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• Development of new therapeutic approaches.
• Studies directed to the brain mechanisms underlying psychotic symptoms such as delusions,
hallucinations and formal thought disorder.
• Development and validation of symptom scales.
Most relevant scientific articles
• Vicens V, Radua J, Salvador R, Anguera-Camós M, Canales-Rodríguez EJ, Sarró S et al. Structural and functional brain changes in delusional disorder.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science. 2016;208(2):153-9.
• Alonso-Lana S., Valenti M., Romaguera A., Sarri C., Sarro S., Rodriguez-Martinez A. et al. Brain functional changes in first-degree relatives of patients with bipolar disorder: evidence for default mode network dysfunction. Psychological Medicine. 2016;1-9.
• Salgado-Pineda P., Landin-Romero R., Portillo F., Bosque C., Pomes A., Spanlang B. et al. Examining hippocampal function in schizophrenia using a virtual reality spatial navigation task. Schizophrenia Research. 2016;172(1-3):86-93.
• Alonso-Lana S, Goikolea JM, Bonnin CM, Sarró S, Segura B, Amann BL et al. Structural and Functional Brain Correlates of Cognitive Impairment in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder.PloS one. 2016;11(7): e0158867.
• Landin-Romero R, McKenna PJ, Romaguera A, Álvarez-Moya E, Sarró S, Aguirre C et al. Examining the continuum of psychosis: Frequency and characteristics of psychotic-like symptoms in relatives and non-relatives of patients with schizophrenia.Schizophrenia research. 2016.
Hightlights
In 2016 FIDMAG Hermanas Hospitalarias was awarded the Josep Trueta Prize, by the “Acadèmia de Ciències Mèdiques de Catalunya i Balears” for scientific leadership.
We are currently carrying out, in collaboration with a group in Hospital Sant Pau, the first clinical trial of
of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Six of a projected 8 patients have now been treated and initial results have been published. We have also participated in several multicenter phase III clinical trials, including on esketamine in major depression.
Among our studies published in 2016 is the first modern imaging study of delusional disorder. Although this is a well-validated diagnostic entity, there has been very little examination of its biological basis. In particular, it is not known whether patients show the kinds of structural and functional brain changes
seen in schizophrenia, a disorder which it is believed to be closely related to. Vicens et al (2016) collected
a sample of 22 patients meeting DSM IV criteria for delusional disorder and compared them to 44 healthy controls using a) whole-brain brain structural imaging, (voxel-based morphometry, VBM), b) functional imaging (fMRI) during performance of a widely used cognitive task, the n-back working memory task, and c) resting state functional connectivity. Evidence was found of structural and functional brain abnormality in the medial frontal cortex and the insula in the patients.
We continue to develop new neuroimaging techniques, including functional imaging paradigms, new methods for processing white matter images, and meta-analytic methods for integrating the results of neuroimaging studies.
In parallel with this, we continue with an active programme of pre- and post-doctoral research training. This year five research students have been awarded PhDs.
SAM
research groups 65