Temperament and Character Inventory-R (TCI-R) and Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ): convergence and divergence.

This study evaluated the correspondence between measures of two competing theories of personality, the five-factor model as measured by the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), and Cloninger's psychobiological theory measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R). A sample of 900 Italian participants, balanced with respect to sex (393 men and 507 women), and representative of the adult population with respect to age (range 18 to 70 years; M = 39.6, SD = 15.7) completed the TCI-R and the Big Five Questionnaire. All TCI-R personality dimensions except Self-Transcendence were moderately correlated with one or more of the Big Five dimensions (from r = .40 to .61), and the two instruments showed areas of convergence. However, the differences outweighed the similarities, indicating that these current conceptualizations and measures of personality are somewhat inconsistent with each other.

Decision making, impulsivity, and personality traits in alcohol-dependent subjects.

The aim of the study was to assess the relationship among decision-making (DM) ability (as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task [IGT]), impulsivity, and temperament and character traits in a long-term abstinent alcohol-dependent sample. Twenty-six abstinent alcohol-dependent subjects, referred to a Drug Addiction Unit of the National Health Service of L'Aquila, were evaluated using the IGT, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, version 11 (BIS-11), and the Temperament and Character Inventory 125-item (TCI-125) version. Twenty-four control subjects were recruited and assessed with IGT only. The clinical and control samples were significantly different in their IGT performance, the former sample making disadvantageous choices leading to lower scores. Significant negative correlations between IGT total score and BIS Non-Planning Impulsivity and a trend toward significance with TCI Novelty Seeking dimension were reported. Our data confirm the results of other studies suggesting DM impairment related to impulsive dimension as an important feature in subjects with alcohol dependence: the finding suggests a role of DM impairment in increasing proneness to a chronic relapsing course.

[The decision making: neuroanatomy, functional exploration and mental disorders]. / Il decision making: neuroanatomia, esplorazione funzionale e disturbi mentali.

The term decision making indicates aspects of the executive functions related to the ability to modulate the reward and punishment perception, in order to operate advantageous choices. From the clinical point of view it appears a transnosographic trait that may influence the suicide risk and aggressive acts, increase interpersonal difficulties and modulate therapeutic response: an interesting link between clinical symptomatology and functional daily abilities. We conducted a literature review on its neurophysiology and neuropsychology and the implications in different psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, suicide, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substances abuse, personality disorders, aggressiveness and pathological gambling.

Affective temperaments and residual symptoms in patients with mood and anxiety disorders.

Objective. Temperament conventionally refers to stable behavioural and emotional reactions that appear early in life and are influenced in part by genetic constitution. Few studies compared temperamental traits in anxiety and mood disorders even though some authors suggested a clinical and neurobiological continuum between them. The aim of the study was to compare temperamental traits and psychopathological dimensions in subjects with DSM-IV diagnoses of mood and anxiety disorders. Methods. A total of 101 clinically stabilized consecutive outpatients (45 subjects with anxiety disorders and 56 with mood disorders diagnoses) were evaluated. The brief version of Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego (briefTEMPS-M) and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) were used to assess temperamental traits and psychopathological dimensions, respectively. Results. No significant differences between anxiety disorders and mood disorders subjects for TEMPS-M or SCL-90 mean scores were observed. Different TEMPS-M scores differentially affect residual clinical symptoms. Conclusions. Our data represent an indirect indicator of possible common diathesis between the two different disorders. The temperament "paradigm" could explain part of the residual symptomatology. The evaluation of affective temperaments seems to add considerable clinical information to psychopathological and diagnostic descriptions.

The effect of verbalization strategy on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenic patients receiving classical or atypical antipsychotics.

BACKGROUND: A number of reports showed en encouraging remediation in some patients' executive deficits thanks to the use of 'information processing strategies'. Moreover the impact of antipsychotics on cognitive functions of the schizophrenics is an important issue, especially if an integrated psychosocial treatment is needed. The aim of this paper is to evaluate different executive performance and response to verbalization, a strategy of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) remediation, in subjects on classical vs atypical antipsychotic (AP) treatment. METHODS: Sixty-three schizophrenic subjects undertook the WCST under standard and modified (verbalization) administration. Subjects were stratified by the kind of WCST response (i.e. good, poor and remediable) and AP treatment (i.e. atypical vs. classical). RESULTS: Subjects on atypical APs showed a better performance than those on classical ones. More poor performers who did not remediate were seen in the sample with classical Aps while subjects who remediated the performance were seen in the subgroup with atypical APs only. An increase of perseverative and total errors was seen in poor performers subjects on classical APs. CONCLUSION: Subjects on atypicals showed a better cognitive pattern in terms of WCST performance. Since the naturalistic assignment of medication we cannot draw conclusions about its effect on cognitive performance and its interaction with cognitive remediation potential. However the data lead us to hypothesize that subjects with potential room for remediation did so with the atypical APs.