What Is Going On? The Process of Generating Questions about Emotion and Social Cognition in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia with Cartoon Situations and Faces.

Regarding the notion of putative “best” practices in social neuroscience and science in general, we contend that following established procedures has advantages, but prescriptive uniformity in methodology can obscure flaws, bias thinking, stifle creativity, and restrict exploration. Generating hypotheses is at least as important as testing hypotheses. To illustrate this process, we describe the following exploratory study.

Familial comorbidity of bipolar disorder and multiple sclerosis: genetic susceptibility, coexistence or causal relationship?

Our purpose in undertaking the present study was to examine the hypotheses proposed for explaining the frequent comorbidity of bipolar disorder and multiple sclerosis. One hypothesis posits that, when there is comorbidity, MS plays a causal role in psychiatric manifestations. Another suggests that both disorders have a common underlying physiological process that increases the likelihood of their co-occurrence.

Sex differences in neuropsychological functioning among schizophrenia patients.

Objectives: Evidence from the literature addressing sex differences in cognition in schizophrenia remains equivocal, with some researchers suggesting that male schizophrenia patients are more impaired than female subjects, while others report no significant sex differences in cognitive functioning. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the differential pattern of cognitive performance observed in healthy men and women is preserved in male and female schizophrenia patients.

Method: Ninety-six schizophrenia patients (56 men) were compared with 62 age- and gender-ratio matched healthy controls (31 men), on a battery of neuropsychological tests that assessed basic cognitive abilities: attention, working memory, abstraction, inhibition, fluency, verbal learning and memory, visual memory, visuospatial skills, and psychomotor speed.

Effects of sentence context on lexical ambiguity resolution in patients with schizophrenia.

Previous research has suggested that a failure in processing contextual information may account for the heterogeneous clinical manifestations and cognitive impairments observed in schizophrenia. In the domain of language, context processing in schizophrenia has been investigated mostly with single-word semantic priming paradigms; however, natural language comprehension depends on more than semantic relations between words. The present study aimed to systematically assess sentence context effects in homonym meaning activation in patients with schizophrenia.

Do age and education contribute to performance on the clock drawing test? Normative data for the Greek population.

Our purpose in undertaking the present study was to develop norms for the Greek population for the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), using a systematic scoring procedure, and to explore the influence of demographic factors on the performance of healthy individuals. We administered the CDT to 223 healthy adults and scored it according to the method of Freedman et al. (1994).

Quality of life of children and adolescents with diabetes of Northern Greek origin.

Aim: To culturally adapt the diabetes- specific quality of life (QOL) instrument PedsQL 3.0 Diabetes Module (DM) and the generic QOL instrument PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales (GCS) to the population of Greek diabetic children.

Metformine for psychosis associated with the menstrual cycle in a patient with polycystic ovary syndrome.

There are several reports of periodic psychotic disorders that appear in connection with the various phases of the menstrual cycle. Although the pathogenesis of menstrual psychosis has not been systematically investigated, it appears that it might be linked to an estrogen cascade that follows a period of sustained high estrogen levels, as in the case in anovulatory cycles. We present a case of psychosis associated with the menstrual cycle in a patient with polycystic ovary syndrome, a disorder typically characterized by anovulatory cycles, in whom the restoration of normal menstruation with use of metformine led to significant improvement of psychotic symptoms.

Factor structure of the Greek translation of the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication.

Objective: The Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC) is a widely used instrument for the assessment of formal thought disorder. TLC disorders were initially conceptualized as having only two underlying dimensions, a negative and a positive one. But studies of the factorial structure of the TLC have not provided confirmation for the positive-versus-negative distinction.

Impaired perception of affective prosody in remitted patients with bipolar disorder.

Patients with bipolar disorder present deficits in facial emotion perception, both during a manic episode as well as upon recovery. Our goal in the present study was to investigate the ability of remitted patients with bipolar disorder to perceive affective prosody and to explore potential differences in the specific emotions that are troublesome for them. Participants included 19 patients with bipolar disorder I, currently in remission, and 22 healthy comparison subjects, matched on age, education, and gender.

Humor appreciation in remitted patients with bipolar disorder.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate humor appreciation in a group of remitted patients with bipolar disorder. We examined 19 patients (8 men) with bipolar disorder I, currently remitted, and 22 (9 men) healthy controls, matched on age, education, and gender, on a computerized test comprising captionless cartoons, the Penn's Humor Appreciation Test (PHAT). Residual manic symptoms were evaluated with the Young Mania Rating Scale and residual depressive symptoms with the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale.

Humor appreciation deficit in schizophrenia: the relevance of basic neurocognitive functioning.

The purpose in undertaking the present study was to investigate humor appreciation in patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, we sought to explore the potential relationship of humor appreciation with measures of psychopathology and cognitive functioning among the patients. Thirty-six patients with schizophrenia were compared with 31 normal controls matched for age, sex, and education on a computerized test comprising captionless cartoons: Penn's Humor Appreciation Test (PHAT).

Impaired emotion perception in schizophrenia: a differential deficit.

