Schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Focus on social cognition and empathy

Background Schizophrenic patients show deficits in social cognition, functioning and in interpreting facial expressions. These disabilities contribute to global impairment in social and relational skills. Data started being collected in the context of the Italian Network of Research on Psychosis headed by Prof. Maj and Prof. Galderisi (Galderisi S et al. The influence of illness-related variables, personal resources and context-related factors on real-life functioning of people with schizophrenia. World Psychiatry 2014:275\u201387. Mucci A et al. The Specific Level of Functioning Scale: Construct validity, internal consistency and factor structure in a large Italian sample of people with schizophrenia living in the community. Schizophr Res 2014;159(1):144-50); collection in our centre went on also after the conclusion of the national project. Aims To identify the correlations among social inference, facial emotion identification and clinical history and therapies in schizophrenic patients. Material and methods We recruited patients with Schizophrenia referring to our Psychiatry Ward, AOU Maggiore della Carit\ue0, Novara, Italy. Socio-demographic characteristics were gathered; assessment of patients included The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS). Results Data collection is still ongoing. In a previous study we pointed out that schizophrenic patients showed social skills deficits and difficulties in identifying facial emotions. These features underlie poor and limited social relationships proper to schizophrenia. Our preliminary results revealed thatidentification of facial emotions is influenced by psychopathological symptoms especially by avolition, blunted affect and alogia. Implication will be discussed

Social cognition in people with schizophrenia: A cluster-analytic approach

Background The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. Method A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. Results We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI <10), but not in simple sarcasm. Moreover, functioning, neurocognition, disorganization and SC had a linear relationship across the three clusters, while positive symptoms were significantly lower in patients with unimpaired SC as compared with patients with impaired and very impaired SC. On the other hand, negative symptoms were highest in patients with impaired levels of SC. Conclusions If replicated, the identification of such subtypes in clinical practice may help in tailoring rehabilitation efforts to the person's strengths to gain more benefit to the person

Social cognition in people with schizophrenia: A cluster-analytic approach

Background The study aimed to subtype patients with schizophrenia on the basis of social cognition (SC), and to identify cut-offs that best discriminate among subtypes in 809 out-patients recruited in the context of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses. Method A two-step cluster analysis of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), the Facial Emotion Identification Test and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores was performed. Classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify the cut-offs of variables that best discriminated among clusters. Results We identified three clusters, characterized by unimpaired (42%), impaired (50.4%) and very impaired (7.5%) SC. Three theory-of-mind domains were more important for the cluster definition as compared with emotion perception and emotional intelligence. Patients more able to understand simple sarcasm (14 for TASIT-SS) were very likely to belong to the unimpaired SC cluster. Compared with patients in the impaired SC cluster, those in the very impaired SC cluster performed significantly worse in lie scenes (TASIT-LI <10), but not in simple sarcasm. Moreover, functioning, neurocognition, disorganization and SC had a linear relationship across the three clusters, while positive symptoms were significantly lower in patients with unimpaired SC as compared with patients with impaired and very impaired SC. On the other hand, negative symptoms were highest in patients with impaired levels of SC. Conclusions If replicated, the identification of such subtypes in clinical practice may help in tailoring rehabilitation efforts to the person's strengths to gain more benefit to the person

Who is a survivor of suicide loss? A systematic review

Introduction Death by suicide stuns with soul-crushing surprise, leaving family and friends not only grieving the unexpected death, but confused and lost by this haunting loss. The underlying structure of grief for survivors of suicide loss appears complicated. Aims The purpose of this study consists in reviewing literature data about survivors of suicide, especially exploring the few informations emerged by researches on the role of psychiatrist as “survivor”. Methods A PubMed search was conducted using combinations of the following keywords: survivors suicide or bereavement suicide or suicide psychiatrists and randomized. The search was conducted through September 10, 2015, and no conference proceedings were included. Results Bereavement following suicide is complicated by the psychological impact of the act on those close to the victim. It is further complicated by the societal perception that the act of suicide is a failure by the victim and the family to deal with some emotional issue and ultimately society affixes blame for the loss on the survivors. This individual or societal stigma introduces a unique stress on the bereavement process that in some cases requires clinical intervention. Conclusions Suicide bereavement seems to be different from natural loss. Clinicians may react to a patient's suicide both on a personal and professional level, with emotions such as loss of self-esteem or blame. This grief somehow nullifies the core of a helping relationship and may imply a more conservative management of future patients or even avoiding to accept suicidal patients for treatment. Support interventions have been proposed

