Determinants of different aspects of everyday outcome in schizophrenia: The roles of negative symptoms, cognition, and functional capacity

Cognition, negative symptoms, and depression are potential predictors of disability in schizophrenia. We present analyses of pooled data from four separate studies (all n>169; total n=821) that assessed differential aspects of disability and their potential determinants. We hypothesized that negative symptoms would predict social outcomes, but not vocational functioning or everyday activities and that cognition and functional capacity would predict vocational functioning and everyday activities but not social outcomes. The samples were rated by clinician informants for their everyday functioning in domains of social and vocational outcomes, and everyday activities, examined with assessments of cognition and functional capacity, rated clinically with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and self-reporting depression. We computed a model that tested the hypotheses described above and compared it to a model that predicted that negative symptoms, depression, cognition, and functional capacity had equivalent influences on all aspects of everyday functioning. The former, specific relationship model fit the data adequately and we subsequently confirmed a similar fit within all four samples. Analyses of the relative goodness of fit suggested that this specific model fit the data better than the more general, equivalent influence predictor model. We suggest that treatments aimed at cognition may not affect social functioning as much as other aspects of disability, a finding consistent with earlier research on the treatment of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, while negative symptoms predicted social functioning. These relationships are central features of schizophrenia and treatment efforts should be aimed accordingly

Bipolar Disorder in the Elderly

Bipolar disorder in older individuals is becoming more relevant to clinicians due to the advent of the aging of the population. Geriatric patients in general are more complex, and the disease process is not simply an extension of the symptomatology observed in the younger cohort. The information derived from study data of younger adults as applied to geriatric psychiatric management is never ideal. Additionally, research and guidelines for evidencebased management and treatment of the elderly bipolar is extremely limited. This chapter presents the most recent data describing the clinical features, diagnosis, comorbidities, and treatment strategies (including lithium and anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and ECT) for this complex bipolar subgroup

PTSD in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Population

The emerging field of sexual minority health has begun to highlight the differential impact of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. This chapter addresses the higher prevalence of PTSD among LGBT persons and examines the biological underpinnings of PTSD in this population. The chapter also presents risk factors for PTSD experienced by LGBT individuals. It concludes with treatment recommendations. Treatment for PTSD in LGBT populations, in addition to treatment as usual for any patient, should recognize and acknowledge the patient’s sexual identity in forming a treatment plan. Future research in this field should aim to incorporate heterosexual controls as a reference group for comparison, where applicable

Self-assessment of functional ability in schizophrenia: Milestone achievement and its relationship to accuracy of self-evaluation

Between 50% and 80% of patients with schizophrenia do not believe they have any illness, and their self-assessment of cognitive impairments and functional abilities is also impaired compared to other information, including informant reports and scores on performance-based ability measures. The present article explores self-assessment accuracy in reference to real world functioning as measured by milestone achievement such as employment and independent living. Our sample included 195 people with schizophrenia examined with a performance-based assessment of neurocognitive abilities and functional capacity. We compared patient self-assessments across achievement of milestones, using patient performance on cognitive and functional capacity measures as a reference point. Performance on measures of functional capacity and cognition was better in people who had achieved employment and residential milestones. Patients with current employment and independence in residence rated themselves as more capable than those who were currently unemployed or not independent. However, individuals who had never had a job rated themselves at least as capable as those who had been previously employed. These data suggest that lifetime failure to achieve functional milestones is associated with overestimation of abilities. As many patients with schizophrenia never achieve milestones, their self-assessment may be overly optimistic as a result

Factors influencing self-assessment of cognition and functioning in schizophrenia: implications for treatment studies.

