Better IQ but worse Premorbid Academic Adjustment in cannabis-users psychotic patients: another brick in the intuition

Purpose: several studies report that patients with psychosis who used cannabis in their lifetime have a better cognitive performance than those who did not and this association is most likely due to a better premorbid functioning. We aimed to test the hypothesis of a better premorbid functioning in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) cannabis-using and non-using patients coming from different European countries. Materials and Methods: 1.745 people (746 cases; 999 healthy controls) completed the assessment for Intellectual Quotient (IQ) (WAIS-brief version) premorbid adjustment (Premorbid Adjustment Scale – PAS) and cannabis use (CEQ-Revised). We first obtained two main factors from PAS: “Premorbi…

O4.8. CAN YOU SPOT EMOTIONS? FACIAL EMOTION RECOGNITION AND GENETIC RISK FOR PSYCHOSIS

Background Facial emotion recognition (FER) is a key component of social cognition which has been found consistently impaired in schizophrenia. Deficits in global facial affect recognition have been also found in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) with the same severity as at further stages, especially for anger recognition. Literature to date has shown intermediate emotion recognition ability in either people with family history for psychotic disorders and unaffected relatives of psychotic patients, in a continuum between patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) for schizophrenia has been found associated with social cognition, especially with facial emotion identi…

The EUropean Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI)

Funder: FP7 Ideas: European Research Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011199; Grant(s): HEALTH-F2-2010-241909

Lifestyles and Quality of Life of People with Mental Illness During the COVID-19 Pandemic

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the quality of life (QoL), daily lifestyle, and mental health of people suffering from a mental disorder. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the prolongation of the COVID-19 emergency on QoL and lifestyles in a sample of 100 outpatients at the Psychiatry Unit in Palermo University Hospital, Italy. QoL was measured through the 12-item Short Form Survey and the COV19-Impact on Quality of Life. Lifestyle changes during the pandemic were measured through the lifestyle change questionnaire. The majority of participants reported a great impact of COVID-19 on the QoL, and almost half reported worsened lifestyles. Worsened li…

Effetti dell’uso di cannabis e sintomi psicopatologici in un campione di primi episodi psicotici

Introduction: Cannabis is one of the most common substances used by patients with a first episode of psychosis. The aim of the study was to investigate the most frequent effects of cannabis use, their relationship with psychotic symptoms and characteristics of the consumption. Methods: 116 first episode psychosis were recruited, 50% of which (n=58) used cannabis lifetime. We investigated the characteristics of the consumption and the effects of cannabis using the Cannabis Experience Questionnaire-mv (CEQmv) and the psychotic symptoms using the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). Results: The effects more often experienced by cannabis users were slowed down thinking and feeling to …

Childhood Maltreatment, Educational Attainment, and IQ: Findings From a Multicentric Case-control Study of First-episode Psychosis (EU-GEI).

[Background and hypothesis] Evidence suggests that childhood maltreatment (ie, childhood abuse and childhood neglect) affects educational attainment and cognition. However, the association between childhood maltreatment and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) seems stronger among controls compared to people with psychosis. We hypothesised that: the association between childhood maltreatment and poor cognition would be stronger among community controls than among people with first-episode of psychosis (FEP); compared to abuse, neglect would show stronger associations with educational attainment and cognition; the association between childhood maltreatment and IQ would be partially accounted for by ot…

T42. JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE POLYGENIC RISK SCORE FOR INTELLIGENCE BUT NOT FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM THE EU-GEI STUDY

Background Psychotic patients tend to require less evidence to make decisions compared to general population. This bias named Jumping to Conclusions (JTC) has been found at First Episode Psychosis (FEP) in schizophrenia patients and associated with proneness to psychotic-like experiences in the general population. Interesting findings showed also strong association with lower cognitive functioning in psychotic patients, which in turn has been shown as a candidate intermediate phenotype for psychosis. Overall, findings to date could suggest a shared genetic liability between the occurrence of JTC and psychosis, potentially via IQ. The present study aims to investigate whether the presence of…

Treated Incidence of Psychotic Disorders in the Multinational EU-GEI Study

Importance: Psychotic disorders contribute significantly to the global disease burden, yet the latest international incidence study of psychotic disorders was conducted in the 1980s. Objectives: To estimate the incidence of psychotic disorders using comparable methods across 17 catchment areas in 6 countries and to examine the variance between catchment areas by putative environmental risk factors. Design, Setting, and Participants: An international multisite incidence study (the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions) was conducted from May 1, 2010, to April 1, 2015, among 2774 individuals from England (2 catchment areas), France (3 catch…

What does augment the risk to use cannabis on an everyday-basis in psychotic patients?

