Social cogniction and comunication skills in Asperger síndrome Young adults

The aim of this study is to compare patients with Asperger syndrome (AS) and control participants on social cognition tasks and communication skills. Twenty young adults were assessed in three social cognition domains; recognition of basic emotions, recognition of complex emotions and Theory of Mind (ToM). In addition participants completed a self-report questionnaire as a measure of social communication skills. The results indicate that adults with AS perform below neurotypical control participants in emotion processing, ToM and communication skills. There were no significant correlations between the variables of social cognition and communication skills in the group of AS. Taken together,…

Evaluación de la actividad electrodérmica y relación con el cuadro clínico en pacientes esquizofrénicos

Functional remediation for patients with bipolar II disorder: improvement of functioning and subsyndromal symptoms.

Recently, Functional Remediation (FR) has proven to be effective in improving the functional outcome of euthymic bipolar patients. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of the FR program in a subsample of euthymic bipolar II patients (BPII). A post-hoc analyses were undertaken using data of 53 BPII outpatients who had participated in a multicenter, rater-blind, randomized, controlled trial exploring the efficacy of FR (n=17) as compared with a Psychoeducation group (PSY) (n=19) and a treatment as usual control group (TAU n=17). The primary outcome variable was the functional improvement defined as the mean change in the Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST) from baseline to endp…

Factors associated with poor functional outcome in bipolar disorder: sociodemographic, clinical, and neurocognitive variables.

Objective: The current investigation aimed at studying the sociodemographic, clinical, and neuropsychological variables related to functional outcome in a sample of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder(BD) presenting moderate-severe levels of functional impairment. Methods: Two-hundred and thirty-nine participants with BD disorders and with Functioning Assessment Short Test(FAST) scores equal or above 18 were administered a clinical and diagnostic interview, and the administration of mood measure scales and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Analyses involved preliminary Pearson bivariate correlations to identify sociodemographic and clinical variables associated with the FAST t…

Effects of functional remediation on neurocognitively impaired bipolar patients: enhancement of verbal memory

BackgroundFunctional remediation is a novel intervention with demonstrated efficacy at improving functional outcome in euthymic bipolar patients. However, in a previous trial no significant changes in neurocognitive measures were detected. The objective of the present analysis was to test the efficacy of this therapy in the enhancement of neuropsychological functions in a subgroup of neurocognitively impaired bipolar patients.MethodA total of 188 out of 239 DSM-IV euthymic bipolar patients performing below two standard deviations from the mean of normative data in any neurocognitive test were included in this subanalysis. Repeated-measures analyses of variance were conducted to assess the i…

Do patients with bipolar disorder and subsyndromal symptoms benefit from functional remediation? A 12-month follow-up study

We analyzed the efficacy of functional remediation, in a sample of patients with bipolar disorder who presented with subsyndromal symptoms. From a total sample of 239 patients with bipolar I and II disorder, according to DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria, entering a randomized clinical trial, those patients who presented with subsyndromal symptoms were selected based on a method already described by Berk and colleagues was applied. It consists of using the Clinical Global Impression-Bipolar version (CGI-BP) to establish the scores of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and of the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) that correspond with 1 in the CGI-BP. Functional outcome and mood symptoms …

Forma abreviada de la WAIS-IV: estudio piloto en pacientes con esquizofrenia

The aim of this study is to develop a WAIS-IV short form of the Spanish version for its use with schizophrenia patients, which would allow estimating their intellectual capacity in a short period of time (approximately 30 minutes). The sample was composed by a clinical group consisting of 35 schizophrenia patients and a control group consisting of 35 people with no known history of mental illness. Data demonstrated that the best combination of tests was: Similarities (Verbal comprehension), Visual puzzles (Perceptual reasoning), Arithmetic (Working memory) and Coding (Processing speed). With this short form, it was possible to obtain a linear correlation between the IQ of the full scale and…