Spanish version of the Family Interview for Genetic Studies (FIGS).

INTRODUCTION: The use of the Family Interview for Genetic Studies (FIGS), has made it possible to advance in the performance of family studies for research in genetic psychiatry. This study aimed to adapt this interview into Spanish and develop a validation process of the FIGS in a sample of Cuban families with a family background of schizophrenia. METHODS: The English version of the FIGS was translated into Spanish and was used in this study. The content was validated through the consensus score of several referees. The questionnaire was administered to at least two informants of 146 families of patients diagnosed of schizophrenia. Internal consistency of the items was analyzed, calculating Pearson's correlation coefficients and Cronbach's alpha of the FIGS and reliability. RESULTS: In general the Spanish version of the FIGS interview was found to be useful. Internal consistency of the FIGS as measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient has been found to be 0.92 for depression, 0.99 for mania; 0.94 for psychosis, 0.94 for alcohol and drugs and 0.97 for personality disorders, which indicates values having satisfactory reliability. In addition, Pearson's correlation coefficient varied from the 0.41 to 0.99 for the different lists of symptoms mentioned above and all were statistically significant (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This questionnaire is reliable and valid for gathering diagnostic information about relatives of probands and thus suitable for use in genetic studies of Cuban families with a history of schizophrenia.

[Cognitive slowing in asymptomatic individuals who are seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus type 1]. / Enlentecimiento cognitivo en sujetos seropositivos asintomáticos al virus de inmunodeficiencia humana tipo 1.

INTRODUCTION: Reaction time (RT) is thought to be the most suitable measure to detect cognitive deficits in neurologically asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1) infected individual since cognitive slowing is the earliest signal of cognitive-motor disorder related to HIV-1 infection. There is evidence suggesting that the greater the degree of central processing demands required by a task, the more likely that it will be sensitive to the effect of HIV-1 infection. Such statement suggests that the RT deficits exhibited by HIV-1 infected individuals at initial stages could be caused by the slowing of central information processing mechanisms. AIM: To assess the relationships between demands of central information processing and RT in HIV-1 seropositive individuals. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 50 neurologically asymptomatic HIV-1 individuals were compared with 34 seronegative controls on four discriminative RT tasks of different levels of central processing demands except by the motor response requirements. RESULTS: Seropositive group was slower in RT and performed worse on the higher demanding task. On the lesser demanding tasks no differences in RT nor in accuracy were observed. For the task demanding sensory coding efforts seropositive individual were slower but achieved the same level of accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Even when these results point to that RT slowing in HIV-1 asymptomatic individuals emerged with the increase in cognitive demands, the fact that RT slowing without accuracy declining can also appear in some tasks demanding sensory processing, preclude ruling out a peripheral deficit as the locus of the RT slowing in these subjects.

[Selective attention disorders associated with a history of occupational exposure to organic solvents]. / Alteraciones de la atención selectiva asociadas a la historia de exposición ocupacional a solventes orgánicos.

INTRODUCTION: The cognitive effects of long-term exposure to organic solvents could be similar to those triggered by certain neurodegenerative diseases. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects exerted by accumulated exposure on the cognitive functions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 105 subjects with an average history of exposure of 19.3 years were evaluated using seven computerised cognitive tasks (CPT, digit-symbol substitution, Stroop, memory span, word learning and recognition, and TRD) and results were later compared with the performance of a non-exposure group and with a normative reference. A study was made of the association between the length of exposure and performance in the variables in which the exposed subjects displayed significantly lower values than control subjects. In order to evaluate the effect exerted by age, regression functions between performance and age were calculated for each group. RESULTS: Only the indicators from the Stroop and digit-symbol tasks correlated with the length of exposure. The regression functions between performance and age for each group showed that the former decreased significantly faster among exposed subjects than among controls. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that, while recent exposure seems to have an effect on a wide range of functions, chronic exposure exerts a selective influence on a smaller group. In this case, only selective attention appears to deteriorate. Similar deficits have been observed in the early stages of patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.