine overuse as well
What is neuroleptic malignant sydrome?
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare, but life-threatening, idiosyncratic reaction to neuroleptic medications (i.e. chlorpromazine) that is characterized by:
- fever
- muscular rigidity
- altered mental status
- autonomic dysfunction.
NMS often occurs shortly after the initiation of neuroleptic treatment, or after dose increases.
Source: Medscape
What genetica
- Many areas of genome associated with schizophrenia (g72, MRDS, DISC1, RG54, COMT, GRM3, GAD67)– another that correlates with signaling of neuronal migration
- Learning, memory and neuronal plasticity genes
- Regulation of Prefrontal Cortex circuits and interplay of dopamine, glutamate, and GABA
What is the link between cannabis use and the development of schizophreniform disorder?
Cannabis susceptibility related to COMT genotype
- a specific COMT genotype (Val/Val) confers a much stronger correlation between adolescent cannabis use and subsequent development of schizophreniform disorderin adulthood.
- COMT–Catechol-o-methyl transferase - primary metabolism of DA in PFC
- Met allele – decreased activity – better memory
- Val allele – increased activity
- Val-val associated with poorest function on PFC tasks
- Val allele associated with schizophrenia
What is the stress diathesis in the context of schizophrenia?
Neurobiologic vulnerability
- Genetics explain ~50% of variance
- Other early brain insults
Various stressors may trigger onset
- Hormonal changes
- Social stressors
- Drug use
- Traumatic brain injury
- Sleep deprivation