Introduction There are strong enough evidences of the fact that risk of psychosis is augmented by cannabis use. In a recent analysis, the strongest predictor of case-control status was daily-skunk use, i.e. the ORs for skunk users increase with the frequency of use5. We know also that FEP who smoked cannabis in their lifetime are less neuropsychologically impaired i.e. they have better premorbid and current IQ6. In this study we wanted to test what augments the probability to be everyday users, taking into account premorbid social and academic adjustment and cognition as predictors, along with age at first cannabis-use and % of THC in cannabis used. Methods The sample was made of 834 First …

Better social but worse academic premorbid adjustment in cannabis-users psychotic patients across Europe

Background: Several studies report that patients with psychosis who used cannabis have a better cognitive performance than those whodid not (Rabin et al. 2011). In a previous study we found out a higher premorbid IQ, and a better IQ in psychotic patients who smoked cannabis in their lifetime, and our findings were consistent with the idea that this association is due to a better premorbid functioning rather than to an ameliorative effect of cannabis use on cognitive performance (Ferraro et al., 2013). A number of authors have hypothesized that psychotic patients who consume cannabis constitute a differentiated subgroup of patients that have better cognitive and social skills, necessary to e…

FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS PATIENTS WHO USED CANNABIS DEVELOP THEIR ILLNESS AT A SIGNIFICANTLY YOUNGER AGE THAN THOSE WHO NEVER USED CONSISTENTLY ACROSS EUROPE AND BRAZIL

Background: Patients presenting to psychiatric services with their first episode of psychosis (FEP) report higher rates of previous cannabis use than the general population (Donoghue et al., 2011; Myles, Myles and Large, 2016). Evidence suggested that patients suffering from psychosis with a history of cannabis use have an earlier age of onset of psychosis (AOP) than those who never used it (Di Forti et al., 2013). We aim to investigate if the reported association between use of cannabis and AOP is consistent across different countries, once having taken into account different patterns of cannabis use (i.e. frequency of use and age at first use). Methods: We analysed data on patterns of lif…

Evaluating the feasibility of the Italian version of the computerized interactive remediation of cognition training for schizophrenia (circuits)

Background: Circuits is a computerized cognitive remediation program for individuals with schizophrenia. this study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of the italian version of circuits. MethODs: Feasibility was measured through ad-hoc questionnaires in a non-clinical sample (N.=30; target-score 70%; study 1); in patients with schizophrenia (N.=5; target-score 60%; study 2) and cr therapists (N.=3; target-score 60%; study 2). study 3 was a pilot study investigating: 1) enrolment, compliance, and retention rates; 2) satisfaction; 3) potential post-treatment and follow-up improvements in patients with schizophrenia (N.=20). these results were used to estimate sample size and feasibility for a …

VALUTAZIONE DELL’EFFICACIA TERAPEUTICA DI RIMEDIO COGNITIVO COMPUTER MEDIATO CIRCuiTS

Introduzione. La Cognitive remediation (CR) è una terapia psicologica che migliora il funzionamento cognitivo e sociale nelle persone affette da disturbi dello spettro psicotico. Un team di ricercatori inglesi del King's College ha progettato un programma CR computerizzato di nuova generazione, CIRCuiTS (Computerised Interactive Remediation of Cognition – a Training for Schizophrenia), per migliorare il funzionamento cognitivo e sociale dei pazienti affetti da schizofrenia. Questo studio si inserisce all'interno di un più ampio progetto di verifica dell'accettabilità e fattibilità della versione italiana di CIRCuiTS, concentrandosi sulla possibilità di saggiare l'efficacia del trattamento s…

TRANSDIAGNOSTIC SYMPTOM DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOSIS AND THE PREDICTIVE ROLE OF PREMORBID ADJUSTMENT AND COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS IN THE MULTINATIONAL EU-GEI STUDY

Jumping to conclusions, general intelligence, and psychosis liability: Findings from the multi-centre EU-GEI case-control study

This study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program grant [agreement HEALTH-F2-2009-241909 (Project EU-GEI)], São Paulo Research Foundation (grant 2012/0417-0), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, the NIHR BRC at University College London and the Wellcome Trust (grant 101272/Z/12/Z).

