Pragmatic implementation of the Clinical Global Impression Scale of Severity as a tool for measurement-based care in a first-episode psychosis program.

Introduction: Measurement-based care (MBC) is an evidence-based practice wherein clinical decisions are informed by patient data collected throughout treatment. MBC has yielded superior patient outcomes compared to standard care. However, the implementation of MBC in the day-to-day practice, particularly in psychotic disorders, poses several challenges.

Measurement Based Care in a first episode psychosis program: Development of an algorithm of care based on the Clinical Global Impressions Scale.

Introduction: Adherence to therapeutic guidelines in psychiatry is anchored and facilitated by rating scales. However, they are rarely used in routine care, particularly for psychotic disorders. Consequently, adherence to treatment guidelines are not ideal and patient outcomes are often sub-optimal.

Generalizing Duchenne to sad expressions with binocular rivalry and perception ratings.

Discrete emotion theories emphasize the modularity of facial expressions, while functionalist theories suggest that a single facial action may have a common meaning across expressions. Smiles involving the Duchenne marker, eye constriction causing crow's feet, are perceived as intensely positive and sincere. To test whether the Duchenne marker is a general index of intensity and sincerity, we contrasted positive and negative expressions with and without the Duchenne marker in a binocular rivalry paradigm.

An algorithmic approach to the management of insomnia in patients with schizophrenia.

Background: Insomnia is an important problem in patients with schizophrenia and is an emerging area of interest for researchers. We propose a treatment algorithm that synthesizes the various psychological and pharmacological interventions for insomnia in this population.

Methods: Our selective literature review incorporates English language articles from 4 medicine databases through May 2016.

Theory of mind in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia: correlations with clinical assessment and executive functions.

Objective: We examined Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) and their correlation with clinical findings and Executive Functions (EF).

Methods: The ToM abilities of 12 adolescents with EOS were compared with those of healthy participants matched in age and educational level. The Moving Shapes Paradigm was used to explore ToM abilities in three modalities: random movement, goal-directed movement and ToM - scored on the dimensions of intentionality, appropriateness and length of each answer.

[The Usefulness of Clonazepam as an Augmentative Treatment in a Case of Severe Childhood Onset Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder].

The goal of this study is to report on the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a chronic disabling condition that often presents during childhood and adolescence. Reports on adults using clonazepam for the treatment of OCD are more numerous than on children. Clonazepam as an augmentative treatment in OCD is still controversial.

Self-perceived cognitive functioning does not correlate with objective measures of cognition in schizophrenia.

Background: Growing interest in the study of self-perceived cognitive deficits in schizophrenia has been recently observed. The authors validated in a previous study the Subjective Scale To Investigate Cognition into Schizophrenia Tunisian Arabic Version (SSTICS_tun_arab), a self-questionnaire established to collect cognitive complaints in patients with schizophrenia.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between the SSTICS_tun_arab scores and objective cognitive performances.

[The concept of attention].

Background: Attention is a complex function which matches environment's information to the needs of the organism.

Aims: describe the different variety of attention, the attentionnel tests and attentional disorders in the psychiatric pathology.

Methods: review of literature on PUBMED.

[The Tunisian cognitive battery for patients with schizophrenia].

Background: Cognitive disorders are common and severe in schizophrenia. They are also correlated with the functional outcome of the disease. Cognition can not be assessed during a standard clinical interview but needs to be evaluated by means of specific cognitive tasks.

[Tunisian adaptation of Hopkins Verbal Learning Test , Form 1].

Background: Memory impairment and verbal learning are the most common cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) is considered to be the most reliable test to asses memory and verbal learning in this mental illness.

Aims: to create one form of the HVLT which would suit our linguistic and cultural context and to study the characteristics of this test in a group of healthy subjects.

[Evaluation of correlations between cognitive performances and clinical dimensions of schizophrenia].

Background: Schizophrenia is characterised by positive and negative symptoms as well as thought disorders and disorganised behaviour. Multiple cognitive deficits within the areas of memory, attention and executive functions are also associated with schizophrenia. Aim of the study was to proceed to a study of correlations between clinical dimensions of schizophrenia and cognitive functions.

[Cognitive remediation therapy in schizophrenia: a case report].

