Study of central cholinergic activity, olfactory function, and duration of untreated psychosis in patients with schizophrenia

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23791350
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Psychiatric science
• Research Institution: Wakayama Medical University
• Principal Investigator: SHOYAMA Masaru 和歌山県立医科大学, 医学部, 博士研究員 (70364081)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 統合失調症 / SAI / アセチルコリン / 嗅覚障害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated central cholinergic activity and olfactory function in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. For this study, we developed a novel device to easily measure short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI) as a putative marker of central cholinergic activity and found reduced SAI levels in schizophrenia patients. We also noted impaired odor identification performance in schizophrenia patients using a smell identification test card (Open Essence). Based on our results, we speculate that the central cholinergic circuit and neural substrates of odor identification are impaired by schizophrenia. Unfortunately we were not able to gather adequate data regarding the duration of untreated psychosis in these patients and additional studies are needed in order to clarify their relationship.

Free Research Field

精神医学