Response programming in patients with schizophrenia: a kinematic analysis.

Schizophrenia may involve disturbed subcortical mechanisms or anomalous functional asymmetries. We therefore examined any anomalies of functional asymmetry in a kinematic analysis of a cued sequential movement task previously found to be sensitive to basal ganglia dysfunction. Twenty patients with schizophrenia and 20 matched controls used preferred or non-preferred hand to connect a series of targets on a WACOM SD420 graphics tablet, in response to the pattern of illumination of light emitting diodes (LEDs). Movements were to be initiated with or without an external cue as to target location. Patients with schizophrenia exhibited relatively normal functional asymmetries, but had programming deficits, taking longer to initiate (i.e. self generate) movements in the absence of an external cue. The movements of patients with schizophrenia were more variable and less efficient, resembling those seen in Huntington's disease. Results supported a hypothesis of disturbance at some level in fronto-subcortical circuitry in schizophrenia.

The efficacy and tolerability of enteric and non-enteric coated naproxen tablets: a double-blind study in patients with osteoarthritis.

A double-blind, crossover study was undertaken to compare the efficacy and tolerability of a novel enteric coated 500 mg naproxen tablet with normal release 500 mg naproxen in patients with osteoarthritis. Eighty-eight patients were randomly allocated to receive enteric coated naproxen as a single daily dose of 2 tablets at night or 1 normal release naproxen tablet twice daily for a period of 3 weeks, followed by the alternative treatment for a further period of 3 weeks. The results of patient and doctor assessments showed that both treatments were increasingly efficacious, with a significant period effect found in the measures for pain on passive movement and duration of morning stiffness. No significant treatment differences were seen in any of the measures of efficacy and tolerability, although there were more withdrawals on normal release than on enteric coated naproxen (p = 0.07). It was concluded that enteric coated naproxen given as a single 1 g dose at night and normal release 500 mg naproxen given twice daily are equally efficacious and well tolerated.

Cue dependent right hemineglect in schizophrenia: a kinematic analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Schizophrenia may result from disturbed attentional processes and/or defective internal cueing. Attention for subsequent action within a cued movement task was therefore studied, testing specific hypotheses of hemispheric dysfunction and of impaired interhemispheric communication. METHOD: Fifteen patients with schizophrenia and 15 matched controls were either cued or uncued when moving a pen to a target on their right or left side with their right or left hand. Pen tip position was sampled at 200 Hz on a WACOM SD420 graphics tablet for subsequent kinematic analysis. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia were slower initiating rightwards movements without a cue. Patients also exhibited reduced abductive/adductive differences in the shape of their movement trajectories, implying differences in interhemispheric communication. CONCLUSIONS: It is speculated that schizophrenia is a form of cue dependent right hemineglect.

Genetic diversity and divergence among freshwater mussel (Anodonta) populations in the Bonneville Basin of Utah.

Populations of the freshwater mussel genus Anodonta appear to be in a state of rapid decline in western North America, following a trend that unfortunately seems to be prevalent among these animals (Mollusca: Unionoida). Here we describe the patterns of molecular divergence and diversity among Anodonta populations in the Bonneville Basin, a large sub-basin of the Great Basin in western North America. Using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis, we found a striking lack of nuclear diversity within some of these populations, along with a high degree of structuring among populations (FST = 0.61), suggesting post-Pleistocene isolation, due either to a long-term loss of hydrologic connectivity among populations or to more recent fish introductions. We also found evidence of recent hybridization in one of these populations, possibly mediated by fish-stocking practices. Using mitochondrial sequence data, we compared the Bonneville Basin populations to Anodonta in several other drainages in western North America. We found a general lack of resolution in these phylogenetic reconstructions, although there was a tendency for the Bonneville Basin Anodonta (tentatively A. californiensis) to cluster with A. oregonensis from the adjacent Lahontan Basin in Nevada. We recommend further investigation of anthropogenic factors that may be contributing to the decline of western Anodonta and a broad-scale analysis and synthesis of genetic and morphological variation among Anodonta in western North America.