Background: Despite progress in chemo-therapeutics, schizophrenia remains a chronic disease with occurrence of residual symptoms and drug resistance in 60% of the cases. Besides, cognitive impairment is frequent and highly correlated to social dysfunction seen in patients with schizophrenia. Several cognitive remediation programs have been elaborated.

[Memory impairments during child and adolescent depression].

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate basic performances on verbal memory in treatment-naïve children and adolescents with depression and in healthy control subjects.

Methods: 34 children and adolescents aged 6-16 years, suffering from a first major depressive disorder (DSM IV) and 34 controls matched on sex, age and cognitive ability were evaluated. Psychiatric diagnosis was assessed with the K-SADS-PL.

[Adaptation of a soft-signs scale to children with autism spectrum disorders].

Background: Neurological soft signs (NSS) are endophenotypic markers of schizophrenia, and their high prevalence in pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) support the existence of the spectrum of psychoses. These NSS were evaluated by standardized scales which were not adapted to children with PDD.

Aims: This study aimed to propose an adaptation for children of a scale of NSS already used in adults.

[Attentional impairment in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder].

Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a heterogeneous disorder currently defined by clinical history and behavioral report of impairment. The Attention Network test (ANT) gives measures of different aspects of the complex process of attention.

Aims: We ask if children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will show a characteristic pattern of deficits on this test.

Confirmation for a delayed inhibition of return by systematic sampling in schizophrenia.

Inhibition of return (IOR) is a phenomenon thought to reflect a mechanism to protect the organism from redirecting attention to previously scanned insignificant locations. A number of studies reported altered IOR in schizophrenia patients with a reduction of its amplitude. However, incomplete sampling of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) makes data on IOR time course incomplete.

The self-assessment scale of cognitive complaints in schizophrenia: a validation study in Tunisian population.

Background: Despite a huge well-documented literature on cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, little is known about the own perception of patients regarding their cognitive functioning. The purpose of our study was to create a scale to collect subjective cognitive complaints of patients suffering from schizophrenia with Tunisian Arabic dialect as mother tongue and to proceed to a validation study of this scale.

Methods: The authors constructed the Self-Assessment Scale of Cognitive Complaints in Schizophrenia (SASCCS) based on a questionnaire covering five cognitive domains which are the most frequently reported in the literature to be impaired in schizophrenia.

Candidate genes and neuropsychological phenotypes in children with ADHD: review of association studies.

Background: We reviewed systematically the results of genetic studies investigating associations between putative susceptibility genes for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and neuropsychological traits relevant for this disorder.

Methods: We identified papers for review through the PubMed database.

Results: Twenty-nine studies examined 10 genes (DRD4, DAT1, COMT, DBH, MAOA, DRD5, ADRA2A, GRIN2A, BDNF and TPH2) in relation to neuropsychological traits relevant for ADHD.

No association between the DRD3 Ser9Gly polymorphism and schizophrenia.

Objective: To investigate the association between a Ser9Gly polymorphism of the dopamine D3 receptor gene (DRD3) and schizophrenia.

Methods: 408 schizophrenic patients and 172 control subjects were compared with regard to their DRD3 Ser9Gly genotypic and allelic frequencies. In addition, we carried out a family-based association study including 183 pedigrees (472 subjects) using the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT).

Association study of the trinucleotide repeat polymorphism within SMARCA2 and schizophrenia.

Background: Brahma (BRM) is a key component of the multisubunit SWI/SNF complex, a complex which uses the energy of ATP hydrolysis to remodel chromatin. BRM contains an N-terminal polyglutamine domain, encoded by a polymorphic trinucleotide (CAA/CAG) repeat, the only known polymorphism in the coding region of the gene (SMARCA2). We have examined the association of this polymorphism with schizophrenia in a family-based and case/control study.

CAA insertion polymorphism in the 3'UTR of Nogo gene on 2p14 is not associated with schizophrenia.

The Nogo gene was putatively implicated in schizophrenia based on gene expression and genetic association data. In this study, we attempt to replicate the possible association of the CAA insertion and a nearby TATC deletion with schizophrenia in 204 complete and incomplete triads and in a sample of 462 unrelated cases and 153 controls, all of Caucasian origin. Our genotyping results indicated that neither the trinucleotide insertion polymorphism (CAAins; 43.