Background: Many studies have related biochemical characteristics to violence and have reported schizophrenia could elevated the risk of violent behaviour. However, the metabolic characteristics of schizophrenia patients with violence (V.SC) are unclear. Methods: To explore the metabolic characteristics of schizophrenia with violence and to identify potential biomarkers, untargeted metabolomics was performed by using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry to analyse the plasma metabolites of fifty-three V.SC and twenty-four schizophrenia patients without violence (NV.SC). Multivariate and univariate analyses were performed to identify differential metabolites and biomarkers. Violence was assessed by the MacArthur Violence Assessment Study method. Psychiatric symptoms were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Results: Multivariate analysis was unable to distinguish V.SC from NV.SC. Glycerolipid metabolism and phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis were the differential metabolic pathways between V.SC and NV.SC. We confirmed ten metabolites and five metabolites as metabolic biomarkers of V.SC by random forest and support vector machine analysis, respectively. The biomarker panel, including the ratio of L-asparagine to L-aspartic acid, vanillylmandelic acid and glutaric acid, yielded an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.808. Conclusions: This study gives a holistic view of the metabolic phenotype of schizophrenia with violence which is characterized by the dysregulation of lipids and amino acids. These results might provide information for the aetiological understanding and management of violence in schizophrenia; however, this is a preliminary metabolomics study about schizophrenia with violence, which needs to be repeated in future studies.

This study aims to investigate the role of personality traits and subjective exposure experiences in posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms. In Qingchuan, 21,652 children aged 7 to 15 years were assessed using face-to-face interviews one year after the Wenchuan earthquake in China. The Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, a modified earthquake exposure scale, the UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (adolescent), and the Adolescent Depression Inventory were used to assess personality characteristics, trauma experiences, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms, respectively. The measurement was completed with 20,749 children. After adjusting for other factors by multinomial logistic regression analysis, neuroticism, having felt unable to escape from the disaster and having been trapped for a longer time were risk factors of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms. Socialization was a protective factor of them. Having felt extreme panic or fear was a risk factor of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. For depression symptoms, introversion and psychoticism were risk factors, and extraversion was a protective factor. This study was conducted with the largest representative sample of child survivors of a natural, devastating disaster in a developing country. These results could be useful for planning psychological intervention strategies for children and for influencing further research.

BackgroundA body of studies has focused on the olfactory impairment among people with schizophrenia. The effect of sex on this relationship has attracted the attention of researchers. These issues have not been studied much in Chinese schizophrenia patients.MethodsWe conducted a case-control study of 110 first-episode antipsychotic medicine naïve schizophrenia patients aged 18–35 years and 110 controls, matched by age and sex. Odour threshold, discrimination and identification were assessed by the “Sniffin’ Sticks” test. Psychotic symptoms were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).ResultsThe odour threshold, discrimination and identification scores of patients with schizophrenia were significantly lower than those of the healthy control group. The difference in identification score had statistical significance between male and female patients with schizophrenia (t = − 2.45, P < 0.05). Controlling for confounding factor, in male schizophrenia participants, the negative subscale score was significantly and inversely correlated with the discrimination (γ = − 0.37, p < 0.008), identification (γ = − 0.45, p < 0.008) and TDI (γ = − 0.50, p < 0.008) scores; the general psychopathology subscale score was inversely and significantly correlated with the identification (γ = − 0.47, p < 0.008) and TDI (γ = − 0.41, p < 0.008) scores. For female schizophrenia patients, positive and general psychopathology subscale scores had a significant inverse correlation with the identification score (positive: γ = − 0.47, p < 0.008; general psychopathology: γ = − 0.42, p < 0.008).ConclusionsControlling for confounder, negative symptoms were related to impaired odour discrimination and identification in male schizophrenia patients, while positive symptoms were correlated with impaired odour identification in female schizophrenia patients. This sex dimorphism could provide useful information for future studies aiming to finding biomarkers of schizophrenia.

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The findings of olfaction are inconsistent in anxiety disorders, and few studies have reported on the olfactory performance in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Therefore, we aim to investigate the olfactory function of patients with GAD and the association between olfactory function and anxiety symptoms. Methods: We conducted a case-control study by selecting 107 patients with GAD and 107 healthy controls matched for sex and age, to investigate olfaction deficits in GAD and the association between anxiety severity and olfaction. All patients were treatment-naïve prior to the inclusion. Anxiety severity and olfaction were assessed by the Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A) and the Sniffin' Sticks test (SST), respectively. Partial correlations were used to analyze the relationship between olfaction and anxiety severity. False discovery rate (FDR) correction was used in multi-correlation analyses. Results: Compared with healthy controls, patients in the GAD group demonstrated odor threshold, discrimination and identification deficits. In the moderate/severe anxiety subgroup, discrimination score was significantly and inversely correlated with the somatic anxiety score (γ=−0.44, q = 0.03), and identification score was significantly and inversely correlated with the HAM-A total score (γ=−0.42, q= 0.04). The TDI score (the sum of threshold, discrimination and identification scores) was significantly and inversely correlated with the somatic (γ= −0.44, q = 0.04) and psychic (γ=−0.45, q = 0.04) anxiety scores in the moderate/severe anxiety subgroup. Conclusion:This study demonstrated the olfactory impairment in patients with GAD and that poorer odor discrimination was correlated with greater severity of somatic anxiety.