ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia by examining its temporal stability, internal consistency, and discriminant and convergent validity. METHODS: The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was administered to 116 stable patients with schizophrenia and 58 matched control subjects. To assess concurrent validity, a subset of patients underwent a traditional neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS: The patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than the controls (p<0.001) on all subtests of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia and on the total score, which attests to the discriminant validity of the test. The global score of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was significantly correlated with all of the subtests and with the global score for the standard battery. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia also had good test-retest reliability (rho>0.8). The internal consistency of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was high (Cronbach's α âÏâ0.874). CONCLUSION: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia exhibits good reliability and discriminant and concurrent validity and is a promising tool for easily assessing cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for comparing the performance of Brazilian patients with that of patients from other countries.
Subject(s)
Cognition Disorders/physiopathology , Neuropsychological Tests/standards , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Adult , Brazil , Case-Control Studies , Female , Humans , Language , Male , Memory, Short-Term/physiology , Motor Activity/physiology , Psychometrics/standards , Random Allocation , Reproducibility of Results , Speech/physiology , Statistics, Nonparametric , TranslationsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess the validity and reliability of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia by examining its temporal stability, internal consistency, and discriminant and convergent validity. METHODS: The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was administered to 116 stable patients with schizophrenia and 58 matched control subjects. To assess concurrent validity, a subset of patients underwent a traditional neuropsychological assessment. RESULTS: The patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse than the controls (p<0.001) on all subtests of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia and on the total score, which attests to the discriminant validity of the test. The global score of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was significantly correlated with all of the subtests and with the global score for the standard battery. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia also had good test-retest reliability (rho>0.8). The internal consistency of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was high (Cronbach's α ϝ 0.874). CONCLUSION: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia exhibits good reliability and discriminant and concurrent validity and is a promising tool for easily assessing cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and for comparing the performance of Brazilian patients with that of patients from other countries. .
Subject(s)
Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Child Development Disorders, Pervasive/diagnosis , Imitative Behavior , Language Development Disorders/diagnosis , Longitudinal Studies , Nonverbal Communication , Prognosis , Semantics , Speech Production Measurement , Statistics as Topic , Sweden , VocabularyABSTRACT
Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric syndrome characterized by generalized cognitive deficits that are associated with functional impairment. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) modulates neurotransmission and neuronal plasticity and is important for cognitive functioning. Evidence points to the involvement of this neuromodulatory system in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and that alteration of the ECS on peripheral lymphocytes could reflect central changes. The objective of this study was to compare levels of peripheral endocannabinoid receptor expression in patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects and find evidence of association between peripheral expression of those receptors and cognitive performance. Patients with stabilized schizophrenia (N=53) and controls (N=22) underwent clinical and cognitive evaluation, and assessment of cannabinoid receptor expression on the surface of peripheral immune cells (lymphocytes, natural killer cells and monocytes) by flow cytometry. Patients with schizophrenia had lower levels of cannabinoid receptor expression on total T lymphocytes, but after controlling for possible confounders this difference did not remain significant. In patients, increased cannabinoid receptor expression on lymphocytes and monocytes was significantly correlated with worst cognitive performance. These data provide additional evidence of the involvement of the ECS in the pathophysiology of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
