TL;DR: A 2026 MRI preprint on medRxiv found that patients with catatonia were less likely to have a left paracingulate sulcus (PCS), a stable anterior cingulate cortex fold, than psychiatric patients without catatonia. Key Findings 523 MRI scans: Researchers compared 109 patients with catatonia, 323 psychiatric patients without catatonia, and 91 healthy controls. Left PCS …
TL;DR: A 2026 BMC Psychiatry study found that antipsychotic dose was not associated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a brief cognitive screening test, in clinically stable schizophrenia patients under 40, while higher symptom scores and longer illness duration tracked lower cognition. Key Findings Forty-one clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia were included after researchers screened a …
TL;DR: A 2026 uncontrolled pilot study in BJPsych Open found that SMART, a personalized text-message program for metabolic health in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, improved patient activation, diabetes self-management confidence, health literacy, and recovery scores over 12 weeks, while objective cardiometabolic markers did not significantly change. Key Findings SMART reached a schizophrenia-risk group: Researchers …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neuropsychopharmacology used CRISPR gene editing in human microglia-like cells and found that several schizophrenia-linked genes changed phagocytosis, cell shape, and immune-transcription programs. Key Findings Schizophrenia-linked microglia genes were testable: The screen focused on 30 genes predicted from postmortem transcriptomic data and microglial biology to affect phagocytosis pathways. CYFIP1, MSR1, TREM2, …
TL;DR: A 2026 functional MRI (fMRI) study in Psychological Medicine found that schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder shared some thalamus connectivity disruption, but each diagnosis showed a different subcortical network pattern across the thalamus, striatum, hippocampus, and amygdala. Key Findings 800-person MRI cohort: Researchers analyzed resting-state fMRI from 200 people with schizophrenia, 200 …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Psychological Medicine found that cognitive reserve in non-affective first-episode psychosis was higher with greater genetic predisposition to educational attainment and lower with earlier psychosis onset or family history of psychosis. Key Findings 174 first-episode patients: Researchers analyzed people with non-affective first-episode psychosis, with a mean age of 25.5 years. Educational-attainment …
TL;DR: A 2026 review in Current Opinion in Psychiatry found that earlier clozapine use in schizophrenia, especially after early nonresponse or relapse, was linked to better relapse prevention and stronger response rates than repeated nonclozapine antipsychotic trials. Key Findings Relapse prevention improved: Switching to clozapine after first relapse was associated with a 34% lower subsequent …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv used 18F-DOPA positron emission tomography (PET) to estimate dopamine synthesis and storage, and found that caudate dopamine synthesis decreased as schizophrenia patients moved from active psychosis into early psychotic remission. Key Findings Patient group: Researchers scanned 28 schizophrenia patients twice and compared them with 21 healthy controls scanned over …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized study in Psychological Medicine found that right orbitofrontal cortex repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a noninvasive brain-stimulation method, improved visuospatial memory on the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT) in people with first-episode schizophrenia. Key Findings The analysis included 90 patients: Researchers studied 48 people assigned to active rTMS and 42 assigned …
TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal pilot study in Psychosis from Yale recruited 20 adults with schizophrenia or distressing auditory hallucinations into 6 weeks of group songwriting and found reduced paranoia in less-severely affected participants plus a shift from self-focused first-person pronouns toward plural pronouns. Key Findings Group songwriting recruited adults with psychosis symptoms: 20 participants aged …
