Social cognition and emotional rehabilitation in participants with schizofrenia.

Introduction: People with schizophrenia have deficits in social cognition, emotion and social perception, as well as attributional style. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a multicomponent social cognition training program, e-Motional Training® (ET), in people with schizophrenia and to compare its efficacy with people who did not receive it. Therefore, a single-blind RCT was conducted in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Methods: A randomized, single-blind, clinical trial was conducted with 50 stable outparticipants with schizophrenia (registry number CHUC_2019_109). All participants (control and intervention) were treated with pharmacotherapy, case management and were on Individual Placement and Support methodology for competitive employment. The intervention group was treated with ET, an online program designed for social cognition rehabilitation. Pre and post assessment was performed using different battery of tests. General mixed models with subject identification and repeated measures over time were used. Results: Different pre and post measurements were performed in the two groups. No significant differences were found in sociodemographic characteristics between the control and intervention groups. Improvements were obtained in the intervention group in the Ekman test (p = 0.009), mainly enhanced by the improvement shown in three emotions: fear, sadness and disgust (p = 0.041, p = 0.021 and p = 0.038 respectively). Conclusion: ET is a promising online training tool for social cognition deficits in schizophrenia, in particular, for the improvement of emotions.Clinical Trial Registration: https://beta.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT05866328.

Entrenamiento en percepción de emociones en pacientes con esquizofrenia / Training on emotional perception for patients with schizophrenia

OBJETIVO: revaluar la eficacia de la herramienta E-Motional Training de entrenamiento en percepción emocional en pacientes con esquizofrenia en términos de mejoría clínica y de procesamiento emocional, en comparación con el tratamiento habitual. MÉTODO: se realizó un ensayo clínico aleatorizado, multicéntrico, simple ciego en 60 pacientes ambulatorios con esquizofrenia. Todos los pacientes (control e intervención) fueron tratados con terapia con medicamentos, manejo de casos y psicoterapia individual y grupal. Los pacientes fueron evaluados antes y después de la intervención. El grupo control realizó el tratamiento habitual. El grupo intervención llevó a cabo el tratamiento habitual y además una sesión semanal de una hora de duración (12 sesiones en total) con el aplicativo informático E-Motional Training, que incluye tutoriales y módulos de entrenamiento en percepción emocional y microexpresiones, así como pretest y postest para evaluar el progreso del paciente. Se recogieron variables sociodemográficas y clínicas (utilizando la escala PANSS), y se evaluó la percepción emocional mediante el test de Ekman 60 Faces Test. Se efectuó análisis descriptivo y bivariante. Se consideraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los grupos con p< 0,05. Se usó el paquete estadístico SPSS 22.0 y R. RESULTADOS: el grupo sometido a entrenamiento obtuvo datos estadísticamente significativos (p< 0,05) tanto en percepción emocional, como en la reducción de la sintomatología negativa (p< 0,01) en comparación con el grupo control. DISCUSIÓN: la herramienta E-Motional Training permite el autoentrenamiento en percepción emocional en pacientes con esquizofrenia que presentan déficits de percepción emocional. Esta herramienta produce, además, una mejoría clínica en los pacientes

OBJECTIVE: to assess the efficacy of the E-Motional Training tool on emotional perception training for patients with schizophrenia in terms of clinical improvement and emotional processing, compared with standard treatment. METHOD: a randomized, multicenter, single blinded clinical trial was conducted on 60 outpatients with schizophrenia. All patients (control and intervention arms) were treated with drug therapy, case management, and individual and group psychotherapy. Patients were evaluated before and after the intervention. The control arm followed standard treatment. The intervention arm followed standard treatment, and also a weekly 1-hour session (12 sessions in total) with the E-Motional Training application, which includes tutorials and training modules on emotional perception and microexpressions, as well as a pre-test and a post-test to assess patient progress. Sociodemographical and clinical variables were collected (using the PANSS scale), and the emotional perception was evaluated through the Ekman 60 Faces Test. Descriptive and bivariate analysis was conducted. Statistically significant differences between arms were considered as p< 0.05. The statistical package SPSS 22.0 for R was used. RESULTS: the arm following training obtained statistically significant data (p< 0.05), both in emotional perception and in reduction of negative symptomatology (p< 0.01) vs. the control arm. DISCUSSION: the E-Motional Training tool allows self-training on emotional perception for patients with schizophrenia who present emotional perception deficits. This tool also leads to a clinical improvement in patients

Suicide notes: Clinical and linguistic analysis from the perspective of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide

Background and Objectives: Studying suicide notes is a strong methodology in suicidology and one of the most relevant theoretical frameworks is the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide proposed by Joiner. This study analyzed 80 suicide notes collected in Chile searching for the risk factors proposed by the theory and its implications. The clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of the notes' authors were analyzed too. Methods: The suicide notes were classified according to the presence or absence of the suicide risk factors proposed by the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide and were analyzed linguistically with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. Results: One or both interpersonal risk factors indicated by the theory were identified in 60% of the notes. The “lack of belonging” factor was the most common risk factor, and various linguistic profiles in the suicide notes were found according to the presence or absence of this factor. Conclusions: We confirmed the relevance of the interpersonal risk factors proposed as issues present in a high percentage of notes and found linguistic differences according to its presence or absence in the suicide notes (AU)

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