MICEmi: A method to identify cognitive endophenotypes of mental illnesses.

BACKGROUND: Characterizing neurocognitive endophenotypes of mental illnesses (MIs) could be useful for identifying at-risk individuals, increasing early diagnosis, improving disease subtyping, and proposing therapeutic strategies to reduce the negative effects of the symptoms, in addition to serving as a scientific basis to unravel the physiopathology of the disease. However, a standardized algorithm to determine cognitive endophenotypes has not yet been developed. The main objective of this study was to present a method for the identification of endophenotypes in MI research. METHODS: For this purpose, a 14-expert working group used a scoping review methodology and designed a method that includes a scoring template with five criteria and indicators, a strategy for their verification, and a decision tree. CONCLUSIONS: This work is ongoing since it is necessary to obtain external validation of the applicability of the method in future research.

Visual memory dysfunction as a neurocognitive endophenotype in bipolar disorder patients and their unaffected relatives. Evidence from a 5-year follow-up Valencia study.

BACKGROUND: Scarce research has focused on Visual Memory (VM) deficits as a possible neurocognitive endophenotype of bipolar disorder (BD). The main aim of this longitudinal, family study with healthy controls was to explore whether VM dysfunction represents a neurocognitive endophenotype of BD. METHODS: Assessment of VM by Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF) was carried out on a sample of 317 subjects, including 140 patients with BD, 60 unaffected first-degree relatives (BD-Rel), and 117 genetically-unrelated healthy controls (HC), on three occasions over a 5-year period (T1, T2, and T3). BD-Rel group scores were analyzed only at T1 and T2. RESULTS: Performance of BD patients was significantly worse than the HC group (p < 0.01). Performance of BD-Rel was also significantly different from HC scores at T1 (p < 0.01) and T2 (p = 0.05), and showed an intermediate profile between the BD and HC groups. Only among BD patients, there were significant differences according to sex, with females performing worse than males (p = 0.03). Regarding other variables, education represented significant differences only in average scores of BD-Rel group (p = 0.01). LIMITATIONS: Important attrition in BD-Rel group over time was detected, which precluded analysis at T3. CONCLUSIONS: BD patients show significant deficits in VM that remain stable over time, even after controlling sociodemographic and clinical variables. Unaffected relatives also show stable deficits in VM. Accordingly, the deficit in VM could be considered a potential endophenotype of BD, which in turn may be useful as a predictor of the evolution of the disease. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

[Short form of the WAIS-III for use with patients with schizophrenia]. / Versión abreviada del WAIS-III para su uso en la evaluación de pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia.

The aim of this study is to obtain a sufficiently guaranteed, abridged, Spanish version of the WAIS-III and thereby reduce the time needed to administer the complete scale. Although the samples used were based both on normal individuals (41 participants with no known history of mental illness) as well as individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (41 participants), the real focus of the study was the clinical group because this is where the greatest advantages can be obtained by shortening the time to administer the scale. The data demonstrates that the best combination of tests was: Similarities, Picture Completion, Digit Span and Digit Symbol-coding because, with this reduced form, it was possible to obtain a linear correlation between the IQ of the complete scale and that of the abridged form of .91 in the clinical and .86 in the control group. For both groups, the differences between the real IQ averages and the estimated ones were nonsignificant.

Versión abreviada del WAIS-III para su uso en la evaluación de pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia / Short form of the WAIS-III for use with patients with schizophrenia

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo obtener una forma abreviada de la versión española del WAISIII que permita, con las garantías suficientes, reducir el tiempo de aplicación de la escala completa. Aunque se utilizaron muestras procedentes tanto de población normal (41 participantes sin patología mental conocida) como de población con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia (41 participantes), realmente el interés estaba centrado en el grupo clínico, ya que en el mismo es donde mayores ventajas se pueden obtener al acortar el tiempo de aplicación de la escala. Los datos mostraron que la mejor combinación de tests fue la de Semejanzas, Figuras Incompletas, Dígitos y Clave de números, ya que con esta forma reducida se obtiene una correlación lineal entre el CI Total de la escala completa y el de la forma abreviada de 0,91 en el grupo clínico y de 0,86 en el control. Para ambos grupos las diferencias entre los CI medios reales y los estimados no fueron significativas(AU)

The aim of this study is to obtain a sufficiently guaranteed, abridged, Spanish version of the WAIS-III and thereby reduce the time needed to administer the complete scale. Although the samples used were based both on normal individuals (41 participants with no known history of mental illness) as well as individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (41 participants), the real focus of the study was the clinical group because this is where the greatest advantages can be obtained by shortening the time to administer the scale. The data demonstrates that the best combination of tests was: Similarities, Picture Completion, Digit Span and Digit Symbol-coding because, with this reduced form, it was possible to obtain a linear correlation between the IQ of the complete scale and that of the abridged form of .91 in the clinical and .86 in the control group. For both groups, the differences between the real IQ averages and the estimated ones were nonsignificant(AU)

La relevancia de la cognición social en la esquizofrenia / The relevance of social cognition in schizophrenia

La investigación realizada en los últimos años ha mostrado la existencia de unacorrelación entre los déficits cognitivos y el funcionamiento social en esquizofrenia.Mientras que los déficits en la atención, la memoria y el funcionamiento ejecutivo hansido ampliamente estudiados, se ha puesto menos atención a la investigación en cogniciónsocial. Sin embargo, la cognición social se está convirtiendo en el foco de interésporque la evidencia empírica está mostrando su relevancia funcional como variablemediadora entre neurocognición y el nivel de funcionamiento social del paciente conesquizofrenia. En consecuencia, se han desarrollado nuevas intervenciones centradas enlos componentes clave de la cognición social que están deteriorados en la esquizofrenia(procesamiento emocional, percepción social, teoría de la mente, esquemas sociales/conocimientosocial y estilo atribucional), con el objetivo de mejorar el funcionamientocognitivo social. Los objetivos de este trabajo son: sintetizar cuál es la concepto actualde cognición social, indicar cuáles son los componentes que incluye, presentar algunosde los instrumentos disponibles para evaluar la cognición social y revisar los programasde intervención más destacados que están dirigidos a mejorar la cognición social en laspersonas con esquizofrenia

Research conducted in recent years has shown correlations between neurocognitive deficits and functional outcome in schizophrenia. Whereas deficits such as attention, memory and executive functioning have been widely studied, less attention has been paid to social cognition. However social cognition is moving into the focus of interest because empirical evidence is showing the functional significance of social cognition as a mediating variable between neurocognition and the social level of functioning in schizophrenic patients. Consequently, new interventions have been developed focusing on the key domains of social cognition that are impaired in schizophrenia (emotion perception, social perception, theory of main, social schemata, and attributional style), with the goal of improving social cognitive functioning. The purpose of this present work is: to summarize the current conceptualisation of social cognition and the domains included under this concept; to present some of the instruments available to evaluate social cognition; and to review the main intervention programs devoted to improving social cognition in schizophrenia