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Paternal age and specific neurological soft signs as reliable and valid neurobiological markers for the diagnosis of patients with schizophrenia

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Abstract

Advanced parental age at delivery and neurological soft signs (NSS) constitute risk factors for schizophrenia. The aim of the current study was to develop a neurobiological diagnostic index by combining them, and without the contribution of clinical symptomatology. The study sample included 133 patients suffering from schizophrenia according to DSM-IV-TR (77 males and 56 females; aged 33.55 ± 11.22 years old) and 122 normal controls (66 males and 56 females; aged 32.89 ± 9.91 years old). The assessment included the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES), and a number of scales assessing the clinical symptoms and adverse effects. The statistical analysis included exploratory t-test, Pearson Correlation coefficient (R) and Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). Exploratory t-tests and Pearson’s R suggested that sex, parental age and NSS constitute independent components. On the basis of DFA results, the Psychotic Neurological Index was developed. At the cut-off PNI score of 8.5, sensitivity was equal to 94.74 and specificity to 93.44. The current is probably the first study to report on an easily obtainable diagnostic neurobiological marker with identifiable properties which is absolutely independent from the clinical manifestations and could serve in distinguishing between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls with high efficacy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 3rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, Panagiotis Panagiotidis & Ioannis Nimatoudis

  2. 1st Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Thomas Tegos & Vasileios Kimiskidis

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  1. Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis
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  2. Panagiotis Panagiotidis
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  3. Thomas Tegos
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Contributions

KNF, IN, VK and XG conceived and designed the study. KNF and PP participated in involving the subjects. PP and VK participated in clinical assessment and data acquisition and management. KNF and XG participated in data analysis. KNF and XG wrote the first draft of the paper. All authors participated in interpreting the data and developing further stages of the paper.

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Correspondence to Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis.

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Fountoulakis, K.N., Panagiotidis, P., Tegos, T. et al. Paternal age and specific neurological soft signs as reliable and valid neurobiological markers for the diagnosis of patients with schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 272, 1087–1096 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-021-01357-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-021-01357-6

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