We investigated previously reported contradictory findings regarding the nature of deficits in emotion perception among patients with schizophrenia. Some studies have concluded that such deficits are due to a generalized impairment in visual processing of faces, while others have found it to be restricted to facial emotional expressions. We examined 37 patients and 32 healthy controls, matched on age and education, using three computerized tests: matching facial identity, matching facial emotional expressions, and discrimination of subtle differences in the valence of facial emotional expressions.

Shared cognitive processes underlying performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Stroop Test in patients with schizophrenia: a measurement artifact?

We explored the hypothesis that, while sensitive to different aspects of executive functioning in patients with schizophrenia, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Stroop Test also measure the same construct, namely, inhibitory control. Specifically, our goal was to confirm and extend previous findings [A. Rossi, E.

Impaired perception of affective prosody in schizophrenia.

The authors aimed to explore schizophrenia patients' ability to perceive affective prosody. Specifically, certain emotions that may be more troublesome for patients and possible gender differences in prosody perception were assessed. Thirty six schizophrenia patients and 32 age-, education-, and gender-matched healthy comparison subjects assessed on an affective prosody test were examined.

Neuropsychological profile of cognitively impaired patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: Our purpose in undertaking the present study was to explore the existence of specific areas of cognitive deficits within the context of generalized poor performance in a group of Greek patients with schizophrenia. We also sought to identify any patients who might be cognitively normal.

Method: Participants were 70 patients with schizophrenia and 42 healthy control subjects.

Community dysfunction in schizophrenia: rate-limiting factors.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of cognitive functioning, psychopathology, and severity of extrapyramidal side effects on community outcome in a group of Greek outpatients with schizophrenia. Participants were 40 outpatients with schizophrenia (25 men). Social adjustment was assessed with the Quality of Life Scale (QLS).

Impaired emotion processing in remitted patients with bipolar disorder.

In the present study, we examined whether there is an impairment in affect matching abilities in remitted patients with bipolar disorder and if this could be attributed to problems with facial perception per se and/or the ability to perceive the relative valence of facial expressions indicating emotions. We examined 19 patients with bipolar disorder I, currently remitted, and 30 healthy controls (15 men), matched on age, education, and gender, using two computerized tests: matching facial identity [Kinney's Identity Matching Test (KIMT)] and matching facial emotional expressions [Kinney's Affect Matching Test (KAMT)]. Patients with bipolar disorder performed significantly worse than the healthy group on the KAMT, but not on the KIMT.

Deficits in sustained attention in schizophrenia but not in bipolar disorder.

The aim of the present study was to investigate sustained attention in remitted patients with bipolar disorder and in patients with schizophrenia, as compared to each other and to healthy controls; a secondary aim was to investigate the correlations of different symptom dimensions with performance on sustained attention in the two patient groups. Participants were 29 (18 men) outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ), 19 (8 men) patients with bipolar disorder I (BP) in remission, and 30 (15 men) healthy controls (HC); all three groups were matched on age, sex ratio, and level of education. Symptom severity (positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and general psychopathology) of patients with SZ were assessed with the Greek version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS); residual affective symptoms of patients with BP were assessed with the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).

Verbal fluency in institutionalized patients with schizophrenia: age-related performance decline.

Several studies have reported a relatively stable level of cognitive deficits among patients with schizophrenia regardless of age, while others have suggested continued deterioration with age. We compared the performance of 42 institutionalized patients with schizophrenia and 42 age- and education-matched healthy controls on a semantic and phonemic verbal fluency test. Each group was divided into young participants (<65 years old) and elderly participants (> or =65 years old).

Pathological correlates of poststroke depression in elderly patients.

Objective: The authors examined the relationship between poststroke depression and location of stroke.

Methods: They performed a clinicopathological analysis of 95 consecutively autopsied elderly initial-stroke survivors.

Results: The severity of brain vessel arteriosclerosis and frequency of brain vascular lesions were not significantly different between 21 cases with poststroke depression and 74 cases without.

Disproportionate impairment in semantic verbal fluency in schizophrenia: differential deficit in clustering.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether patients with schizophrenia present disproportionate impairment in semantic, relative to phonemic, fluency. Specifically, we explored whether this impairment could be explained by differential deficits in clustering or switching strategies. The Greek Verbal Fluency Test was administered to 119 patients with schizophrenia and 150 age-, education-, and gender-matched healthy controls.

No increased levels of the nicotine metabolite cotinine in smokers with schizophrenia.

The prevalence of smoking cigarettes has repeatedly been found to be greater in schizophrenia as compared with other psychiatric patients and the general population. Patients with schizophrenia have been found to engage in heavy smoking and consumption of higher doses of nicotine, probably by deeper inhalation of cigarettes. The aim of the current study was to assess nicotine exposure through smoking by measuring urinary cotinine, the major nicotine metabolite, in a group of smokers from Greece of smokers with schizophrenia and smokers from the general population.

Relationship between psychopathology and cognitive functioning in schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study was to delineate the relationship between positive, negative, cognitive, depressive, and excitement symptom dimensions of schizophrenia and cognitive functioning. Fifty-eight patients with schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and a battery of neuropsychological tests (executive function/abstraction, verbal and spatial working memory, verbal and nonverbal memory/learning, attention, visuospatial ability, and psychomotor speed). The cognitive symptom dimension correlated with executive functions, attention, verbal memory, and spatial ability.