Cognitive Inflexibility Predicts Negative Symptoms Severity in Patients with First-Episode Psychosis: A 1-Year Follow-Up Study.

Negative symptoms and cognitive deficits play a major role in psychosis and significantly influence the functional outcomes of patients, particularly those with a first episode of psychosis (FEP). However, limited research has explored the predictive capacity of cognitive deficits during FEP for subsequent negative symptomatology. Drawing from the Athens FEP research study, we conducted a retrospective longitudinal study in 80 individuals with FEP. All patients were drug naive at admission. Cognitive tests were administered at 1-month and 1-year post-admission, while negative symptomatology was assessed at the same time points using PANSS by trained raters. We considered confounding factors such as age, gender, duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), treatment received, premorbid social adjustment, and premorbid IQ. Univariate regression analysis identified cognitive domains that correlated with negative symptomatology. These, along with the confounders, were incorporated into a multiple regression, with the 1-year PANSS negative scale serving as the dependent variable. Employing the backward elimination technique, we found a statistically significant inverse relationship between the categories completed in the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) and the 1-year PANNS negative scale (p = 0.01), beyond the associations with DUP and the 1-month PANSS negative scale. Our results suggest that cognitive flexibility, a key component of executive functions, predicts negative symptom severity one year after FEP.

Diminished social motivation in early psychosis is associated with polygenic liability for low vitamin D.

Insufficiency of vitamin D levels often occur in individuals with schizophrenia and first-episode psychosis (FEP). However, it is unknown whether this represents a biological predisposition, or it is essentially driven by illness-related alterations in lifestyle habits. Lower vitamin D has also been associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes and predominant negative psychotic symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of polygenic risk score for circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration (PRS-vitD) to symptom presentation among individuals with FEP enrolled in the Athens First-Episode Psychosis Research Study (AthensFEP n = 205) and the Psychosis Incident Cohort Outcome Study (PICOS n = 123). The severity of psychopathology was evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale at baseline and follow-up assessments (AthensFEP: 4-weeks follow-up, PICOS: 1-year follow-up). Premorbid intelligence and adjustment domains were also examined as proxy measures of neurodevelopmental deviations. An inverse association between PRS-vitD and severity of negative symptoms, in particular lack of social motivation, was detected in the AthensFEP at baseline (adjusted R2 = 0.04, p < 0.001) and follow-up (adjusted R2 = 0.03, p < 0.01). The above observation was independently validated in PICOS at follow-up (adjusted R2 = 0.06, p < 0.01). No evidence emerged for a relationship between PRS-vitD and premorbid measures of intelligence and adjustment, likely not supporting an impact of lower PRS-vitD on developmental trajectories related to psychotic illness. These findings suggest that polygenic vulnerability to reduced vitamin D impairs motivation and social interaction in individuals with FEP, thereby interventions that encourage outdoor activities and social engagement in this patient group might attenuate enduring negative symptoms.

Role of Clinical Insight at First Month in Predicting Relapse at the Year in First Episode of Psychosis (FEP) Patients.

INTRODUCTION: Clinical insight constitutes a useful marker of the progress and outcome of the First Episode of Psychosis (FEP), and lack of insight has been associated with more severe psychopathology, treatment non-adherence, and rehospitalization/relapse. In this study, we aimed to further investigate the possible role of insight as a predictor of relapse, its relation to diagnosis, and other parameters of positive psychotic symptomatology (delusions, hallucinations, and suspiciousness). METHODS: The Athens FEP study employed a prospective, longitudinal cohort design in which consecutive newly diagnosed patients with psychosis were interviewed and asked to voluntarily participate after completing informed consent. A total of 88/225 patients were examined at three different time points (baseline, month, and year). Their scores in the relevant items of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were compared (G12 for insight, P1 for delusions, P3 for hallucinations, and P6 for suspiciousness), and they were further associated to diagnosis and the outcome at the end of the year (remission/relapse). RESULTS: In total, 22/88 patients with relapse at the year had greater scores in G12 for both the month and the year, and this finding was corroborated after adjusting the statistical analysis for demographics, diagnosis, social environment, and depression via multiple logistic regression analysis. Moreover, delusions and suspiciousness were significantly higher in patients diagnosed with non-affective psychosis compared to those diagnosed with affective psychosis (p < 0.001) at the first month. CONCLUSIONS: Lack of insight at the first month may serve as a predictor of relapse at the year.

