CRIS

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://investigadores.udd.cl/handle/123456789/1

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Childhood socioemotional development and growth mindset preceding schizophrenia: case–control study using prospectively collected data
(Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2026-04-06)
Javiera Vasquez-Nuñez
;
José Conejeros
;
Camila Díaz-Dellarrossa
;
Cristian Mena
;
UNDURRAGA FOURCADE, JUAN PABLO
<jats:sec id="S2056472426110047_as1"> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>Understanding premorbid socioemotional trajectories in schizophrenia is crucial for early identification and potential primary prevention. Studies in adults with schizophrenia suggest similar socioemotional premorbid difficulties, but are limited by their retrospective design.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S2056472426110047_as2"> <jats:title>Aims</jats:title> <jats:p>To contribute new insights into the premorbid socioemotional characteristics of schizophrenia, beyond the biases of retrospective studies, this research investigates three educational socioemotional dimensions in children who later developed the disorder.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S2056472426110047_as3"> <jats:title>Method</jats:title> <jats:p> We conducted a case–control study using prospectively collected data, examining childhood differences in perceived parental support, self-esteem and school motivation, and growth mindset (intelligence can improve through effort) among individuals who later developed schizophrenia ( <jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 341) and their classmates ( <jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 20 567). We constructed <jats:italic>z</jats:italic> -normalised indicators based on standardised national tests administered in fourth, eighth and tenth grades in Chile. Mixed linear models accounted for repeated measures and adjusted for educational level, gender, grade point average, school and year. </jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S2056472426110047_as4"> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p> Children later diagnosed with schizophrenia reported less parental educational support compared with their classmates ( <jats:italic>β</jats:italic> = −0.276, 95% CI −0.388 to −0.163). Only girls who later developed schizophrenia reported lower self-esteem and school motivation than their peers ( <jats:italic>β</jats:italic> = −0.290, 95% CI −0.498 to −0.131). Contrary to our hypothesis, children who later developed schizophrenia showed a higher growth mindset ( <jats:italic>β</jats:italic> = 0.287, 95% CI 0.077–0.497). </jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S2056472426110047_as5"> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Our results suggest that premorbid socioemotional characteristics in schizophrenia are detectable in childhood and may vary by gender. These findings highlight the potential of educational settings as platforms for preventive interventions aimed at enhancing parental support and monitoring students’ psycho-emotional well-being, while acknowledging gender-specific developmental trajectories and heterogeneity in premorbid functioning.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
2
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Longitudinal changes in striatocortical connectivity in first-episode psychosis associated with the emergence of treatment resistance
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025-08-16)
Angeles Tepper
;
Javiera Vásquez
;
Camila Díaz Dellarossa
;
Juan Pablo Ramirez-Mahaluf
;
Juan Aguirre
1
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Human development, inequality, and their associations with brain structure across 29 countries
(Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2025)
Vicente Medel
;
Luz M. Alliende
;
Richard Bethlehem
;
Jakob Seidlitz
;
Grace Ringlein
2
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Premorbid school performance trajectories in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia prescribed clozapine in the public health system in Chile: a case-control study, 2007–2020
(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2025)
Jose Conejeros-Pavez
;
Javiera Vasquez
;
Camila Diaz
;
Cristian Mena
;
UNDURRAGA FOURCADE, JUAN PABLO
Background The premorbid phase of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) may reveal underlying mechanisms and inform early interventions. According to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis, treatment resistance may be linked to pronounced developmental impairments. We examined school grades and attendance trajectories in children who later developed TRS.Methods This case-control study analyzed school grade point average and attendance among all individuals born after 1990 and started on clozapine in Chile's public health system as a proxy for TRS. Control groups included children later diagnosed with treatment-responsive schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and unaffected classmates. Linear mixed models accounted for individual and school-level confounders.Results We included 1072 children (9929 observations, 29.3% female) subsequently diagnosed with TRS, 323 (2802 observations, 25.7% female) with schizophrenia, 175 (1784 observations, 53.8% female) bipolar disorder, and 273,260 (533,335 observations, 47% female) unaffected classmates. Children who later developed TRS had worse grades across levels than their classmates (-0.26 SD [-0.2, -0.4]), but not treatment-responsive schizophrenia. All severe mental illness groups showed grade declines in later school levels, with TRS showing steeper linear decline than treatment-responsive schizophrenia (groupxage of -0.03; 95%CI -0.04, -0.01) and steeper quadratic decline than bipolar disorder (groupxage 2 of -0.005; -0.01, -0.001). Attendance declined over time in the two groups developing schizophrenia compared to their classmates. Those developing TRS experienced the sharpest drop (groupxage compared to schizophrenia -0.03; -0.05, -0.01 and bipolar disorder -0.027; -0.049, -0.006).Conclusions TRS may stem from a more aggressive pathological process or pronounced late-maturation abnormality, rather than an early premorbid impairment, suggesting an intervention target.
