Dyslexia and Specific Learning Disorders: New International Diagnostic Criteria

Dyslexia is the most studied and the most known Learning disorder in the world but there is only a relative agreement on the definition and on the diagnostic criteria used in clinical and research fields. Dyslexia refers mainly to the difficulties in learning to read and, even if it is generally diagnosed in the first years of schooling, it can have different clinical manifestations in different phases of life and it can also influence different dominions of life. In this editorial we will describe and analyze some recent findings in this field, also deriving from the change of diagnostic criteria proposed in 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association in DSM-5 that has led to an increase in the number of students that meet diagnostic criteria and that has led to an increase of the level of the heterogeneity of their functional profiles. Then, we will discuss some issues for future researches mainly in the field of psychometric assessment, neuropsychological assessment and specific interventions

On the Semantic of Ageing: from Successful Ageing to Dynamic and Developmental Model of Ageing

During the second part of Twentieth Century worldwide there has been an important process of conceptualization on active ageing and healthy ageing, related to the progressive ageing of population in most of the countries, the so called “Demographic revolution” or “Demographic transition” (Rowe e Kahn, 1987, 1988, 1998, Bates and Bates, 1990, 1993, Kahn, 2002, 2004, Pruchno et al., 2010, Petretto et al., 2016a). We can divide the conceptualization in different groups: American conceptual models, European conceptual models and other conceptual models related to different points of view on ageing (Fernandez-Ballesteros et al., 2011a e b, . The conceptualization of ageing is strictly related to the anthropological framework at the bottom of it and to the interest to all phases of the life, but it is also strictly related to semantical choices at the bottom of the conceptual models (Petretto et al., 2016). In the semantic of ageing we found different words, like active ageing, healthy ageing, and successful ageing and so on. There are different variables that make the difference: a focus on subject and subjectivity, a focus on well-being and quality of life as central outcomes, and on the sociocultural influences that make some variables more important than others and define the role of oldest people in the society. The aim of paper is to discuss different variables related to different semantical choices and to propose some critical hints of analysis in this field

Meta-review of systematic and meta-analytic reviews on family psychoeducation for schizophrenia

The purpose of family psychoeducation is to increase patients’ and their families’ knowledge and understanding of their illness and treatment. Improved knowledge of schizophrenia is expected to enable people to cope better with their illness. The aim of this review is to summarize and appraise evidence from published systematic and meta-analytic reviews on family psychoeducation in schizophrenia. Thorough search and analysis of reviews on efficacy of family psychoeducation in schizophrenia were carried out in PubMed/Medline (19872015), Ovid/Psych Info (1987-2015), and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. We included only reviews reporting quantitative summary statistics on studies carried out in patients with schizophrenia and written in English. Review methodology was assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) checklist. Double check by two independent assessors was applied. Nine reviews meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria were included in the meta-review. Risk of relapse was reduced in protocols that included family members, whether conducted in single family or in multifamily group sessions. However, effectiveness seems not to be maintained at follow-up. Hospital admission/re-hospitalization was less influenced by family psychoeducation, and no reproducible effect on compliance/medication adherence was found. Overall, quality of evidence on the effectiveness of family psychoeducation in schizophrenia is poo

Neuropsychological correlates of schizotypy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive deficits can precede the onset of psychotic episodes and predict the onset of the illness in individuals with schizotypy traits. In some studies, high levels of schizotypy were associated with impairments in memory, attention, executive functions, and verbal fluency. This review provides a more comprehensive understanding of cognitive impairments related to schizoytpy. METHODS: A systematic review of "schizotypy and neuropsychological measures" was conducted, and it retrieved 67 studies. All papers with case-control design showing means and standard deviations from neuropsychological measures were included in a meta-analysis (n = 40). A comparison between our finding and another metaanalysis with patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders [Fatouros-Bergman, H., Cervenka, S., Flyckt, L., Edman, G., & Farde, L. (2014). Meta-analysis of cognitive performance in drugnaive patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2014.06.034 ] was performed to study the similarities on the MATRICS domains between the two disorders. RESULTS: We found evidence of worse functioning of verbal and visual-spatial working memory, and of language in people with schizotypy or with schizotypal traits. Working memory deficit is present in both schizotypy and schizophrenia with larger effect sizes compared to other domains. CONCLUSIONS:  Working memory deficit might be a cognitive marker of the risk of psychosis. Interventions targeting cognitive deficits early may be crucial to the prevention of psychosis

The psychometric properties of the “Reading in the Eyes” test: and item response theory (IRT) analysis

