Facial emotion recognition in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

@#Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system and the most common cause of disability among young adults. In addition to physical and cognitive disturbances, MS patients also have emotional processing deficits. Despite the rich knowledge available about cognitive impairments, little is known about emotion recognition in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), despite the fact that it plays a key role in social behavior. The aim of our study was to investigate facial emotion recognition in patients with RRMS, compared with healthy controls. Methods: Facial emotion recognition abilities were studied in a homogeneous group of 51 RRMS patients and 51 healthy controls, using the Persian version of the Florida Affect Battery. We controlled both groups for physical symptoms, anxiety, depression and social dysfunction, using general health questionnaire (GHQ-28). Patients and healthy controls were matched according to age and gender. Early stage of the disease was defined as being diagnosed with RRMS and having an EDSS of 4 or lower. Results: MS patients performed as well as healthy controls in facial identity discrimination and facial emotion discrimination tasks, but showed significantly less performance in other subtests that required emotion recognition in comparison with healthy controls. Conclusions: Facial emotion recognition is impaired at early stages of MS. MS patients have problems in their emotional processing system. Deficits in facial emotion recognition merit attention because they might negatively influence interpersonal relationships and quality of life in MS patients.

Prediction of severity of delusion based on jumping-to-conclusion bias in schizophrenia patients

Objectives: New cognitive theories of delusions have proposed that deficit or bias in inference stage [a stage of normal belief formation] is significant in delusion formation

The aim of this study was predicting the severity of delusions based on jumping-to-conclusion bias in patients with schizophrenia

Methods: The sample consisted of 60 deluded patients with schizophrenia who were selected from the Ebnesina and Razi hospitals in Shiraz using convenience sampling method The Similarity Task was used to measure the jumping-to-conclusion biases

Results: Its results have shown that the jumping-to-conclusion biases could predict a great part of the variance of delusions

Discussion: These results generally indicated that the jumping to conclusion biases may provide a more useful explanation for the delusion formation

The role of psychological resilience, severity of disease and treatment adherence in the prediction of health-related quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis

Objective: This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the impact of the disability status, psychological resilience, and treatment adherence on health-related quality of life (QOL) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: One hundred MS outpatients, 80 women and 20 men, referred to a clinic of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, were eligible to participate. MS was diagnosed by 2010 revised Mc-Donald criteria. The QOL and resilience were evaluated by the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form (SF-36) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) respectively. Medication adherence and severity of disease were assessed by the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) and expanded disability status state (EDSS) scores respectively. Results: Stepwise multiple regressions showed that in the first model, the disability status was the best predictor which accounted for 28.1% of the variance in QOL. In the second model, both the disability status and resilience explained 50.6% of the variation in QOL. Conclusion: The findings showed that the severity of the disease is a strong predictor which has adverse effects on the physical component of health-related QOL in the patients with MS. Both psychological resilience and treatment adherence have positive influence on mental component of QOL in these patients.

Child abuse in group of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder in comparison with normal children

Children suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] are very difficult to handle. It can be very frustrating and needs an outstanding tolerance. Behavioral difficulties in ADHD children may increase the risk of child abuse for them. The aim of this research was to compare child abuse, and neglect between ADHD group and normal children. In this cross-sectional study, 30 ADHD students [10 girls and 20 boys] were selected from regional mental behavior disorder clinics and matched with 30 normal students. Data were collected using Child Abuse Self Report Scale. Descriptive statistics, one-way multivariate analysis of variance [MANOVA] and Least Significant Difference [LSD] was performed by using SPSS software. The result of the research showed that almost 60% of participants had experienced neglect and 35% psychological abuse. Neglect and psychological abuse are more frequent than other maltreatments. Neglect, psychological and physical abuses are significantly higher in the ADHD group. The findings showed that the rates of neglect and psychological abuse are higher in the ADHD group. Therefore, it can be suggested that the society and families should be trained to deal better with ADHD children

[ relationship between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia with the maintenance of attention]

Objective: To assess the relation between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia with maintenance of attention in these patients

Method: Thirty-two patients with schizophrenia [15 acute and 17 chronic patients] and 32 normal individuals aged 19-51 years were selected. The two groups were matched on the basis of age, gender and education, and were assessed by the Continuous Performance Test [CPT]. In order to study the multivariate correlation between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and CPT variables, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms [SANS] and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms [SAPS] were administered

Results: The results indicated that patients with schizophrenia had significantly poorer performance in comparison to normal individuals in all CPT variables [correct response, omission and commission]. Regression analysis showed that the delusion component of positive symptoms, positively predicted correct response variable and negatively predicted the omission and commission variables. The affective flattening component of negative symptoms predicted correct response variable of CPT negatively and the omission and commission variables positively

Conclusion: These results show the deficit of maintenance of attention in patients with schizophrenia and support the validity of negative-positive syndrome discrimination in these patients