Awareness of illness is a major factor in schizophrenia and extends into unawareness of cognitive and functional deficits. This unawareness of functional limitations has been shown to be influenced by several different predictive factors, including greater impairment and less severe depression. As treatment efforts are aimed at reducing cognitive deficits, discovery of the most efficient assessment strategies for detection of cognitive and functional changes is critical. In this study, we collected systematic assessments from high contact clinicians focusing on their impressions of the cognitive deficits and everyday functioning in a sample of 169 community dwelling patients with schizophrenia. The patients provided self-report on those same rating scales, as well as self-reporting their depression and performing an assessment of cognitive performance and functional skills. There was essentially no correlation between patients' self-reports of their cognitive performance and functional skills and either clinician ratings of these skills or the results of the performance-based assessments. In contrast, clinician reports of cognitive impairments and everyday functioning were correlated with objective performance data. Depression on the part of patients was associated with ratings of functioning that were both more impaired and more congruent with clinician impressions, while overall patients reported less impairment than clinicians. These results underscore the limitations of self-reported cognitive functioning even with structured rating scales. Concurrently, clinicians provided ratings of cognitive performance that were related to scores on objective tests, even though they were unaware of the results of those assessments

Assessing everyday functioning in schizophrenia: Not all informants seem equally informative

Self reports of everyday functioning on the part of people with schizophrenia have been found to be poorly correlated with the reports of other informants and with their own performance of tests of cognition and functional abilities. However, it is not clear which informants are best for providing accurate reports of everyday functioning. This study examined the convergence between self-reports on the part of people with schizophrenia (n = 193), whose real-world functioning was rated by a friend or relative (n = 154), or a high contact clinician (n = 39) across 6 functional status rating scales. In addition, correlations between these reports and patient's performance on neuropsychological tests and a performance-based measure of functional capacity were also calculated. For convergence between raters, friend or relative informants and patient reports were significantly correlated for 4/6 rating scales. For the smaller sample of clinician informants, the correlations were significant on 2/6 scales. In the analyses of convergence between patient performance scores and functioning ratings, only 1/12 correlations between patient report and performance were significant, while friend or relative reports also were only correlated with performance on one rating scale. In contrast, clinician reports of functioning were correlated with patients' functional capacity performance on 4/6 rating scales and with neuropsychological test performance on 2/6. High contact clinicians appear to generate ratings of everyday functioning that are more closely linked to patients' ability scores than friend or relative informants. Later analyses will determine if there are differences between friend or relative informants

Factors influencing self-assessment of cognition and functioning in schizophrenia: Implications for treatment studies

Awareness of illness is a major factor in schizophrenia and extends into unawareness of cognitive and functional deficits. This unawareness of functional limitations has been shown to be influenced by several different predictive factors, including greater impairment and less severe depression. As treatment efforts are aimed at reducing cognitive deficits, discovery of the most efficient assessment strategies for detection of cognitive and functional changes is critical. In this study, we collected systematic assessments from high contact clinicians focusing on their impressions of the cognitive deficits and everyday functioning in a sample of 169 community dwelling patients with schizophrenia. The patients provided self-report on those same rating scales, as well as self-reporting their depression and performing an assessment of cognitive performance and functional skills. There was essentially no correlation between patients' self reports of their cognitive performance and functional skills and either clinician ratings of these skills or the results of the performance-based assessments. In contrast, clinician reports of cognitive impairments and everyday functioning were correlated with objective performance data. Depression on the part of patients was associated with ratings of functioning that were both more impaired and more congruent with clinician impressions, while overall patients reported less impairment than clinicians. These results underscore the limitations of self reported cognitive functioning even with structured rating scales. Concurrently, clinicians provided ratings of cognitive performance that were related to scores on objective tests, even though they were unaware of the results of those assessments

Frailty and Neurocognitive Impairment: Impacts on Quality of Life in HIV.

Little is known about the effects of aging-related conditions on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among people living with HIV (PLWH). The purpose of our study was to examine the independent effects of neurocognitive impairment (NCI) and frailty and the interactive effects with HIV serostatus on HRQOL. Our sample consisted of 121 adults (63 PLWH and 58 HIV-uninfected) participating in the Multi-Dimensional Successful Aging among HIV-Infected Adults study at the University of California, San Diego. HRQOL was measured with the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey scale. We found that frailty was significantly associated with HRQOL (p < .001) in the overall sample, and this effect was significantly stronger for PLWH than HIV-uninfected adults. NCI was not significantly associated with HRQOL in our sample. Frailty may be a particularly important factor in HRQOL for PLWH, highlighting the need for prevention and intervention strategies to mitigate the risks for frailty