INTRODUCTION: The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test (hereafter: Eyes Test) is considered an advanced task of the Theory of Mind aimed at assessing the performance of the participant in perspective-takingthat is, the ability to sense or understand other people's cognitive and emotional states. In this study, the item response theory analysis was applied to the adult version of the Eyes Test. METHODS: The Italian version of the Eyes Test was administered to 200 undergraduate students of both genders (males = 46%). Modified parallel analysis (MPA) was used to test unidimensionality. Marginal maximum likelihood estimation was used to fit the 1-, 2-, and 3-parameter logistic (PL) model to the data. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) due to gender was explored with five independent methods. RESULTS: MPA provided evidence in favour of unidimensionality. The Rasch model (1-PL) was superior to the other two models in explaining participants' responses to the Eyes Test. There was no robust evidence of gender-related DIF in the Eyes Test, although some differences may exist for some items as a reflection of real differences by group. CONCLUSIONS: The study results support a one-factor model of the Eyes Test. Performance on the Eyes Test is defined by the participant's ability in perspective-taking. Researchers should cease using arbitrarily selected subscores in assessing the performance of participants to the Eyes Test. Lack of gender-related DIF favours the use of the Eyes Test in the investigation of gender differences concerning empathy and social cognition

Conceptual Models of Disability and Their Role in the Daily Routine of Clinical Rehabilitation

The aim of this paper is to analyse how the different conceptual models of disability can help daily work of rehabilitation clinicians. Previous papers described the usefulness in rehabilitation psychology of the International classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) a worldwide-known conceptual model of disability [1-6] In this paper, we describe how other conceptual models could be useful for rehabilitation clinicians [7-8]. A Narrative review of the literature on conceptual models of disability was undertaken. Based on a previous history of Conceptual models of disability in the 20° century, we describe four groups of models and their impact on rehabilitation: models that analysed the role of pathology, models that analysed the relationship between pathology and its consequences, models that emphasized the role of the environment, and models that analysed the relationship between person and environment. In the daily routine of rehabilitation psychology and in general in rehabilitation sciences, as in the theoretical analysis, one can choose one or another of these options, although the history of the conceptual models of disability shows that the fourth option is the most advanced and the most worldwide-recognized (thanks to the ICF). As for rehabilitation clinicians, the awareness of the chosen option can help in understanding the focus of intervention and to modify it. The main aims of this process is to transform the disablement process into a positive one by which the person can be enabled

The role of set-shifting in auditory verbal hallucinations

BACKGROUND: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are a cardinal characteristic of psychosis. Recent research on the neuropsychological mechanism of AVHs has focused on source monitoring failure, but a few studies have suggested the involvement of attention, working memory, processing speed, verbal learning, memory, and executive functions. In this study we examined the neuropsychological profile of patients with AVHs, assuming that the mechanism underlying this symptom could be a dysfunction of specific cognitive domains. METHODS: A large neuropsychological battery including set-shifting, working memory, processing speed, attention, fluency, verbal learning and memory, and executive functions was administered to 90 patients with psychotic disorders and 44 healthy controls. The group of patients was divided into two groups: 46 patients with AVHs in the current episode and 44 who denied auditory hallucinations or other modalities in the current episode. AVHs were assessed with the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS); the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale was used to measure long-term propensity to auditory verbal hallucination-like experiences (HLEs) in the sample. RESULTS: Patients showed poorer performances on all neuropsychological measures compared to the healthy controls' group. In the original dataset without missing data (n=58), patients with AVHs (n=29) presented poorer set shifting and verbal learning, higher levels of visual attention, and marginally significant poorer semantic fluency compared to patients without AVHs (n=29). In the logistic model on the multiple imputed dataset (n=90, 100 imputed datasets), lower capacity of set shifting and semantic fluency distinguished patients with AVHs from those without them. CONCLUSIONS: Patients experiencing persistent AVHs might fail to shift their attention away from the voices; poorer semantic fluency could be a secondary deficit of set-shifting failure

Deficits in metaphor but not in idiomatic processing are related to verbal hallucinations in patients with psychosis

There is scant evidence that the verbal cognitive deficits observed in patients with psychosis are related to auditory verbal hallucinations. The understanding of metaphors and idiomatic expressions was investigated in a cohort of 90 patients with active psychosis, and in 44 healthy controls. The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS: verbal hallucinations subscale) was used to measure the current verbal hallucinations episode; a subscore of the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale was used to measure long-term propensity to auditory verbal hallucination-like experiences (HLEs) in the sample. The concurrent influence of education, IQ, and cognitive functioning in memory, attention, fluency, and processing speed on metaphor and idioms processing was investigated. Patients performed worse than healthy controls on all neuropsychological measures. Metaphor, but not idioms processing was poorer in patients with verbal hallucinations (n=46) when compared to patients without verbal hallucinations in the current episode (n=44). By taking into account confounding variables, the ability to produce explanations of metaphors was related to scores on the verbal HLEs in the whole sample of patients. Metaphor-comprehension deficit was related to the occurrence of auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with psychosis, suggesting that abnormal pragmatic inferential abilities have an impact on the mechanisms that cause hallucinatory experience