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WOS: 00027169260001

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WOS: 00027169260001

Temperament and character dimensions of the relatives of schizophrenia patients and controls: The relationship between schizotypal features and personality

WOS: 000244901400005PubMed ID: 17129710Purpose. -Previous findings indicated that schizophrenia patients might have a different personality structure from the general population on several dimensions of temperament and character. Some authors proposed that HA might be a marker of underlying genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. Studies on high-risk subjects and first degree relatives of patients is essential to test the value of a measure as a marker of genetic vulnerability to a disease. Few studies tested the biopsychosocial model of personality on unaffected relatives of schizophrenia. Subjects and methods. -We compared the Temperament and Character (TCI) profiles of 94 first degree relatives of schizophrenia and 75 controls. We also investigated the relationship between schizotypy and TO dimensions in the study sample. Results. -The harm avoidance scores of the relatives of schizoprenia patients with schizotypal features were significantly higher. Self transcendence scores were also significantly higher among relatives with schizotypal features. In contrast, the relatives of the patients with schizophrenia who did not have schizotypal features had higher SD and C scores than the control group. Discussion and conclusion. -This finding is consistent with the previous findings which suggested harm avoidance as a vulnerability indicator of schizophrenia. Some character features like self transcendence might be also associated with schizotypal features. (c) 2006 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved

Late onset schizophrenia: a review

A consensus was reached by International Late Onset SchizophreniaGroup that cases in which onset occurs between 40 and 60 be calledlate onset schizophrenia and that cases in which onset occurs afterage 60 should be called very late onset schizophrenia like psychosis.Inconsistencies in diagnostic systems and nomenclature, coupledwith a tendency among most schizophrenia researchers to ascribelate onset psychoses to organic factors, have led to such casesoccupying an ambiquous position in relation to schizophrenia. Interms of epidemiology, symptom profile and identifiedpathophysiologies, the diagnoses of late onset schizophrenia haveface validity and clinical utility. General adoption of these categorieswill foster systematic investigation of such patients. Bothdevelopmental and degenerative processes that affect specific braincircuitry have been implicated and intensive study of late onsetpatients may ultimately shed light on etiology. The purpose of thisnomenclature is to clarify the position of these patients and tostimulate more research

Theory of mind and executive functions in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: A cross-diagnostic latent class analysis for identification of neuropsychological subtypes

WOS: 000384130200065PubMed ID: 27317360Objective: Executive dysfunction is a common feature of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BP). While deficits in social cognitive abilities, including theory of mind (ToM), have been suggested to be specific to schizophrenia, available evidence suggests that there is also a significant overlap in social cognitive performances of both disorders. However, there is significant heterogeneity of executive dysfunction and ToM deficits in BP and schizophrenia. Cross-diagnostic data-driven methods can reveal potential neurocognitive subtypes characterized by relatively selective deficits in social cognition. Methods: Neurocognitive subgroups were investigated using latent class analysis, based on executive functions and ToM, in a mixed sample of 97 clinically stable patients with schizophrenia or BP and 27 healthy controls. Results: Four neurocognitive subgroups, including a "neuropsychologically normal" cluster, a severe global impairment cluster and two clusters of mixed cognitive profiles were found. Severe impairment cluster was characterized by particularly severe ToM deficits and predominantly included patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia patients in this cluster had severe negative symptoms. In contrast, individuals with BP compared to schizophrenia patients were more likely to be included in the "neuropsychologically normal" cluster. Conclusion: Identification of distinctive neurobiological subtypes of patients based on social and non-social cognitive profiles can improve classification of major psychoses. Neurocognitive subgroupings of patients might be also beneficial for intervention strategies including cognitive rehabilitation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Empathic abilities in people with schizophrenia

Although the existence of empathy deficits in schizophrenia is generally accepted, very few studies have directly investigated the issue. The nature of empathy deficits in healthy subjects and psychiatric patients is an understudied subject. The performances of the 30 outpatients with schizophrenia on a psychometric measure, the Empathy Quotient (EQ), were compared with those of 30 control subjects matched for age, duration of education and gender. The relatives or spouses of the patients also filled out the EQ. A neuropsychological battery, including emotion recognition, emotional reasoning and theory of mind tasks, was also administered. Schizophrenia patients had severe empathy dysfunction based on their relative EQ ratings. There was a serious discrepancy between the self and relative/spouse assessments of the empathic skills of schizophrenia patients. Consistent with the previous findings schizophrenia patients were impaired in nearly all cognitive tasks. The empathy deficits of schizophrenia patients were associated with their impairments in other social cognitive tasks. Studies focusing on dysfunctional brain networks underlying empathy deficits and studies using more experimental measures of empathy should be helpful to unravel the true nature of the empathic failure in patients with schizophrenia. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Deficits of social-cognitive and social-perceptual aspects of theory of mind in remitted patients with schizophrenia - Effect of residual symptoms

WOS: 000253272500002PubMed ID: 18277216Although ToM deficit in schizophrenia is widely accepted, findings regarding remitted schizophrenia patients are contradictory. Because residual symptoms are present out of psychotic exacerbation periods, the differences between definition of remission may be important to interpret these findings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between performance of 2 different aspects of theory of mind (ToM) and residual clinical symptoms and other cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Ninety-one stable outpatients with schizophrenia and 55 healthy controls were assessed with a neuropsychological battery. Both social-cognitive and social-perceptual aspects of ToM were impaired in schizophrenia, even in patients who were totally free of residual symptoms. Still, the results showed that ToM deficit is related to residual symptoms of schizophrenia. Social-cognitive ToM abilities seem to be related to both positive and negative symptoms. The ToM deficits of fully remitted patients without persistent negative symptoms may be secondary to a more general cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia

Cognitive insight and acute psychosis in schizophrenia

WOS: 000251614600009PubMed ID: 18081624Cognitive insight is a new concept. There are very few data regarding the relationship between cognitive insight and positive symptoms. The goal of the present study was to investigate the impact of acute psychosis (delusions and hallucinations) on overconfidence in judgments and self-reflectiveness of patients with schizophrenia. The Beck Cognitive Insight Scale was used to compare the cognitive insight of schizophrenia patients with (n = 93) and without (n = 45) current psychotic symptoms. Clinical symptoms and clinical insight of the patients were also assessed. The present findings suggest that both overconfidence in judgments and impaired self-reflectiveness are associated with acute psychosis. Only diminished self-reflectiveness seem to be improved following hospitalization. Although overconfidence of schizophrenia patients in their judgments was more severe in schizophrenia patients with psychotic symptoms, self-certainty of schizophrenia patients may be a relatively persistent characteristic that is also present after recovery of psychosis. Studies with larger samples involving follow up for longer periods will be valuable to understand the nature of the relationship between cognitive insight and clinical symptoms of schizophrenia