Brain functional abnormality in schizo-affective disorder: an fMRI study.

BACKGROUND: Schizo-affective disorder has not been studied to any significant extent using functional imaging. The aim of this study was to examine patterns of brain activation and deactivation in patients meeting strict diagnostic criteria for the disorder. METHOD: Thirty-two patients meeting research diagnostic criteria (RDC) for schizo-affective disorder (16 schizomanic and 16 schizodepressive) and 32 matched healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of the n-back task. Linear models were used to obtain maps of activations and deactivations in the groups. RESULTS: Controls showed activation in a network of frontal and other areas and also deactivation in the medial frontal cortex, the precuneus and the parietal cortex. Schizo-affective patients activated significantly less in prefrontal, parietal and temporal regions than the controls, and also showed failure of deactivation in the medial frontal cortex. When task performance was controlled for, the reduced activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the failure of deactivation of the medial frontal cortex remained significant. CONCLUSIONS: Schizo-affective disorder shows a similar pattern of reduced frontal activation to schizophrenia. The disorder is also characterized by failure of deactivation suggestive of default mode network dysfunction.

[Suicide mortality in Olot from 1936 until 2000]. / Mortalidad por suicidio en Olot desde 1936 hasta 2000.

INTRODUCTION: Suicide in Spain has increased in both genders and in different age groups. It is important to evaluate the tendencies of this phenomenon. This study describes suicide mortality in a limited and homogeneous population, which offers the possibility of collecting detailed data over a long time period (1936- 2000). METHODS: Suicide cases were extracted from data in regional archives and from autopsy reports in the Olot court registry office. The suicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants was calculated by analyzing the number of suicides and inhabitants in 5-year groups. RESULTS: Suicide occurred more frequently in males and in the over 65-year old population. The suicide rate fluctuated during the period studied. Among males, the peak was 14.92 during 1961-1965 and lowered to 8.68 in 1996-2000. The suicide rate in females was always lower than for men, except during 1946-1950 (7.71 vs. 3.09) and 1976-80 (5.7 vs. 4.9). The most common methods used were hanging (52%) and shooting (18%). There was no difference in the methods among females. CONCLUSIONS: The demographic and methodological data reflect those obtained in similar studies. In the last 10 years of the study, Olot citizens did not have a higher risk of suicide than the population of the rest of Spain. This result should be interpreted considering the limits related to the methodology used in the data collection.