A survey of the Italian Radiation Oncologists: job satisfaction and Burnout

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction and burnout can greatly affect the quality of life of professionals involved in the medical field and can also have an impact on many aspects of the work. The aim of the present study was to investigate professional history, professional satisfaction and burnout in Italian radiation oncologists. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Members of the Italian Association of Radiation Oncology (AIRO) were asked to complete a questionnaire composed of three sections including personal and professional information, the Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) and the Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ). RESULTS: The 167 participants were prevalently males working in public hospitals. About half of participants were staff physicians, mainly with no other specialty. Concerning the JSS, most respondents were moderately to extremely satisfied with their job. With regard to the LBQ, instead, we found critical results in the four investigated dimensions (psychophysical exhaustion, relation deterioration, professional failure and disillusion). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that Italian radiation oncologists have good medical background and education levels with a deep understanding of working in a clinical discipline. Organizational factors and the work climate are the main determinants of the satisfaction level and burnout is limited to a small percentage of professionals. The identification of specific profiles for professionals with higher levels of burnout or poorer job satisfaction may allow the delivery of targeted prevention or support interventions with the aim of improving workers' quality of life, satisfaction and perception of effectiveness

Treatment of bipolar patients in manic phase: A comparison between asenapine and aripiprazole

Introduction Agitation is the most evident symptom in an acute manic episode. It can be defined as excessive motor or verbal activity that can degenerate into aggressive behaviour. Both aripiprazole and asenapine are indicated for the treatment of agitation in patients with manic episode. Aims To retrospectively evaluate the acute effects of drug therapy on psychomotor agitation rated with the PANSS-EC, the change in manic symptoms through the YMRS, the QoL with the SF-36v2 and the cardiometabolic effects of the new oral APS. Methods We administered the following tests to 13 patients with DBI at T0 (baseline), T1 (after 1 week), T2 (after 4 weeks), T3 (after 12 weeks) and T4 (after 24 weeks): PANSS-EC, YMRS, SF-36v2, CGI-BD, CGI-S, HAM-D, BPRS. We also considered weight, height, BMI, ECG and complete blood count. Results Patients recruitment and statistical analyses are still in progress. Our preliminary results suggest that there is not a marked difference between the two drugs. We highlighted that there has been a noticeable decrease in results at PANSS as well as at YMRS from T0 to T4 and patients showed an improvement in QoL. Only one patient treated with asenapine showed an increase in the results of HAM-D. Conclusions Results suggest the efficacy of the two new APS but further recruitment and data collection are needed to better understand their impact on agitation and QoL, including the metabolic profile, with the aim to help clinicians to make a more accurate choice of drug for each specific patient

Asenapine modulates nitric oxide release and calcium movements in cardyomyoblasts

Objective To examine the effects of asenapine on NO release and Ca2+ transients in H9C2, which were either subjected to peroxidation or not. Materials and methods H9C2 were treated with asenapine alone or in presence of intracellular kinases blockers, serotoninergic and dopaminergic antagonists, and voltage Ca2+ channels inhibitors. Experiments were also performed in H9C2 treated with hydrogen peroxide. NO release and intracellular Ca2+ were measured through specific probes. Results In H9C2, asenapine differently modulated NO release and Ca2+ movements depending on the peroxidative condition. The Ca2+ pool mobilized by asenapine mainly originated from the extracellular space and was slightly affected by thapsigargin. Moreover, the effects of asenapine were reduced or prevented by kinases blockers, dopaminergic and serotoninergic receptors inhibitors and voltage Ca2+ channels blockers. Conclusions On the basis of our findings we can conclude that asenapine by interacting with its specific receptors, exerts dual effects on NO release and Ca2+ homeostasis in H9C2; this would be of particular clinical relevance, when considering their role in cardiac function modulation

The influence of illness-related variables, personal resources and context-related factors on real-life functioning of people with schizophrenia

In people suffering from schizophrenia, major areas of everyday life are impaired, including independent living, productive activities and social relationships. Enhanced understanding of factors that hinder real-life functioning is vital for treatments to translate into more positive outcomes. The goal of the present study was to identify predictors of real-life functioning in people with schizophrenia, and to assess their relative contribution. Based on previous literature and clinical experience, several factors were selected and grouped into three categories: illness-related variables, personal resources and context-related factors. Some of these variables were never investigated before in relationship with real-life functioning. In 921 patients with schizophrenia living in the community, we found that variables relevant to the disease, personal resources and social context explain 53.8% of real-life functioning variance in a structural equation model. Neurocognition exhibited the strongest, though indirect, association with real-life functioning. Positive symptoms and disorganization, as well as avolition, proved to have significant direct and indirect effects, while depression had no significant association and poor emotional expression was only indirectly and weakly related to real-life functioning. Availability of a disability pension and access to social and family incentives also showed a significant direct association with functioning. Social cognition, functional capacity, resilience, internalized stigma and engagement with mental health services served as mediators. The observed complex associations among investigated predictors, mediators and real-life functioning strongly suggest that integrated and personalized programs should be provided as standard treatment to people with schizophrenia