{"title":"Cumulative impact of morphometric features in schizophrenia in two independent samples","authors":"Rosa Lee-Hughes, Thomas M Lancaster","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad031","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share a common structural brain alteration profile. However, there is considerable between- and within-diagnosis variability in these features, which may underestimate informative individual differences. Using a recently established morphometric risk score (MRS) approach, we aim to provide confirmation that individual MRS scores are higher in individuals with a psychosis diagnosis, helping to parse individual heterogeneity. Using the Human Connectome Project Early Psychosis (N = 124), we estimate MRS for psychosis and specifically for bipolar/schizophrenia using T1-weighted MRI data and prior meta-analysis effect sizes. We confirm associations in an independent replication sample (N = 69). We assess (1) the impact of diagnosis on these MRS, (2) compare effect sizes of MRS to all individual, cytoarchitecturally defined brain regions, and (3) perform negative control analyses to assess MRS specificity. The MRS specifically for SCZ was higher in the whole psychosis group (Cohen’s d = 0.56; P = 0.003) and outperformed any single region of interest in standardized mean difference (ZMRS>75 ROIS = 2.597; P = 0.009) and correlated with previously reported effect sizes (PSPIN/SHUFFLE < 0.005). MRS without Enhancing Neuroimaging Genomics through Meta-Analysis weights did not delineate groups with empirically null associations (t = 2.29; P = 0.02). We replicate MRS specifically for SCZ associations in the independent sample. Akin to polygenic risk scoring and individual allele effect sizes, these observations suggest that assessing the combined impact of regional structural alterations may be more informative than any single cytoarchitecturally constrained cortical region, where well-powered, meta-analytical samples are informative in the delineation of diagnosis and within psychosis case differences, in smaller independent samples.","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135562750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mortality-Risk With \"Capacity\" Constraints On Community Treatment Order Utilization.","authors":"Steven P Segal, Lachlan Rimes, Leena Badran","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac077","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Assignment to a community treatment order (CTO) has been associated with reduced mortality risk. In Victoria Australia civil-rights enhancements involving capacity to refuse involuntary treatment have contributed to a 15% reduction between 2010 and 2019 in CTO assignments among first hospitalized patients with Schizophrenia diagnoses. Has this change impacted patient mortality risk?</p><p><strong>Study design: </strong>This study considered mortality-risk between 2010 and 2019 for 3 patient groups with schizophrenia diagnoses: All 4848 hospitalized patients who were assigned to a CTO for the first time in the period; 3988 matched and randomly selected patients, who were first hospitalized in the decade, without CTO assignment; and 1675 never hospitalized or CTO-assigned outpatients. Deaths of Schizophrenic patients in each group were evaluated against expected deaths given standardized mortality ratios for Victoria. Logistic regression was used to evaluate mortality risk for each treatment group while taking account of race, demographics, differential access to initial diagnoses of life-threatening physical illness, mental health service resources, and indicators of social disadvantage.</p><p><strong>Study results: </strong>A total of 78% of the 777 deaths of schizophrenia patients in all 3 groups were premature. The 2 hospitalized groups did not differ in mortality risk. Among Victoria's 2010-2019 outpatients (inclusive of treatment refusers with a recorded service contact), 16.2% had a Schizophrenia diagnosis-up from 0.2% in 2000-2009, the prior decade. Outpatients with Schizophrenia were at 48% greater risk of death than individuals in the hospitalized groups, taking all the afore mentioned risk factors into account.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Reductions in CTO utilization associated with potential treatment refusals of involuntary community-treatment supervision, seem to have increased mortality risk for this vulnerable population. The line between civil-rights protection and abandonment has been blurred.</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"4 1","pages":"sgac077"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/d0/41/sgac077.PMC9936137.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9317492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sleep as a Mediator Between Cannabis Use and Psychosis Vulnerability: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.","authors":"Julien Ouellet, Sean Spinney, Roxane Assaf, Elroy Boers, Audrey Livet, Stéphane Potvin, Patricia Conrod","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac072","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Increasing evidence implicates cannabis consumption as a key risk factor in the development of psychosis, but the mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain understudied. This study proposes to determine whether sleep disruption acts as a mediator of the cannabis-to-psychosis relationship.