Family Interaction Styles of Children with Depressive Disorders, Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders, and Normal Controls

Family interaction processes during a problem-solving task were examined in children with depressive disorders, children with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and a normal control group of community children screened for the absence of psychiatric disorder. Major findings were: a) children with depressive disorders were more likely than children with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and children with no psychiatric disorder to direct guilt-inducing comments toward their parents; and b) parents of children with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were more likely to direct harsh critical comments toward the child than were parents of depressed children or parents of normal controls. In addition, children\u27s and mothers\u27 use of benign criticism was linked, while children\u27s harsh criticism was associated with intrusion from the father, and children\u27s self-denigrating comments were related to specific paternal criticism. Implications of these results for understanding transactional processes associated with childhood-onset depressive and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders are discussed

The characteristics of cognitive neuroscience tests in a schizophrenia cognition clinical trial: Psychometric properties and correlations with standard measures.

In comparison to batteries of standard neuropsychological tests, cognitive neuroscience tests may offer a more specific assessment of discrete neurobiological processes that may be aberrant in schizophrenia. However, more information regarding psychometric properties and correlations with standard neuropsychological tests and functional measures is warranted to establish their validity as treatment outcome measures. The N-back and AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) are two promising cognitive neuroscience tests designed to measure specific components of working memory and contextual processing respectively. In the current study, we report the psychometric properties of multiple outcome measures from these two tests as well as their correlations with standard neuropsychological measures and functional capacity measures. The results suggest that while the AX-CPT and N-back display favorable psychometric properties, they do not exhibit greater sensitivity or specificity with functional measures than standard neurocognitive tests

Communication Styles of Children of Mothers with Affective Disorders, Chronic Medical Illness, and Normal Controls: A Contextual Perspective

Research has demonstrated impaired parent-child relationships in families with affective disorders. The present study examines the association of children\u27s interactional style during a direct conflict-solving task to both the mother\u27s interactional style and the child\u27s diagnostic status. The sample includes 63 children, ages 8 to 16, of mothers with affective disorders, chronic medical illness, and normal controls. Children\u27s dominant coping style profile (CS) (autonomous, neutral, or critical) was related to their mother\u27s affective style (AS) (benign or negative). Affective disorder in the child at 6-month followup was associated with a critical CS profile at intake, while the child\u27s nonaffective symptomatology was unrelated to CS. Findings indicate that children\u27s affective disturbance is linked to interpersonal deficits in affectively charged situations. Results suggest that the child\u27s CS is more strongly predicted by maternal AS than by either the child\u27s or the mother\u27s diagnostic status

Characterization of neurophysiologic and neurocognitive biomarkers for use in genomic and clinical outcome studies of schizophrenia.

BackgroundEndophenotypes are quantitative, laboratory-based measures representing intermediate links in the pathways between genetic variation and the clinical expression of a disorder. Ideal endophenotypes exhibit deficits in patients, are stable over time and across shifts in psychopathology, and are suitable for repeat testing. Unfortunately, many leading candidate endophenotypes in schizophrenia have not been fully characterized simultaneously in large cohorts of patients and controls across these properties. The objectives of this study were to characterize the extent to which widely-used neurophysiological and neurocognitive endophenotypes are: 1) associated with schizophrenia, 2) stable over time, independent of state-related changes, and 3) free of potential practice/maturation or differential attrition effects in schizophrenia patients (SZ) and nonpsychiatric comparison subjects (NCS). Stability of clinical and functional measures was also assessed.MethodsParticipants (SZ n = 341; NCS n = 205) completed a battery of neurophysiological (MMN, P3a, P50 and N100 indices, PPI, startle habituation, antisaccade), neurocognitive (WRAT-3 Reading, LNS-forward, LNS-reorder, WCST-64, CVLT-II). In addition, patients were rated on clinical symptom severity as well as functional capacity and status measures (GAF, UPSA, SOF). 223 subjects (SZ n = 163; NCS n = 58) returned for retesting after 1 year.ResultsMost neurophysiological and neurocognitive measures exhibited medium-to-large deficits in schizophrenia, moderate-to-substantial stability across the retest interval, and were independent of fluctuations in clinical status. Clinical symptoms and functional measures also exhibited substantial stability. A Longitudinal Endophenotype Ranking System (LERS) was created to rank neurophysiological and neurocognitive biomarkers according to their effect sizes across endophenotype criteria.ConclusionsThe majority of neurophysiological and neurocognitive measures exhibited deficits in patients, stability over a 1-year interval and did not demonstrate practice or time effects supporting their use as endophenotypes in neural substrate and genomic studies. These measures hold promise for informing the "gene-to-phene gap" in schizophrenia research