[Clinical usefulness and psychometric properties of the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory]. / Utilidad clinica y propiedades psicometricas del inventario conductual de Cambridge.

INTRODUCTION: An important area in neuropsychological assessment is that of psychological and behavioural symptoms. The Cambridge Behavioural Inventory (CBI) is a self-report measure aimed at relatives which takes account of a wide range of behavioural symptoms that may occur during the course of neurological diseases. The main objective of the study is to test the clinical usefulness of its Spanish adaptation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The CBI was completed by 215 members of kin of patients referred from neurology and psychiatry services. The CBI profiles of four groups of patients were compared, these being grouped according to their main clinical characteristics, psychometric data, imaging tests and the clinical judgement of the professional requesting the neuropsychological study. RESULTS: Most of the scales (10 out of 13) of the CBI yielded acceptable internal consistency values, and the memory and attention/orientation scales showed high correlations with objective measures of memory and time orientation. The CBI profiles of the groups of patients with different conditions (organic memory disorder, functional memory disorder, behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease) were consistent with their main features. CONCLUSIONS: The CBI is a psychometrically reliable instrument with adequate convergent and discriminant validity that can be useful in the process of neuropsychological assessment. It can provide relevant information not only about cognitive functioning and the functional capabilities, but also about the behavioural and psychological symptoms of patients with cognitive disorders.

TITLE: Utilidad clinica y propiedades psicometricas del inventario conductual de Cambridge.Introduccion. Un area importante de la evaluacion neuropsicologica son los sintomas psicologicos y conductuales. El inventario conductual de Cambridge ­Cambridge Behavioural Inventory (CBI)­ es una medida de autoinforme dirigida a allegados que recoge una amplia variedad de sintomas conductuales que pueden darse en el curso de las enfermedades neurologicas. El principal objetivo del estudio es comprobar la utilidad clinica de su adaptacion al castellano. Sujetos y metodos. El CBI fue cumplimentado por 215 allegados de pacientes remitidos desde los servicios de neurologia y psiquiatria. Se compararon los perfiles del CBI de cuatro grupos de pacientes formados sobre la base de sus principales caracteristicas clinicas, datos psicometricos, pruebas de imagen y juicio clinico del profesional solicitante del estudio neuropsicologico. Resultados. La mayoria de las escalas (10 de 13) del CBI tuvo valores de consistencia interna aceptables, y las escalas de memoria y atencion/orientacion, correlaciones elevadas con medidas objetivas de memoria y orientacion temporal. Los perfiles del CBI de los grupos de pacientes con distintas condiciones (trastorno organico de la memoria, trastorno funcional de la memoria, variante conductual de demencia frontotemporal y enfermedad de Alzheimer) fueron consistentes con sus principales caracteristicas. Conclusiones. El CBI es un instrumento psicometricamente fiable y con adecuada validez convergente y discriminante que puede ser util en el proceso de evaluacion neuropsicologica, aportando informacion relevante no solo sobre el funcionamiento cognitivo y las capacidades funcionales, sino tambien sobre los sintomas conductuales y psicologicos de los pacientes con trastornos cognitivos.

Testing a virtual reality intervention for pain control.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed (1) to assess the validity of a virtual reality (VR) intervention designed specifically to gain control over pain, (2) to test whether the association between the virtual environment and pain can be potentiated using a differential conditioning procedure, and (3) to examine the effects of this VR intervention in a cold pressor experiment. METHODS: The VR intervention was based on a figure representing pain. This figure could be manipulated until reaching a no-pain state. Participants were 64 undergraduate students, who were asked to evaluate this environment in terms of arousal and valence. A differential conditioning procedure was then applied, in which the pain figure was paired with electric shock and the no-pain figure was presented without shock. Afterwards, participants performed a cold pressor task. RESULTS: In the initial testing, the pain figure was evaluated as more arousing and more unpleasant than the no-pain figure. After the conditioning procedure, these ratings significantly increased; with the pain figure being rated as more anxiety eliciting and a better predictor of shocks than the no-pain figure. During cold pressor, the interaction with the conditioned VR figure led to significant increases in pain threshold and tolerance, as well as a significantly greater underestimation of time, but it did not affect pain intensity. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide preliminary support for the use of our VR intervention to gain control over pain.