Facial Emotion Recognition in Psychosis and Associations With Polygenic Risk for Schizophrenia

The EU-GEI Project was funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. HEALTH-F2-2010-241909 (Project EU-GEI). The Brazilian study was funded by the Säo Paulo Research Foundation under grant number 2012/0417-0.

The efficacy of a functional therapy program for gambling disorder: A Pilot study

Background: Despite the great progress achieved by treatment approaches for Gambling Disorder (GD) the relevance of studying efficacious therapies still remains high. This pilot study aims at the evaluation of the efficacy of a standardized protocol based on Functional theory for GD. Functional Therapy (FT) is an integrated body-mind therapy.Methods: Twenty-eight pathological gamblers completed the FT protocol consisted in 16 sessions, two times a week for a total duration of two months, in an individual setting. No one of the patients was taking any psychopharmacological therapy. Psychological assessment both at baseline (T0) and at the end of the treament (T1) includes the South Oaks Gamb…

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS AND FACIAL EMOTION RECOGNITION IMPAIRMENT IN FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS ACROSS EUROPE

Background Jumping to conclusions (JTC) is a well-established reasoning and data gathering bias found in patients with psychosis even at illness onset (First Episode Psychosis, FEP). Preliminary work in this field focused primarily on the association with delusions, although jumping to conclusions has also been found in non-deluded schizophrenia patients after remission, and in individual with at risk mental state. Moreover, psychotic patients tend to show impairments in social cognition, struggling in identifying, processing and interpreting social clues. Deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) – a key component of the construct – represent a well-replicated finding in schizophrenia. …

Il riconoscimento delle emozioni facciali all’esordio psicotico.

La capacità di riconoscere le emozioni facciali fa parte del più ampio dominio relativo alla cognizione sociale. Nel disturbo schizofrenico è presente un deficit dell’esperienza emotiva e dell’espressione appropriata delle emozioni. Numerosi studi hanno riscontrato in questi soggetti deficit a carico della capacità di riconoscimento delle emozioni facciali nonché della modulazione emotiva della voce. L’obiettivo dello studio è stato quello di indagare la presenza di un deficit a carico del riconoscimento delle emozioni facciali nei soggetti con esordio psicotico, posti a confronto con un gruppo di controlli sani. In particolare, si ipotizza nei pazienti una relazione tra il deficit di ricon…

DOES POLYGENIC RISK SCORE FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA IMPACT ON JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS? PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FROM THE EU-GEI CASE-CONTROL STUDY

Background: Jumping to conclusions (JTC) is a reasoning and data gathering bias that results in the tendency to require less evidence and make hasty decisions. Preliminary work on reasoning bias focused primarily on the association with delusions, although jumping to conclusions has also been found in non-deluded schizophrenia (SZ) patients. Literature to date has shown JTC as a well-established bias in psychosis even at First Episode Psychosis (FEP), after remission, and in individuals with at risk mental state. Furthermore, JTC has been found to be associated with proneness to psychotic-like experiences in the general population. In teresting findings showed also an association with lower…

The continuity of effect of schizophrenia polygenic risk score and patterns of cannabis use on transdiagnostic symptom dimensions at first-episode psychosis: findings from the EU-GEI study

The work was supported by Guarantors of Brain post-doctoral clinical fellowship to DQ; Clinician Scientist Medical Research Council fellowship (project reference MR/M008436/1) to MDF; Heisenberg professorship from the German Research Founda- tion (grant no. 389624707) to UR; the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The EU-GEI Project is funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No. HEALTH-F2-…