Pilot Test of Using Peer Specialists to Deliver Cognitive-Behavioral Social Skills Training.

A pilot study of Veterans with serious mental illness assessed fidelity and preliminary outcomes of peer specialist (PS)-delivered Cognitive-Behavioral Social Skills Training (CBSST). A single-arm, baseline-post pilot involved 4 PSs and 12 Veterans, split between two sites. Five functioning and symptom measures were administered before and after the 12-week intervention.

Mobile-Assisted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Negative Symptoms: Open Single-Arm Trial With Schizophrenia Patients.

Background: Negative symptoms are an important unmet treatment need for schizophrenia. This study is a preliminary, open, single-arm trial of a novel hybrid intervention called mobile-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy for negative symptoms (mCBTn).

Objective: The primary aim was to test whether mCBTn was feasible and could reduce severity of the target mechanism, defeatist performance attitudes, which are associated with experiential negative symptoms and poor functioning in schizophrenia.

Modulation of frontal gamma oscillations improves working memory in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder that is associated with cognitive deficits. Impairments in cognition occur early in the course of illness and are associated with poor functional outcome, but have been difficult to treat with conventional treatments. Recent studies have implicated abnormal neural network dynamics and impaired connectivity in frontal brain regions as possible causes of cognitive deficits.

What Do People With Schizophrenia Do All Day? Ecological Momentary Assessment of Real-World Functioning in Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a major cause of disability worldwide. As new treatments for functioning are tested, the need grows to demonstrate real-world functioning gains. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) may provide a more ecologically valid measure of functioning.

Neurocognitive and theory of mind deficits and poor social competence in schizophrenia: The moderating role of social disinterest attitudes.

Neurocognitive and theory of mind deficits, dysfunctional attitudes, and negative symptoms have all been linked to poor functioning in schizophrenia, but interactions among these factors have not been extensively examined. We investigated whether dysfunctional attitudes (e.g.

Pupillary Responses as a Biomarker of Diminished Effort Associated With Defeatist Attitudes and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia.

Background: The hypothesis that defeatist performance attitudes are associated with decreased goal-directed task effort and negative symptoms in consumers with schizophrenia was investigated by using pupillary responses as a biomarker of task effort. Pupillary dilation during cognitive tasks provides a biomarker of effort devoted to the task, with greater dilation indicating greater effort.

Methods: Defeatist attitudes were assessed in 149 consumers with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 50 healthy control subjects, and consumers were divided into three groups (tertile split) with respect to severity of defeatist attitudes.

Randomized clinical trial of cognitive behavioral social skills training for schizophrenia: improvement in functioning and experiential negative symptoms.

Objective: Identifying treatments to improve functioning and reduce negative symptoms in consumers with schizophrenia is of high public health significance.

Method: In this randomized clinical trial, participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N = 149) were randomly assigned to cognitive behavioral social skills training (CBSST) or an active goal-focused supportive contact (GFSC) control condition. CBSST combined cognitive behavior therapy with social skills training and problem-solving training to improve functioning and negative symptoms.

Randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral social skills training for older consumers with schizophrenia: defeatist performance attitudes and functional outcome.

Objectives: To determine whether Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training (CBSST) is an effective psychosocial intervention to improve functioning in older consumers with schizophrenia, and whether defeatist performance attitudes are associated with change in functioning in CBSST.

Design: An 18-month, single-blind, randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Outpatient clinic at a university-affiliated Veterans Affairs hospital.

Mobile Assessment and Treatment for Schizophrenia (MATS): a pilot trial of an interactive text-messaging intervention for medication adherence, socialization, and auditory hallucinations.

Mobile Assessment and Treatment for Schizophrenia (MATS) employs ambulatory monitoring methods and cognitive behavioral therapy interventions to assess and improve outcomes in consumers with schizophrenia through mobile phone text messaging. Three MATS interventions were developed to target medication adherence, socialization, and auditory hallucinations. Participants received up to 840 text messages over a 12-week intervention period.

