olanzapine and Brain-Diseases

Early-onset psychotic illnesses in children and adolescents are not as rare as is commonly believed. These disorders, which include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder with psychotic features, and major depression with psychotic features, often have a chronic and severe course and poor long-term outcome. Many patients with early-onset schizophrenia have greater functional impairments than most patients with adult-onset schizophrenia. Magnetic resonance imaging studies show that patients with early-onset schizophrenia experience substantial gray matter loss during adolescence, which is not observed in studies of patients with adult-onset schizophrenia. The chronic course, severe functional impairments, and poor prognosis of early-onset psychosis create a great need to identify effective and safe treatments for youth with psychosis. Although atypical anti-psychotics have been considered superior to traditional antipsychotics, there has been little controlled information to inform clinical decisions until recently. Over the past 5 years, several studies have been initiated to address these questions. The results of the studies completed to date are reviewed.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Age of Onset; Antipsychotic Agents; Aripiprazole; Benzodiazepines; Brain Diseases; Child; Chronic Disease; Clozapine; Comorbidity; Disease Progression; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Olanzapine; Piperazines; Prognosis; Psychotic Disorders; Quinolones; Schizophrenia; Thiazoles; Treatment Failure

The post-malaria neurological syndrome (PMNS) is an unusual and relatively underreported complication of malaria, which usually occurs after the resolution of acute febrile illness and the patient is free from parasitemia. The clinical spectrum of the PMNS varies from acute-onset cerebellar ataxia to significant encephalopathy with focal deficits resembling acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Uncommon presentations of PMNS include Guillain-Barre syndrome, postural tremor, or even isolated neuropsychiatric features. Although in a significant proportion of PMNS cases clinical resolution occurs with conservative treatment only, corticosteroids have been used in an attempt to hasten recoveries. Here, we present a case of a 12-year-old girl with acute onset, isolated neuropsychiatric features, following

Topics: Brain Diseases; Child; Female; Humans; Malaria, Falciparum; Methylprednisolone; Neuroimaging; Olanzapine; Plasmodium falciparum

Topics: Antipsychotic Agents; Benzodiazepines; Brain Diseases; Hallucinations; Humans; Olanzapine; Tegmentum Mesencephali

It is hypothesized that atypical antipsychotic drugs have neuroprotective effects which may be one of the mechanisms in treatment of schizophrenia. We investigated the neuroprotective effects of olanzapine (OLA), an atypical antipsychotic drug, on methamphetamine (METH)-induced neurotoxicity in rats. After pretreatment with OLA (2 mg/kg/day) by intraperitoneal injection for 2 weeks, rats were administered METH (7.5 mg/kg, four times at 2-h intervals) by subcutaneous injection while their body temperature was monitored. The rats were sacrificed 24 h after the last injection of METH for immunohistochemistry. METH-induced 24 h mortality was effectively reduced and METH-induced decrease of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in caudate putamen (CPu) was significantly attenuated by OLA chronic pretreatment. Furthermore, we showed that the above neuroprotective potential of OLA might be associated with its attenuating effects on METH-induced hyperthermia and with its preventative actions on METH-induced decrease of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic gene product, in the CPu. Our results suggest that OLA may be a neuroprotective agent and that its neuroprotective potential may contribute to its therapeutic effects in treatment of schizophrenia.

Topics: Analysis of Variance; Animals; Apoptosis; Benzodiazepines; Brain Diseases; Dopamine; Fever; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Methamphetamine; Neostriatum; Neuroprotective Agents; Neurotoxins; Olanzapine; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Survival Rate; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase