Analysis of errors in verbal fluency tasks in patients with chronic schizophrenia

Background and Objectives: Even if verbal fluency deficits have been described in Schizophrenia, error pattern in this test has not been analyzed in detail in the literature. The pattern analysis of such errors could contribute to the understanding of the factors that influence poor task performance in schizophrenia. In this study we analyzed the intrusion and perseveration errors in verbal fluency tasks in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods: 87 patients diagnosed with Chronic Schizophrenia and 87 healthy controls were included in this investigation and were assessed with four Phonological and Semantic Verbal Fluency tasks. Results The results of this study showed that at least half of schizophrenic patients produced perseverative errors on verbal fluency and about made intrusion errors. The severity of negative symptoms, the severity of Formal Thought Disorder and pharmacological variables were significant moderators to errors in Verbal Fluency performance. Conclusions Errors in Verbal Fluency can be explained by the interaction of different variables in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a psychological pathology with great phenomenological complexity and its particularities can only be explained by the consideration of the multiple factors involved in its manifestation.Fil: Galaverna, Flavia Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Bueno, Adrián Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología; ArgentinaFil: Morra, Carlos A.. Prof. León S. Morra Sanitarium; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Roca, María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Torralva, Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentin

Argentine consensus on the diagnosis and therapeutics of treatment resistant schizophrenia

Aproximadamente el 30% de los pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia no responden al tratamiento con antipsicóticos produciendo una importante carga de la enfermedad. La Esquizofrenia Resistente al Tratamiento (ERT) se define como la falta de respuesta a dos antipsicóticos de diferente clase, administrados en dosis adecuada durante 6 semanas. La clozapina es el único fármaco aprobado para tratar la ERT, sin embargo, uno de cada tres pacientes no responde a este fármaco. Existen algunas estrategias disponibles para el tratamiento de los pacientes con ERT que no responden a la clozapina, pero la evidencia de estas estrategias continua siendo escasa y de mala calidad. En este consenso presentamos el resultado de un trabajo conjunto de expertos pertenecientes a las principales asociaciones científicas de Argentina bajo el auspicio de la Asociación Argentina de Psiquiatría Biología (AAPB). El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar un consenso con recomendaciones sobre el tratamiento de la ERT. Para ello se llevó a cabo una revisión formal de la literatura científica y luego el panel de expertos respondió 35 preguntas sobre los temas más importantes en relación a ERT. Una modificación del método Delphi fue usado para consensuar los aspectos más relevantes sobre ERT, en función de ambas actividades y de la experiencia del panel de expertos, luego se analizaron y se discutieron los resultados obtenidos. Como corolario se elaboró un documento consensuado con recomendaciones sobre los principales puntos de la ERT, el mismo estará disponible para la comunidad científica y para cualquier otro organismo público o privado relacionado con esta problemática de salud.Approximately 30% of people with schizophrenia fail to respond to first-line antipsychotic treatment which impacts the burden of the disease. Treatment-resistant schizophrenia denotes patients with failure to respond to at least two adequate trials of different antipsychotics. Clozapine is a unique drug approved for treating treatment-resistant schizophrenia, however 1/3 of patients fail to respond to clozapine. Even though different strategies have been proposed for treating clozapine-resistant schizophrenia, the evidence is very limited, unclear, and of poor quality. A formal literature search was conducted and then, panel members were asked to complete 35 questions addressing different aspects of ERT. A modified Delphi method was used to unify expert opinion and achieve consensus. The expert consensus in diagnostic and treatment of TRS is the result of experts from the main national scientific societies under the organization of the Argentine Association of Biological Psychiatric AAPB. The consensus statement aims to guide on diagnosis and treatment.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

Clozapine treatment for suicidality in schizophrenia: International Suicide Prevention Trial (InterSePT)

Background: Approximately 50% of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder attempt suicide, and approximately 10% die of suicide. Study results suggest that clozapine therapy significantly reduces suicidal behavior in these patients. Methods: A multicenter, randomized, international, 2-year study comparing the risk for suicidal behavior in patients treated with clozapine vs olanzapine was conducted in 980 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, 26.8% of whom were refractory to previous treatment, who were considered at high risk for suicide because of previous suicide attempts or current suicidal ideation. To equalize clinical contact across treatments, all patients were seen weekly for 6 months and then biweekly for 18 months. Subsequent to randomization, unmasked clinicians at each site could make any interventions necessary to prevent the occurrence of suicide attempts. Suicidal behavior was assessed at each visit. Primary end points included suicide attempts (including those that led to death), hospitalizations to prevent suicide, and a rating of "much worsening of suicidality" from baseline. Masked raters, including an independent suicide monitoring board, determined when end point criteria were achieved. Results: Suicidal behavior was significantly less in patients treated with clozapine vs olanzapine (hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.58-0.97; P = .03). Fewer clozapine-treated patients attempted suicide (34 vs 55; P = .03), required hospitalizations (82 vs 107; P = .05) or rescue interventions (118 vs 155; P = .01) to prevent suicide, or required concomitant treatment with antidepressants (221 vs 258; P = .01) or anxiolytics or soporifics (301 vs 331; P = .03). Overall, few of these high-risk patients died of suicide during the study (5 clozapine vs 3 olanzapine-treated patients; P = .73). Conclusions: Clozapine therapy demonstrated superiority to olanzapine therapy in preventing suicide attempts in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder at high risk for suicide. Use of clozapine in this population should lead to a significant reduction in suicidal behavior