Associations between smell identification deficits (SID) and impairments in basic cognitive domains have been shown in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders.

We analyzed social and basic cognitive deficits and SID.

To assess differences in affective decision making tasks in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, their 1st degree relatives and healthy controls. Methods: We examined 51 patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (49% female, age 33.1 years, SD 11), 21 first-degree relatives (61.9% female, age 49.5 years, SD 17.6, one affected, others non-affected) and 51 matched healthy controls (49% female, age 33 years, SD 12.1). Psychopathology was evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Subjects were administered the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), the Facially Expressed Emotion Labelling (FEEL) test, the spatial span subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) and the Mehrfachwahl-Wortschatz Test (MWT-B).

Patients, controls and 1st degree relatives differed in age (p = 0.000), WMS-R (p = 0.000) and FEEL scores (p = 0.007). In healthy controls, patients and 1st degree relatives FEEL correlated with age (p = 0.005, p = 0.003, p = 0.004, respectively). In patients FEEL also correlated with MWT-B (p = 0.000), UPSIT (p = 0.000) and PANSS negative scores (p = 0.016); furthermore, UPSIT correlated with MWT-B (p = 0.001). In 1st degree relatives age correlated with WMS-R (p = 0.04) and FEEL (p = 0.004), both of which inter-correlated (p = 0.006).

We found that SID, basic and social cognition, i.e. affective decision-making processes, inter-correlate in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and are partly under the influence of negative symptoms. Some of these relationships can also be seen in 1st degree relatives of patients.

Schizophrenia has often been associated with a reduced skin flush response to niacin. Blunted response suggests potential disturbance in phospholipid metabolism.

We performed niacin skin tests in patients with schizophrenia, their first-degree relatives and healthy controls.

To examine possible differences in skin flush response to niacin.

We examined 51 patients (female 49%, age 33.1 years, SD 11), with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 51 matched healthy controls (female 49%, age 33 years, SD 12.1), and 21 first-degree relatives (female 61,9%, age 49,5 years, SD 17,6, one affected, others non-affected). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Mini International Neuropsychiatrie Interview were used to assess psychopathology and diagnosis, respectively. The non-invasive niacin skin flush test was used to assess vasodilatative reaction to four different concentrations of niacin on the forearms of subjects.

We found no differences in total scores on the niacin skin flush test between the three groups (p = 0.774). Mean scores were 60.27 (SD 14.2) in healthy controls, 58.84 (SD 10.2) in patients and 58.48 (SD 9.4) in first-degree relatives.

Contrary to our expectations we did not find a significantly blunted niacin skin flush reaction in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders compared to healthy controls or 1st degree relatives.

Sex-related differences in smell identification have been shown in healthy subjects, however, in patients with schizophrenia these findings are still controversial.

We analyzed sex-related differences with respect to smell identification in patients with schizophrenia, their first-degree relatives and healthy controls.

To assess possible sex-related differences in smell identification.

The sample consisted of 51 patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (49% female; mean age 33.1 years; SD: 11), 21 first-degree relatives (61.9% female, age 49.5 years, SD 17.6, one affected, others non-affected) ; mean age 49.5 years; SD: 17.6) and 51 matched healthy controls (49% female; mean age 33 years; SD: 12.1). The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) were used to assess psychopathology and diagnosis, respectively. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), a standardized, multiple- and forced-choice scratch- and sniff test consisting of 40 items, was administered to all subjects.

We found no significant differences in smell identification between the three groups (p = 0.182). Also, the female and male subgroups did not differ significantly in smell identification (p = 0.105, p = 0.387, respectively). The mean UPSIT scores were 34.4 (SD: 4.1) for healthy women (males: 33.2; SD: 3.5), 32.0 (SD: 5.1) for women with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (males: 32.5; SD: 4.4), and 34.5 (SD: 2.6) for female first-degree relatives (males: 30.5; SD: 2.8).

We found neither significant differences in smell identification in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, their first-degree relatives or healthy controls, nor sex-related differences.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Childhood trauma increases risk of a range of mental disorders including psychosis. Whereas the mechanisms are unclear, previous evidence has implicated atypical processing of emotions among the core cognitive models, in particular suggesting altered attentional allocation towards negative stimuli and increased negativity bias. Here, we tested the association between childhood trauma and brain activation during emotional face processing in patients diagnosed with psychosis continuum disorders. In particular, we tested if childhood trauma was associated with the differentiation in brain responses between negative and positive face stimuli. We also tested if trauma was associated with emotional ratings of negative and positive faces.