</p><p><strong>Study design: </strong>This longitudinal study assessed measures of cannabis use frequency, sleep quality (SQ), and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Data were collected from September 2012 to September 2018. Data were collected from a general population sample of adolescents who entered the seventh grade in 31 schools in the Greater Montreal area. The study uses data collected on an annual basis from 3801 high school students from grades 7 to 11. The aforementioned measures were measured using the Detection of Alcohol and Drug Problems in Adolescents questionnaire, a SQ Likert scale, and measures the Psychotic-Like Experiences Questionnaire for Children.</p><p><strong>Study results: </strong>Results show a reciprocal 1-year cross-lagged effect of cannabis use and sleep (β = -0.076, 95% CI = -0.037 to -0.018, <i>P</i> = .000), of sleep on cannabis use (β = -.016, 95% CI = -0.025 to -0.006, <i>P</i> = .007), of sleep on PLEs (β = -0.077, 95%CI = -0.014 to -0.051, <i>P</i> = .000), and of PLEs on sleep (β = -0.027, 95% CI = -0.037 to -0.018, <i>P</i> = .000). We additionally found a 2 years indirect lagged-effect of cannabis use on PLEs (β = 0.068, 95% CI = 0.024 to 0.113, <i>P</i> = .011) mediated by 1-year sleep (β = 0.006, 95% CI = 0.003 to 0.009, <i>P</i> = .001).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest sleep disruptions simultaneously aggravate, and are aggravated by, cannabis addiction and PLEs. The longitudinal sleep-mediated effect of cannabis use on PLEs encourages further research into the role of sleep as a potential therapeutic target in the prevention of cannabis-related psychosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"4 1","pages":"sgac072"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/f2/6b/sgac072.PMC9894023.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10683653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cathy Davies, Matthijs G Bossong, Daniel Martins, Robin Wilson, Elizabeth Appiah-Kusi, Grace Blest-Hopley, Paul Allen, Fernando Zelaya, David J Lythgoe, Michael Brammer, Jesus Perez, Philip McGuire, Sagnik Bhattacharyya
{"title":"Hippocampal Glutamate, Resting Perfusion and the Effects of Cannabidiol in Psychosis Risk","authors":"Cathy Davies, Matthijs G Bossong, Daniel Martins, Robin Wilson, Elizabeth Appiah-Kusi, Grace Blest-Hopley, Paul Allen, Fernando Zelaya, David J Lythgoe, Michael Brammer, Jesus Perez, Philip McGuire, Sagnik Bhattacharyya","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Background Preclinical and human data suggest that psychosis onset involves hippocampal glutamatergic dysfunction, driving hyperactivity and hyperperfusion in a hippocampal-midbrain-striatal circuit. Whether glutamatergic dysfunction is related to cerebral perfusion in patients at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis, and whether cannabidiol (CBD) has ameliorative effects on glutamate or its relationship with perfusion remains unknown. Methods Using a double-blind, parallel-group design, 33 CHR patients were randomized to a single 600 mg dose of CBD or placebo; 19 healthy controls did not receive any drug. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to measure glutamate concentrations in left hippocampus. We examined differences relating to CHR status (controls vs placebo), effects of CBD (placebo vs CBD), and linear between-group effects, such that placebo&gt;CBD&gt;controls or controls&gt;CBD&gt;placebo. We also examined group × glutamate × cerebral perfusion (measured using Arterial Spin Labeling) interactions. Results Compared to controls, CHR-placebo patients had significantly lower hippocampal glutamate (P =.015) and a significant linear relationship was observed across groups, such that glutamate was highest in controls, lowest in CHR-placebo, and intermediate in CHR-CBD (P =.031). Moreover, there was a significant interaction between group (controls vs CHR-placebo), hippocampal glutamate, and perfusion in the putamen and insula (PFWE =.012), with a strong positive correlation in CHR-placebo vs a negative correlation in controls. Conclusions Our findings suggest that hippocampal glutamate is lower in CHR patients and may be partially normalized by a single dose of CBD. Furthermore, we provide the first in vivo evidence of an abnormal relationship between hippocampal glutamate and perfusion in the striatum and insula in CHR.","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135181718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to: Development and Validation of a Nonremission Risk Prediction Model in First-Episode Psychosis: An Analysis of 2 Longitudinal Studies.","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041.].