Neuropsychological functioning and outcomes of treatment for co-occurring depression and substance use disorders.

Background: We previously published findings from our clinical trial comparing treatment outcomes for substance-dependent veterans with co-occurring depression who received Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ICBT) or Twelve-Step Facilitation (TSF) Therapy.

Objectives: This study is a secondary analysis that examined whether neuropsychological functioning at baseline moderated substance use and depression outcomes in ICBT relative to TSF.

Methods: This study was a randomized clinical trial in which 164 veterans with major depressive disorder and comorbid alcohol, cannabinol, and/or stimulant dependence were randomly assigned to either ICBT or TSF group therapy.

Normal-state hourglass dispersion of the spin excitations in FeSexTe(1-x).

We use cold neutron spectroscopy to study the low-energy spin excitations of superconducting (SC) FeSe0.4Te0.6 and essentially nonsuperconducting (NSC) FeSe0.

Age-related practice effects across longitudinal neuropsychological assessments in older people with schizophrenia.

Unlabelled: The relationship between aging and practice effects on longitudinal neuropsychological assessments was investigated in middle-aged and older people with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

Method: Older people with schizophrenia (n = 107; M age = 56.1) and age-comparable nonpsychiatric controls (n = 107; M age = 57.

Insight and treatment outcome with cognitive-behavioral social skills training for older people with schizophrenia.

Poor insight (awareness of having a mental illness that requires treatment) is common in schizophrenia and typically predicts poor outcome, yet greater insight has been linked to negative outcomes, including hopelessness. This study focused on two questions: (1) Does insight moderate the effects of cognitive-behavioral social skills training (CBSST) on functional outcomes in schizophrenia? (2) Does a specific type of insight (e.g.

Efficient and economic HPLC performance qualification.

Analytical instrument qualification (AIQ) is a prerequisite for any analytical method validation and thus must be considered as a vital basis of analytical data integrity and quality in pharmaceutical analysis. There is a well-established system of qualification phases-Design Qualification, Installation Qualification (IQ), Operational Qualification (OQ) and Performance Qualification (PQ). As HPLC systems are "off the shelf" equipment, Design Qualification may be disregarded here.

Social disinterest attitudes and group cognitive-behavioral social skills training for functional disability in schizophrenia.

The majority of clinical trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for schizophrenia have used individual therapy to target positive symptoms. Promising results have been found, however, for group CBT interventions and other treatment targets like psychosocial functioning. CBT for functioning in schizophrenia is based on a cognitive model of functional outcome in schizophrenia that incorporates dysfunctional attitudes (eg, social disinterest, defeatist performance beliefs) as mediators between neurocognitive impairment and functional outcome.

Neuropsychological predictors of functional outcome in Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training for older people with schizophrenia.

Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training (CBSST) is a 24-session weekly group therapy intervention to improve functioning in people with schizophrenia. In our prior randomized clinical trial comparing treatment as usual (TAU) with TAU plus group CBSST (Granholm, E., McQuaid, J.

Randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral social skills training for older people with schizophrenia: 12-month follow-up.

Objective: There is an increasing need for empirically validated psychotherapy interventions that improve functioning in older people with schizophrenia. We developed a 24-session weekly group therapy intervention labeled Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training (CBSST), which combined cognitive-behavioral therapy with social skills and problem-solving training to improve functioning.

Method: We previously reported end-of-treatment findings from a randomized controlled trial that compared treatment as usual (TAU) with TAU plus group CBSST in 76 outpatients, 42 to 74 years of age, with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (DSM-IV criteria).

Urinary excretion of arbutin metabolites after oral administration of bearberry leaf extracts.

An HPLC assay with fluorimetric detection of the arbutin metabolites hydroquinone glucuronide (2) and hydroquinone sulphate (6) in urine was developed and validated. Methylarbutin (4) and 6 were synthesised as reference substances. Compound 2 was prepared enzymatically from hydroquinone and uridine 5'-diphosphoglucuronic acid using the glucosyltransferase system of rat liver microsomes and enriched by two liquid-liquid and an additional solid phase extraction.