1
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenia in adverse environments: examining the effect of poverty and violence in six Latin American cities
(2020)
Nicolas A. Crossley
;
Andre Zugman
;
Francisco Reyes-Madrigal
;
Leticia S. Czepielewski
;
Mariana N. Castro
<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a1"><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Social and environmental factors such as poverty or violence modulate the risk and course of schizophrenia. However, how they affect the brain in patients with psychosis remains unclear.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a2"><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>We studied how environmental factors are related to brain structure in patients with schizophrenia and controls in Latin America, where these factors are large and unequally distributed.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a3" sec-type="methods"><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>This is a multicentre study of magnetic resonance imaging in patients with schizophrenia and controls from six Latin American cities. Total and voxel-level grey matter volumes, and their relationship with neighbourhood characteristics such as average income and homicide rates, were analysed with a general linear model.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a4" sec-type="results"><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 334 patients with schizophrenia and 262 controls were included. Income was differentially related to total grey matter volume in both groups (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.006). Controls showed a positive correlation between total grey matter volume and income (<jats:italic>R</jats:italic> = 0.14, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.02). Surprisingly, this relationship was not present in patients with schizophrenia (<jats:italic>R</jats:italic> = −0.076, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> = 0.17). Voxel-level analysis confirmed that this interaction was widespread across the cortex. After adjusting for global brain changes, income was positively related to prefrontal cortex volumes only in controls. Conversely, the hippocampus in patients with schizophrenia, but not in controls, was relatively larger in affluent environments. There was no significant correlation between environmental violence and brain structure.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S0007125020001439_sec_a5" sec-type="conclusions"><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Our results highlight the interplay between environment, particularly poverty, and individual characteristics in psychosis. This is particularly important for harsh environments such as low- and middle-income countries, where potentially less brain vulnerability (less grey matter loss) is sufficient to become unwell in adverse (poor) environments.</jats:p></jats:sec>
Scopus© Citations 10 1
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Dysconnectivity in Schizophrenia Revisited: Abnormal Temporal Organization of Dynamic Functional Connectivity in Patients With a First Episode of Psychosis
(2022)
Juan P Ramirez-Mahaluf
;
Ángeles Tepper
;
Luz Maria Alliende
;
Carlos Mena
;
Carmen Paz Castañeda
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Background and Hypothesis</jats:title> <jats:p>Abnormal functional connectivity between brain regions is a consistent finding in schizophrenia, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Recent studies have highlighted that connectivity changes in time in healthy subjects. We here examined the temporal changes in functional connectivity in patients with a first episode of psychosis (FEP). Specifically, we analyzed the temporal order in which whole-brain organization states were visited.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Study Design</jats:title> <jats:p>Two case-control studies, including in each sample a subgroup scanned a second time after treatment. Chilean sample included 79 patients with a FEP and 83 healthy controls. Mexican sample included 21 antipsychotic-naïve FEP patients and 15 healthy controls. Characteristics of the temporal trajectories between whole-brain functional connectivity meta-states were examined via resting-state functional MRI using elements of network science. We compared the cohorts of cases and controls and explored their differences as well as potential associations with symptoms, cognition, and antipsychotic medication doses.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Study Results</jats:title> <jats:p>We found that the temporal sequence in which patients’ brain dynamics visited the different states was more redundant and segregated. Patients were less flexible than controls in changing their network in time from different configurations, and explored the whole landscape of possible states in a less efficient way. These changes were related to the dose of antipsychotics the patients were receiving. We replicated the relationship with antipsychotic medication in the antipsychotic-naïve FEP sample scanned before and after treatment.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>We conclude that psychosis is related to a temporal disorganization of the brain’s dynamic functional connectivity, and this is associated with antipsychotic medication use.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
1Scopus© Citations 18
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men
(2023)
André Zugman
;
Luz María Alliende
;
Vicente Medel
;
Richard A.I. Bethlehem
;
Jakob Seidlitz
<jats:p>Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women’s worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women’s brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality.</jats:p>
Scopus© Citations 38 5
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Gender, age and geographical representation over the past 50 years of schizophrenia research
(2022)
Luz María Alliende
;
Leticia S. Czepielewski
;
David Aceituno
;
Carmen Paz Castañeda
;
Camila Diaz
15Scopus© Citations 5

CRIS

Browse

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results