</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"4 1","pages":"sgad007"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10069321/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9257498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unveiling the Human Brain Virome in Brodmann Area 46: Novel Insights into Dysbiosis and its Association with Schizophrenia","authors":"Mahin Ghorbani","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgad029","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Research suggests a potential role of the oral-neuro and gut-brain axes in schizophrenia, involving non-brain microbiomes such as salivary and gut microbiomes. However, the blood-brain barrier effectively prevents microorganism entry. Additionally, despite approximately 8% of the human genome consisting of retroviruses and the established link between viral infections and schizophrenia, the presence of a resident virome (a viral component of the microbiome) in the brain and its association with mental disorders remain unexplored. Methods: Whole-genome sequencing raw data from postmortem Brodmann Area 46 (BA46) tissue from 49 individuals (20 healthy controls [HCs], 29 with schizophrenia [SCZs]) obtained from the NCBI SRA database from BioProject: PRJNA422380.Virome profiles were retrieved using Metaphlan3, and viral signatures were identified using linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe). Mann-Whitney tests and receiver operating characteristic curve validated the viral signatures. Results: In BA46, 30 distinct species representing 9 phyla, 10 classes, 10 orders, 13 families, and 19 genera were identified. HCs exhibited greater alpha diversity, and there were significant differences in beta diversity between the groups. LEfSe analysis highlighted distinct viral levels, including Escherichia virus Lambda, Escherichia virus phiV10, Human endogenous retrovirus K, Taterapox virus, Alcelaphine gammaherpesvirus 1, and Bovine gammaherpesvirus 4 in HCs, while Glypta fumiferanae ichnovirus and unknown virus showed higher levels in schizophrenia. Conclusion: This is the first study to identify a human brain virome associated with schizophrenia in BA46. Brain virome dysbiosis may be associated with mental illness, and viral signatures may serve as biomarkers for the early detection of schizophrenia.","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136306429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Schizophrenia Bulletin OpenPub Date : 2022-12-16eCollection Date: 2023-01-01DOI: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac071
Steven P Segal, Lachlan Rimes, Leena Badran
{"title":"Need for Treatment, A Less Restrictive Alternative to Hospitalization, and Treatment Provision: The Utility of Community Treatment Orders.","authors":"Steven P Segal, Lachlan Rimes, Leena Badran","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac071","DOIUrl":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac071","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Provision of involuntary care is an abridgment of civil rights and a source of controversy. Its circumstances require continued monitoring. This study asks 4 questions: Whether, in an era, focused on allowing patients with capacity to refuse community-treatment-order (CTO)-assignments, CTO use decreased. And whether CTOs fulfilled 3 statute mandates: Were CTO-assigned patients in greater need of treatment than other psychiatric inpatients? Was CTO assignment a less-restrictive alternative to psychiatric hospitalization? and Did CTO assignment provide needed treatment at internationally recommended levels with consequences for patient outcomes?</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>All 214 388 Victoria, Australia mental health admissions between 2000- 2017 were reviewed. Two cohort samples were drawn and followed through 2019-ie, all 7826 hospitalized patients who were first placed on CTOs from 2010 to 2017 and 13 896 hospitalized patients without CTO placement. Logistic Regression was used to specify determinants of CTO assignment from the psychiatric inpatient population. OLS Regression with propensity score control to evaluate study questions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In the 2010-2017 decade, initial CTO assignments decreased by 3.5%, and initial hospitalizations increased by 5.9% compared to the 2000-2009 period. At hospital admission and discharge, based on Health of the Nations Score ratings, the CTO-cohort's need for treatment exceeded that of non-CTO patients. CTO patients had 3.75 fewer days in average inpatient episode duration than other inpatients, when adjusted for CTO-assignment determinants, the ratio of patients to community case managers, and patient housing status. CTO patients needing rehospitalization spent 112.68 more days in the community than re-hospitalized non-CTO patients. Patient to case-manager ratios falling above recommended levels and the patient marginal housing status contributed to longer hospital stays and reduced community tenure.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Victoria relied less on CTOs as an LRA, consequently, experiencing increased initial hospitalizations. CTO patients were in greater need of treatment than non-CTO patients, yet, with required oversite had shorter hospitalizations and more time out of hospital prior to rehospitalization than the less severely ill non-CTO group. Patient LRA outcomes were adversely affected by higher than recommended community patient to case-manager ratios limiting needed treatment provision to hospital.</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"4 1","pages":"sgac071"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/ed/cc/sgac071.PMC9894024.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10742068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Schizophrenia Bulletin OpenPub Date : 2022-11-30eCollection Date: 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac070
