Involuntary social cue integration in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder

Objective Patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have inferior social functioning compared to healthy controls, but the exact nature of these social deficits, and the underpinning mechanisms, are unknown. We sought to investigate social functioning in patients with OCD by measuring their involuntary/spontaneous processing of social cues using a specifically designed test, which might reveal deficits in these patients that explicit voluntary tasks do not detect. Methods The sample of the study consisted of an OCD group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 26). Both groups performed an adaptation of the Social Distance Judgment Task (SDJT; Jellema et al., 2009), in which participants have to judge the geometrical distance between two human cartoon figures presented on a computer screen. Head/gaze direction and body direction were manipulated to be either compatible, i.e. both directed to the left or to the right (Compatible condition) or incompatible, i.e. body directed toward the observer (frontal view) and head/gaze directed to the left or right (Incompatible condition). Results In the Compatible condition, controls nor OCD patients were influenced by the social cues in their judgments of the geometrical distances. However, in the Incompatible condition, where the attentional cue was more conspicuous, both groups were influenced by the cues, but the controls to a significantly larger extent than the OCD patients. Conclusions This study showed that patients with OCD are less likely, compared to controls, to automatically/spontaneously integrate the other’s direction of attention into their visual percept. This may have resulted in their judgments of the geometrical distances between the agents to be more accurate than those of controls. The suggested impairment in automatically integrating social cues may have important repercussions for the social functioning of OCD patients

Neden erteliyoruz? Bir grup üniversite öğrencisiyle psikodrama çalışması

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of psychodrama group study on students' procrastination behaviour. The research was done as a single group quasi-experimental, pre-test post-test study design. The research sample consisted of 14 nursing students who volunteered and fulfilled the criteria of the study. A Personal Information Form and Tuckman Procrastination Scale used in collecting the data. The Tuckman Procrastination Scale scores of the students were decreased significantly (p<.05). In the early stages of the group process the themes that came forward in the protagonist plays such as friendship issues, anxieties related to academic success and procrastinating study extended also to involve the relationships with the family members such as mother, father and siblings in the following sessions. The gifts exchanged during the group play in the last session, showed the high awareness level of group members of one another's needs. According to the results, it can be said that psychodrama group study has a positive effect on procrastination behaviour of students. Research result is limited with this study and it is important that similar studies about procrastination increase in number

Cognitive functions in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

<b>Background : </b>Recent studies have focused on the nature of cognitive dysfunction in bipolar patients. The purpose of the current study was to investigate cognitive performance of individuals with bipolar disorder compared to healthy control subjects during a well-established euthymic period. <b>Methods : </b>The sample consisted of 27 bipolar euthymic patients and 21 control subjects. Verbal and visual memory performance, attention, executive functions and psychosocial functions were evaluated for each partticipant. <b>Results : </b>Bipolar patients showed significant attentional deficit and executive dysfunction and also poor performance on verbal and visual memory tasks compared to the controls. Illness duration and lifetime total episode number and previous episode with psychotic features was associated with worsened performance on attention, executive and memory tasks. Psychosocial functioning was not associated with cognitive deficit. <b>Conclusions : </b>The present study showed persistent cognitive impairment on inhibitory control and selective attention as well as poor performance on verbal and visual memory tests in a group of bipolar euthymic patients. The impaired neuropsychological performance was associated with duration of illness, total number of episodes per lifetime, and previous episodes with psychotic features. Attentional dysfunction seemed to be a trait abnormality for the sample studied

Metacognitive Beliefs and Their Relation with Symptoms in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Introduction: Metacognitive constructs have shown promise in explaining the symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Few studies have examined the role of metacognitions in symptom dimensions of OCD, despite mounting clinical, neuropsychological and imaging evidence for the distinctiveness of these dimensions. Methods: Metacognitions were assessed using the Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ-30) in 51 participants with DSM IV OCD and 46 healthy controls. The Maudsley Obsessional Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) was used to quantify symptom dimensions, along with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) for anxiety, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) for depression. Results: Individuals with OCD differed from healthy controls on beliefs of uncontrollability and danger when depression and anxiety were controlled for. Correlations between metacognitive beliefs and obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions were largely similar across the OCD and healthy control groups. Hierarchical regression showed that need to control thoughts contributed to checking, cleaning and rumination symptoms; cognitive self-consciousness to symptoms of slowness; uncontrollability and danger to doubt symptoms; positive beliefs to checking symptoms. Conclusions: Specific associations between metacognitive variables and the different symptom dimensions of OCD are evident, however, severity of anxiety and depression also contribute to these associations