Noura Vyas

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Verified

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• PhD, SFHEA
• Professor (Associate) at Kingston University

Many of the major neuropsychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia, have a typical age of onset in late adolescence. Late adolescence may reflect a critical period in brain development making it particularly vulnerable for the onset of psychopathology. Neuroimaging studies that focus on this age range may provide unique insights into the onset a...

Converging evidence indicates that the prefrontal cortex is critically involved in executive control and that executive dysfunction is implicated in schizophrenia. Reduced dopamine D2/D3 receptor binding potential has been reported in schizophrenia, and the correlations with neuropsychological test scores have been positive and negative for differe...

Reading impairments are prominent trait-like features of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, predictive of overall cognitive functioning and presumably linked to dopaminergic abnormalities. To evaluate this, we used ¹⁸F-fallypride PET in 19 healthy and 21 antipsychotic-naïve schizophrenia subjects and correlated dopamine receptor binding potential...

Background We investigated the neurocognitive profiles of Early-Onset Schizophrenia (EOS; onset before age 18) and paired unaffected siblings and the little-studied effect of age-of-onset and duration of illness on cognitive performance. Methods 31 EOS probands, and 31 of their siblings, had four cognitive domains assessed: (a) Memory: California...

Schizophrenia is a profound psychiatric disorder with a worldwide prevalence of 1%. A severe and chronic form of the illness, known as early onset schizophrenia (EOS), occurs prior to onset of 18 and shows neurobiological continuity with adult-onset schizophrenia, as supported by phenomenological, cognitive, genetic, and neuroimaging findings. Indi...

Theory of mind deficit is a core feature of schizophrenia and is considered a vulnerability marker of the disorder. The majority of studies measuring theory of mind in schizophrenia involve multiple-episode or chronic schizophrenia patients, and therefore it is important to delineate whether these deficits occur before or following illness-onset by...

Background: Converging evidence indicates that the prefrontal cortex is critically involved in executive control and that executive dysfunction is implicated in schizophrenia. Reduced dopamine D2/D3 receptor binding potential has been reported in schizophrenia, and the correlations with neuropsychological test scores have been positive and negative...

Objectives: Youth mental health services are poised for a paradigm shift. Recent epidemiological evidence confirms the seriousness of adolescence as a risk period for mental ill-health - 50% of all adult mental disorders begin before the age of 16% and 75% before the age of 25. Here, we identify issues with transition of care between CAMHS-AMHS ser...

The advent of neurochemical brain imaging methods has provided an opportunity to study the neurochemistry of the human brain in normal and abnormal development. The aim of this article is to provide an update on recent major developments in neurochemical imaging in schizophrenia research. In this concise review, we review the major findings on thre...

The advent of neurochemical brain imaging methods has provided an opportunity to study the neurochemistry of the human brain in normal and abnormal development. The aim of this article is to provide an update on recent major developments in neurochemical imaging in schizophrenia research. In this concise review, we review the major findings on thre...

The serotonin receptor 2A gene polymorphism is associated with attentional processes in schizophrenia. However, the specificity of the underlying cognitive constructs affected within this domain requires further elucidation. We carried out the first investigation of whether the TC/CC genotype of the 5-HT2A T102C polymorphism confers impairments in...

Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a crucial role in the survival, development and maintenance of neuronal systems, and the Val66Met polymorphism has been implicated in memory functions. Method: We examined the association of BDNF with general intellectual ability in 161 individuals including 53 early-onset patients with...

Early onset schizophrenia (onset before adulthood) is a rare, severe, and chronic form of schizophrenia. The clinical presentation of schizophrenia at this unusually early age of onset has been associated with premorbid developmental abnormalities, poor response to neuroleptic treatment, greater admission rates, and poor prognosis. This is a brief,...

There is no doubt that schizophrenia has a significant genetic component and a number of candidate genes have been identified for this debilitating disorder. Of note, several of these are implicated in cognition. Cognitive deficits constitute core symptoms of schizophrenia, and while current antipsychotic treatment strategies aim to help psychosis-...

Background: Progressive cortical gray matter (GM) abnormalities are an established feature of schizophrenia and are more pronounced in rare, severe, and treatment refractory childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) cases. The effect of sex on brain development in schizophrenia is poorly understood and studies to date have produced inconsistent results....

Early-onset schizophrenia (onset before adulthood) is a rare and severe form of the disorder that shows phenotypic and neurobiological continuity with adult-onset schizophrenia. Here, we provide a synthesis of keynote findings in this enriched population to understand better the neurobiology and pathophysiology of early-onset schizophrenia. A synth...

Positron emission tomography (PET) offers a strategic imaging platform to provide a map of functional neural correlates associated with the underlying cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. It enables regional cerebral glucose metabolism and dopaminergic and serotonergic receptor function to be studied. PET neuroimaging can therefore be used in drug...

There is mounting evidence for shared genetic liability to psychoses, particularly with respect to Schizophrenia (SZ) and Bipolar Disorder (BD), which may also involve aspects of cognitive dysfunction. Impaired sustained attention is considered a cardinal feature of psychoses but its association with genetic liability and disease expression in BD r...

Schizophrenia involves dysregulation in dopaminergic transmission. Studies show heightened presynaptic striatal dopaminergic function and elevated striatal D(2)/D(3) receptor density in the brain. Cognitive impairments result from hypostimulation of D(1) receptors and are associated with dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex. Here we discuss relevan...

PET is an important functional imaging technique that can be used to investigate neurotransmitter receptors and transporters directly by mapping human brain function. PET is increasingly being used greatly to advance our understanding of the neurobiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia. This review focuses on the use of PET tracers and kinetic...

Background A single nucleotide polymorphism, rs17070145, in the KIBRA protein, is thought to influence memory function in humans (Papassotiropoulos et al, 2006). We sought to investigate its effect on memory performance in people with Early Onset Schizophrenia (EOS; onset before age of 18) and their first-degree relatives. Methods 53 EOS probands...

Cognitive impairments are considered a component of the extended clinical syndrome of schizophrenia. The aim of the current project was to investigate putative cognitive deficits in individuals with Early Onset Schizophrenia (EOS; defined herein as onset before the age of 18) and their relatives.Methods53 EOS probands and 117 unaffected first-degre...

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder affecting approximately 1% of the population worldwide. The disorder is ranked among the top 10 causes of disability worldwide. New drugs and therapeutic interventions are therefore warranted to reduce symptomatology, delay onset, or potentially cure this devastating disorder. This would greatly help i...

The pattern of brain morphological changes at the early stages of schizophrenia may depend on the age at onset of illness; in children and adolescents with schizophrenia, grey matter deficits are seen in the parietal lobe whereas in individuals with adult onset these are more widespread. To examine whether white matter is similarly affected. Diffus...

Voxel-based analysis of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) data was used to examine white matter integrity in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS), defined as schizophrenia beginning before the 18th birthday. Nineteen patients with EOS, aged 13 to 19, were compared with 20 healthy volunteers matched for age, gender, and p...

To examine the contribution of premorbid function, duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), age of onset, severity of symptoms at presentation, and number of subsequent hospitalisations to the outcome of early onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset before 17th birthday). Twenty-three EOS patients (mean age at onset 15.16 +/- 1.39 years) were re-assessed aft...