{"title":"Correction to: Development and Validation of a Nonremission Risk Prediction Model in First-Episode Psychosis: An Analysis of 2 Longitudinal Studies.","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgab041.].</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":" ","pages":"sgac070"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9710348/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"35255657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Schizophrenia Bulletin OpenPub Date : 2022-10-21eCollection Date: 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac067
Stephanie M Perez, Hannah B Elam, Daniel J Lodge
{"title":"Increased Presynaptic Dopamine Synthesis Capacity Is Associated With Aberrant Dopamine Neuron Activity in the Methylazoxymethanol Acetate Rodent Model Used to Study Schizophrenia-Related Pathologies.","authors":"Stephanie M Perez, Hannah B Elam, Daniel J Lodge","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac067","DOIUrl":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Aberrant dopamine system function is thought to contribute to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Clinical imaging studies have demonstrated that the largest dopamine abnormality in patients appears to be an increase in presynaptic dopamine activity. Indeed, studies utilizing <i>[</i> <sup><i>18</i></sup> <i>F]DOPA</i> positive emission tomography reliably report increases in presynaptic dopamine bioavailability in patients and may serve as a biomarker for treatment response. The mechanisms contributing to this increased presynaptic activity in human patients is not yet fully understood, which necessitates the use of preclinical models. Dopamine system function can be directly examined in experimental animals using in vivo electrophysiology. One consistent finding from preclinical studies in rodent models used to study schizophrenia-like neuropathology is a 2-fold increase in the number of spontaneously active dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), termed population activity. We posit that increased striatal dopamine synthesis capacity is attributed to an augmented VTA dopamine neuron population activity. Here, we directly test this hypothesis using [<sup>3</sup>H]DOPA ex vivo autoradiography, to quantify striatal dopamine synthesis capacity, in the methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) model, a validated rodent model displaying neurophysiological and behavioral alterations consistent with schizophrenia-like symptomatologies. Consistent with human imaging studies, dopamine synthesis capacity was significantly increased in dorsal and ventral striatal subregionis, including the caudate putamen and nucleus accumbens, of MAM-treated rats and associated with specific increases in dopamine neuron population activity. Taken together, these data provide a link between mechanistic studies in rodent models and clinical studies of increased presynaptic dopamine function in human subjects.</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":"3 1","pages":"sgac067"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/72/f2/sgac067.PMC9642313.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10347864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Schizophrenia Bulletin OpenPub Date : 2022-10-18eCollection Date: 2022-01-01DOI: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac038
Bernardo Carpiniello, Antonio Vita
{"title":"Impact of COVID-19 on the Italian Mental Health System: A Narrative Review.","authors":"Bernardo Carpiniello, Antonio Vita","doi":"10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/schizbullopen/sgac038","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Italy has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, consequently producing a heavy burden on the Italian National Health Service. From February 2020 until the end of the same year, the Italian Mental Health System (MHS), comprising an extensive network of community services, was subjected to a significant decrease in standards of care followed at the beginning of 2021 by a slow return to usual levels of activity. Data reported in the present article highlight how the Italian MHS - as was the case in the majority of countries-was largely unprepared for this emergency, suggesting an impelling need to develop appropriate supplementary national plans with the aim of preventing similar situations from developing in the future. The upheaval caused by the pandemic has highlighted the need to reinforce, both at a local and national level, the organization and standards of care of the Italian MHS in order to protect and support the mental health of patients with severe mental disorders, health workers, and the general population, thus preventing a potential \"pandemic\" of mental disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":21348,"journal":{"name":"Schizophrenia Bulletin Open","volume":" ","pages":"sgac038"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9619790/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40673051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}