Fear of COVID-19 Impact on Professional Quality of Life among Mental Health Workers.

Several studies have examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers' mental health, but only a few have investigated its detrimental effect on the mental well-being of mental health workers (MHWs). BACKGROUND: The current study aimed to explore the effect of the fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19) on professional quality of life dimensions, namely compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout (BO), and secondary traumatic stress (STS) in MHWs above and beyond sociodemographic and professional factors. METHODS: Hierarchical linear regression models were employed to examine the relationship of extreme FCV-19 with CS, BO, and STS in MHWs (n = 224), after considering sociodemographic variables as potential confounding factors. Extreme FCV-19 was operationalized as a binary variable with a cut-off score of ≥16.5 considered as extreme fear. RESULTS: We found that extreme FCV-19 in MHWs is linked with increased compassion fatigue (BO and STS), and this relationship is exacerbated by younger age in regard to BO and by female gender concerning STS. CS remains unaffected by severe FCV-19, and it is higher in older participants. CONCLUSION: Organizational support is required to protect MHWs' mental well-being and ensure the quality of care they provide during prolonged crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures that intensify a sense of safety, protection, and control against COVID-19 infections in mental health services should be included in the recommendations that may reduce BO and STS among MHWs.

Tobacco and Alcohol and Cannabis Experience Questionnaires. Greek translation and test-retest reliability.

The Tobacco and Alcohol Questionnaire (TAQ) and the Cannabis Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) are two instruments employed in the evaluation of substance use. The First Episode Psychosis (FEP) study in Athens employed two versions of those questionnaires, as part of a battery of psychometric tools, detecting environmental and genetic factors associated with FEP and addressed specifically to the distinctive characteristics of patients with FEP. The goal of the present study is to present those two versions, regarding their content, their use in international research, their translation in Greek, and their test-retest reliability. The two questionnaires were translated by two independent translators and administered to 32 subjects with FEP twice, in order to be tested for test-retest reliability. Cohen's kappa was used to measure agreement between qualitative variables and ICC between quantitative variables. Significant agreement was found between the two measurements in all items of the TAQ version and almost all items of the CEQ version. Our study is an indication that both translations are reliable, although a more thorough test of their psychometric properties is needed. Both might be used in the Greek research field as part of a broad package of psychometric tools, specifically addressed to patients with FEP.

Deregulation of complement components C4A and CSMD1 peripheral expression in first-episode psychosis and links to cognitive ability.

Up-regulation of the complement component 4A (C4A) in the brain has been associated with excessive synaptic pruning and increased schizophrenia (SZ) susceptibility. Over-expression of C4A has been observed in SZ postmortem brain tissue, and the gene encoding for a protein inhibitor of C4A activity, CUB and Sushi multiple domains 1 (CSMD1) gene, has been implicated in SZ risk and cognitive ability. Herein, we examined C4A and CSMD1 mRNA expression in peripheral blood from antipsychotic-naive individuals with first-episode psychosis (FEP; n = 73) and mentally healthy volunteers (n = 48). Imputed C4 locus structural alleles and C4A serum protein levels were investigated. Associations with symptom severity and cognitive domains performance were explored. A significant decrease in CSMD1 expression levels was noted among FEP patients compared to healthy volunteers, further indicating a positive correlation between C4A and CSMD1 mRNA levels in healthy volunteers but not in FEP cases. In addition, C4 copy number variants previously associated with SZ risk correlated with higher C4A mRNA levels in FEP cases, which confirms the regulatory effect of C4 structural variants on gene expression. Evidence also emerged for markedly elevated C4A serum concentrations in FEP cases. Within the FEP patient group, higher C4A mRNA levels correlated with more severe general psychopathology symptoms and lower CSMD1 mRNA levels predicted worse working memory performance. Overall, these findings suggest C4A complement pathway perturbations in individuals with FEP and corroborate the involvement of CSMD1 in prefrontal-mediated cognitive functioning.