Thyroid hormones are crucial during development and in the adult brain. Of interest, fluctuations in the levels of thyroid hormones at various times during development and throughout life can impact on psychiatric disease manifestation and response to treatment. Here we review research on thyroid function assessment in schizophrenia, relating interrelations between the pituitary-thyroid axis and major neurosignaling systems involved in schizophrenia’s pathophysiology. These include the serotonergic, dopaminergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic networks, as well as myelination and inflammatory processes. The available evidence supports that thyroid hormones deregulation is a common feature in schizophrenia and that the implications of thyroid hormones homeostasis in the fine-tuning of crucial brain networks warrants further research.

Aim. To examine if perfectionism predicts self-reported sleep disturbances over time. Methods. The Hewitt–Flett Perfectionism Scale was used to assess self-oriented, socially-prescribed (SPP) and other-oriented perfectionism. Sleep disturbance was evaluated with two items: difficulty in falling asleep and waking up many times during the night. Out of 870 students who participated at baseline, 592 and 305 completed the same measures 1 year (T1) and 2 years later (T2), respectively. Results. Subjects who reported insomnia at baseline, T1 and T2 (persistent insomnia) had significantly higher scores of baseline SPP (T1 M = 51.5, SD = 15.8; T2 M = 55.0, SD = 19.0) than subjects reporting, in all stages of the study, never/rarely having had sleep problems (T1 M = 41.9, SD = 11.4; T2 M = 42.2, SD = 12.3, P<0.001 in both cases). Regression analyses showed that baseline SPP was the only significant positive predictor of difficulties in falling asleep at T1 and T2 (T1 partial R=0.187; T2 partial R=0.196, P<0.001) and of difficulties maintaining sleep (T1 partial R=0.116; T2 partial R=0.244, P<0.001). Conclusion. SPP was found to be the most reliable predictor of sleep disturbances over time, which constitutes a new important finding.

To investigate the predictive/protective role of negative affect/positive affect in late pregnancy on the outcome of postpartum depression. A total of 491 pregnant women participated in the study. The participants were asked to fill out a series of questionnaires, which included the Profile of Mood States, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, psychosocial variables and socio-demographic characteristics and were asked to participate in a psychiatric interview. After delivery, 272 mothers participated again in the study and filled out a similar series of questionnaires. Negative affect was associated with more intense depressive symptomatology, more self-perceived stress, lower self-reported social support, lower quality of life and perception of having a more difficult infant. By contrast, positive affect was negatively associated with these variables. Negative affect in late pregnancy increased the likelihood of experiencing postpartum depression (DSM-IV/OR = 2.1, 95%CI = 1.3-3.4, p = .003; ICD-10/OR = 2.1, 95%CI = 1.5-3.0, p < .001), while positive affect increased the odds of not having this condition (DSM-IV/OR = 2.0, 95%CI = 1.5-2.7, p = .042). In pregnancy, negative affect was a predictor of postpartum depression, whereas positive affect showed a protective role. Future studies are required to explore whether psychotherapeutic strategies focusing on decreasing negative affect and enhancing positive affect in the last trimester of pregnancy can reduce the risk of postpartum depression.