Building a neurocognitive profile of suicidal risk in severe mental disorders

Background Research on the influence of neurocognitive factors on suicide risk, regardless of the diagnosis, is inconsistent. Recently, suicide risk studies propose applying a trans-diagnostic framework in line with the launch of the Research Domain Criteria Cognitive Systems model. In the present study, we highlight the extent of cognitive impairment using a standardized battery in a psychiatric sample stratified for different degrees of suicidal risk. We also differentiate in our sample various neurocognitive profiles associated with different levels of risk. Materials and methods We divided a sample of 106 subjects into three groups stratified by suicide risk level: Suicide Attempt (SA), Suicidal Ideation (SI), Patient Controls (PC) and Healthy Controls (HC). We conducted a multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) for each cognitive domain measured through the standardized battery MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB). Results We found that the group of patients performed worse than the group of healthy controls on most domains; social cognition was impaired in the suicide risk groups compared both to HC and PC. Patients in the SA group performed worse than those in the SI group. Conclusion Social cognition impairment may play a crucial role in suicidality among individuals diagnosed with serious mental illness as it is involved in both SI and SA; noteworthy, it is more compromised in the SA group fitting as a marker of risk severity

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Is Associated with Altered Neuropsychological Performance in Young Adults

Subjects with ischemic lesions have an increased risk of dementia. In addition, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular cognitive impairment share many risk factors. These observations suggest that different diseases that cause altered blood perfusion of the brain or hypoxia promote AD neurodegeneration. In this case-control, cross-sectional study, we sought to test the hypothesis that hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline. We looked for altered neuropsychological performance in subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without apparent cardio- or cerebrovascular diseases or risk factors for atherosclerosis. A selected, homogeneous group of workers from two ceramic factories in a small town of central Italy was enrolled in this study. The COPD patients had a slightly, but significantly worse performance than controls in a number of neuropsychological tests. The findings are consistent with the working hypothesis that chronic hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline

health related quality of life in myotonic dystrophy type 1 and its relationship with cognitive and emotional functioning

Objective: To evaluate the health-related quality of life in myotonic dystrophy type 1 and its relationships with clinical, genetic, neuropsychological and emotional factors. Design: Case-control study of a continuous series of patients with myotonic dystrophy type 1. Patients and methods: Twenty patients, and 20 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls underwent the MOS 36Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), an extensive neuropsychological battery and emotional functioning tests. Results: Patients' SF-36 mean scores were lower than those of controls in all dimensions. The neuropsychological study showed a significant impairment in visuospatial and verba

EXTRAVERSION AND ACCURACY OF ASPECTS OF MEMORY FOR PAIN IN THE COLD WATER PRESSOR TEST

The role of Erlebnistypus personality features were investigated in 40 healthy subjects, as defined by the Rorschach Comprehensive System by Exner, in determining accuracy in recollecting acute tonic experimental pain, induced by the Cold Water Pressor Test. Multiple-regression analysis revealed that the difference between the number of movement answers and the number of chromatic answers in the Rorschach test, an index of general Extroversion, predicted accuracy in recollecting the qualitative features of pain, defined as affective and evaluative pain scores on the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Also, Extratensive subjects were less accurate than Introversive and Ambitent participants at recollecting sensory scores. The data suggest that general extroversion may have a role in individual differences in the higher cognitive processing of pain comprising pain memory