We included 101 patients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) schizophrenia spectrum or bipolar spectrum diagnosis. History of childhood trauma was obtained using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Brain activation was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging during presentation of faces with negative or positive emotional expressions. After the scanner session, patients performed emotional ratings of the same faces.

Higher levels of total childhood trauma were associated with stronger differentiation in brain responses to negative compared with positive faces in clusters comprising the right angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus and the lateral occipital cortex (Cohen's d = 0.72–0.77). In patients with schizophrenia, childhood trauma was associated with reporting negative faces as more negative, and positive faces as less positive (Cohen's d > 0.8).

Along with the observed negativity bias in the assessment of emotional valence of faces, our data suggest stronger differentiation in brain responses between negative and positive faces with higher levels of trauma.

We determined the association between neighborhood socio-environmental factors and insomnia symptoms in a nationally representative sample of US adults aged >50 years.

Data were analyzed from two waves (2006 and 2010) of the Health and Retirement Study using 7,231 community-dwelling participants (3,054 men and 4,177 women) in the United States. Primary predictors were neighborhood physical disorder (e.g. vandalism/graffiti, feeling safe alone after dark, and cleanliness) and social cohesion (e.g. friendliness of people, availability of help when needed, etc.); outcomes were insomnia symptoms (trouble falling asleep, night awakenings, waking too early, and feeling unrested).

After adjustment for age, income, race, education, sex, chronic diseases, body mass index, depressive symptoms, smoking, and alcohol consumption, each one-unit increase in neighborhood physical disorder was associated with a greater odds of trouble falling asleep (odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04–1.14), waking too early (OR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.00–1.10), and, in adults aged ≥69 years (adjusting for all variables above except age), feeling unrested in the morning (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.02–1.22 in 2006). Each one-unit increase in lower social cohesion was associated with a greater odds of trouble falling asleep (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01–1.11) and feeling unrested (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.04–1.15).

Neighborhood-level factors of physical disorder and social cohesion are associated with insomnia symptoms in middle-aged and older adults. Neighborhood-level factors may affect sleep, and consequently health, in our aging population.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in participants with schizophrenia to explore a potential association between the patients' remission status and neurocognitive functioning and to examine whether these factors have an impact on functional outcome.

Psychopathological symptoms were rated by means of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale with symptom remission being assessed by applying the severity component of the recently proposed remission criteria. Tests for the cognitive battery were selected to cover domains known to be impaired in patients with schizophrenia. Next to pre-morbid intelligence, attention performance, executive functioning, verbal fluency, verbal learning and memory, working memory and visual memory were assessed. The joint effect of remission status and neurocognitive functioning on treatment outcome was investigated by logistic regression analysis.

Out of 140 patients included in the study, 62 were symptomatically remitted. Mean age, education and sex distribution were comparable in remitted and non-remitted patients. Remitted patients showed significantly higher values on tests of verbal fluency, alertness and optical vigilance. Both symptomatic remission as well as performance on tests of working memory and verbal memory had a significant effect on the patients' employment status.

In the present study neuropsychological measures of frontal lobe functioning were associated with symptomatic remission from schizophrenia. In addition, both symptomatic remission and performance on tests of working memory and verbal memory had a significant effect on the patients' employment status. Longitudinal follow-up data are needed to determine how the associations of these determinants of functional outcome interact and change over time.

Epinephrine enhances emotional memory whereas β-adrenoceptor antagonists (β-blockers, BBs) impair it. However, the effects of BB administration on memory are sex dependent. Therefore, we predicted differential effects of epinephrine and the BB metoprolol given to male and female patients after cardiac surgery (CS) on traumatic memories and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

We performed a prospective observational study and determined the number of standardized traumatic memories (NTRM) and PTSD symptom intensity in cardiac surgical patients at 1 day before surgery, and at 1 week and 6 months after the procedure. PTSD symptoms and NTRM were quantified using validated questionnaires. Metoprolol could be administered any time post-operatively.

Baseline NTRM was not significantly different between male (n=95) and female patients (n=33). One week after CS, the NTRM in male patients was significantly higher. Metoprolol had no significant effect in either sex. At 6 months, females with metoprolol (n=18) showed a significantly lower NTRM and significantly lower PTSD symptom scores than females without BBs (n=15, p=0.02). By contrast, the totally administered dosage of epinephrine correlated with NTRM in males (r=0.33, p<0.01) but not in females (r=0.21, p=0.29).

β-Adrenergic stimulation with epinephrine enhances memory for adverse experiences in males but not in females whereas β-blockade selectively reduces memory for post-operative adverse events and PTSD symptoms in females.