A national harmonised data collection network for neurodevelopmental disorders: A transdiagnostic assessment protocol for neurodevelopment, mental health, functioning and well-being.

Background: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders share common phenotypes, support needs and comorbidities. Such overlap suggests the value of transdiagnostic assessment pathways that contribute to knowledge about research and clinical needs of these children and their families. Despite this, large transdiagnostic data collection networks for neurodevelopmental disorders are not well developed.

The Acceptability and Efficacy of Electronic Data Collection in a Hospital Neurodevelopmental Clinic: Pilot Questionnaire Study.

Background: There is a growing need for cost-efficient and patient-centered approaches to support families in hospital- and community-based neurodevelopmental services. For such purposes, electronic data collection (EDC) may hold advantages over paper-based data collection. Such EDC approaches enable automated data collection for scoring and interpretation, saving time for clinicians and services and promoting more efficient service delivery.

A single dose of oxytocin nasal spray improves higher-order social cognition in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is associated with significant impairments in both higher and lower order social cognitive performance and these impairments contribute to poor social functioning. People with schizophrenia report poor social functioning to be one of their greatest unmet treatment needs. Recent studies have suggested the potential of oxytocin as such a treatment, but mixed results render it uncertain what aspects of social cognition are improved by oxytocin and, subsequently, how oxytocin might best be applied as a therapeutic.

A double-blind randomized controlled trial of oxytocin nasal spray and social cognition training for young people with early psychosis.

Social-cognitive deficits contribute to poor functional outcomes in early psychosis; however, no effective pharmacological treatments exist for these problems. This study was the first to investigate the efficacy of an extended treatment of oxytocin nasal spray combined with social cognition training (SCT) to improve social cognition, clinical symptoms, and social functioning in early psychosis. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, between-subjects trial, 52 individuals (aged 16-35 years) diagnosed with an early psychosis schizophrenia-spectrum illness were recruited.

Enhancing memory in late-life depression: the effects of a combined psychoeducation and cognitive training program.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a multifactorial cognitive training (CT) program for older people with a lifetime history of depressive disorder.

Methods: This was a single-blinded waitlist control design. The study was conducted in the Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic, a specialist outpatient clinic at the Brain & Mind Research Institute, Sydney, Australia.

Predictors of outcome three years after diagnosis of first episode psychosis.

This study aimed to determine which of demographic/premorbid, psychiatric or neuropsychological factors best predict functional outcome at 3 years after a first episode of psychotic illness. This will, it is hoped, identify prognostic indicators of longer term outcomes, as well as targets for rehabilitation. The Western Sydney First Episode Psychosis Project collected data on young people (aged 13 to 25) presenting with newly diagnosed psychosis at baseline and 3-year follow-up (n=52).

A randomized controlled trial of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia.

Individuals with schizophrenia have consistently been found to exhibit cognitive deficits, which have been identified as critical mediators of psychosocial functional outcomes. Recent reviews of cognitive remediation (CRT) have concluded that these deficits respond to training. This multi-site community study examined 40 individuals with schizophrenia who underwent cognitive remediation using the Neuropsychological Educational Approach to Remediation(1) (NEAR).

Investigating the neuropsychological and neuroanatomical changes that occur over the first 2-3 years of illness in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

Objective: This study explored the concurrent courses of the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological changes that occurred over the first 2-3 years of illness in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES).

Methods: Fifty-two patients with FES underwent neuropsychological testing and a structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) scan within three months of their first presentation to mental health services with psychotic symptoms (time1). Patients' cognitive performance was evaluated via an extensive neuropsychological test battery, which assessed 9 cognitive domains.

Relative contributions of psychiatric symptoms and neuropsychological functioning to quality of life in first-episode psychosis.

Objective: To report on the relationship between quality of life (QOL), psychiatric symptoms and neuropsychological functioning in a sample of young people who have experienced a first episode of psychosis 2-3 years following initial presentation.

Method: Fifty-one participants aged 15-27 years old completed the short form of the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale (WHOQOL-Bref), a self-report instrument assessing physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects of QOL. A comprehensive neuropsychological battery was administered.