0000000000454669
AUTHOR
Oliver D. Howes
Tools for optimising pharmacotherapy in psychiatry (therapeutic drug monitoring, molecular brain imaging and pharmacogenetic tests): focus on antidepressants.
Contains fulltext : 238693.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Objectives: More than 40 drugs are available to treat affective disorders. Individual selection of the optimal drug and dose is required to attain the highest possible efficacy and acceptable tolerability for every patient.Methods: This review, which includes more than 500 articles selected by 30 experts, combines relevant knowledge on studies investigating the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenetics of 33 antidepressant drugs and of 4 drugs approved for augmentation in cases of insufficient response to antidepressant monotherapy. Such studies typically measure drug concentrations in blood (i.e. therapeutic …
30 Years on: How the Neurodevelopmental Hypothesis of Schizophrenia Morphed into the Developmental Risk Factor Model of Psychosis
At its re-birth 30 years ago, the neurodevelopment hypothesis of schizophrenia focussed on aberrant genes and early neural hazards, but then it grew to include ideas concerning aberrant synaptic pruning in adolescence. The hypothesis had its own stormy development and it endured some difficult teenage years when a resurgence of interest in neurodegeneration threatened its survival. In early adult life, it over-reached itself with some reductionists claiming that schizophrenia was simply a neurodevelopmental disease. However, by age 30, the hypothesis has matured sufficiently to incorporated childhood and adult adversity, urban living and migration, as well as heavy cannabis use, as importan…
Vitamin D and clinical symptoms in First Episode Psychosis (FEP): A prospective cohort study
BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of longitudinal research investigating vitamin D in people with early psychosis.METHOD: Vitamin D levels were measured in 168 patients (64% (n = 108) male, mean age 29.3 (9.8) years) with first episode psychosis (FEP), along with measures of clinical state at baseline and at 12 months follow up. We assessed the a) cross sectional, and; b) longitudinal relationships between continuous and categorical 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and clinical symptoms at first contact for psychosis and at 12 months.RESULTS: In FEP, 80% (n = 134) at baseline, and 76% at 12 months follow up, had suboptimal vitamin D levels (<20 ng/ml). Suboptimal levels of 25 (OH) D at …