[From life events to symptoms of anxiety and depression: the role of dysfunctional attitudes and coping].

Unlabelled: The aim of the present study was a systematic path-analytical investigation between the effects of life events, dysfunctional attitudes and coping strategies in relation with the exhibited depressive and anxiety symptoms in patients with mental disorders.

Methods: Self-report data of 234 patients from our outpatient psychotherapy unit were analyzed. Life events, dysfunctional attitudes, coping strategies as well as symptoms of anxiety and depression were assessed by self-administerd questionnaires.

Event-related theta synchronization predicts deficit in facial affect recognition in schizophrenia.

Growing evidence suggests that abnormalities in the synchronized oscillatory activity of neurons in schizophrenia may lead to impaired neural activation and temporal coding and thus lead to neurocognitive dysfunctions, such as deficits in facial affect recognition. To gain an insight into the neurobiological processes linked to facial affect recognition, we investigated both induced and evoked oscillatory activity by calculating the Event Related Spectral Perturbation (ERSP) and the Inter Trial Coherence (ITC) during facial affect recognition. Fearful and neutral faces as well as nonface patches were presented to 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 matched healthy controls while EEG was recorded.

Emotion-related visual mismatch responses in schizophrenia: impairments and correlations with emotion recognition.

Background And Objectives: Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an event-related potential (ERP) measure of preattentional sensory processing. While deficits in the auditory MMN are robust electrophysiological findings in schizophrenia, little is known about visual mismatch response and its association with social cognitive functions such as emotion recognition in schizophrenia. Our aim was to study the potential deficit in the visual mismatch response to unexpected facial emotions in schizophrenia and its association with emotion recognition impairments, and to localize the sources of the mismatch signals.

Fearful face recognition in schizophrenia: an electrophysiological study.

Background: Emotional expressions are important acts of communication, and impairment in facial emotion recognition has been shown to be related to impairments in social cognition in schizophrenia. We used an event-related potential (ERP) paradigm to identify and delineate the temporal characteristics in the electrophysiological cascade related to fearful facial affect processing in patients with schizophrenia as compared to healthy controls.

Methods: Twenty-four subjects with schizophrenia and 24 individually matched healthy controls participated in an emotion recognition task.

Processing of unattended facial emotions: a visual mismatch negativity study.

Facial emotions express our internal states and are fundamental in social interactions. Here we explore whether the repetition of unattended facial emotions builds up a predictive representation of frequently encountered emotions in the visual system. Participants (n=24) were presented peripherally with facial stimuli expressing emotions while they performed a visual detection task presented in the center of the visual field.

[Gamma oscillation synchronization in schizophrenia--literature review].

Introduction: Gamma oscillation - as a basic operating mode of cortical networks - has received considerable interest in the the current EEG literature. Research in the field of gamma synchronization in schizophrenia has become the focus of psychiatry research in the past two decades, obtaining significant attention from the beginning, since the idea that a deficit in synchronization, especially in gamma oscillation synchronization might play a principal role in certain schizophrenia symptoms has emerged.

Methods: In our review we aim to provide a brief description of the theoretical background, as well as an overview of differences in gamma oscillation synchronization observed in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls.

[Event-related potentials associated with error detection in adult ADHD--literature review].

Introduction: According to a recent assessment the prevalence of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was 1.5% in the Hungarian adult population (1), which is in line with previous results indicating that ADHD is a disorder of high prevalence. The core symptoms, including the attention deficit, the hyperactivity and impulsivity are all characteristics that have a significant impact on cognitive functions.

[Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: an electrophysiological review].

Deficits in social cognition in schizophrenia have been shown to be among the main factors predicting functional impairment. Facial emotion perception is a basic component of social cognition and other higher-level social cognitive processes. In our review we aim to give an overview of findings investigating the electrophysiological correlates of facial emotion recognition, and summarize previous findings relating to the nature of the deficit in schizophrenia as compared to healthy controls.

Pharmacotherapy of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a meta-analysis.

Our objective was to conduct a meta-analysis of therapeutic efficacy of pharmacological treatment of adult ADHD based on data from controlled clinical trials. We used the search engines PubMed and Medline to identify relevant clinical trials. Short-term studies with double-blind parallel-group design were selected for the analysis.

[The relationship between cognition and functional outcome in schizophrenia].

Schizophrenia is associated with poor functional outcome, which has been shown to be associated with cognitive impairment, a core feature of the illness. The aim of the present study is to provide an overview of measurements of cognitive deficit and everyday functioning in schizophrenia. The authors demonstrate that cognitive impairment is a predictor of subsequent functional outcome measures by reviewing the relevant cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

[Measuring the cognitive deficit associated with schizophrenia: presentation of the MATRICS neuropsychological test battery].

The aim of the present study is to introduce and give an overview of the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) neurocognitive test battery, which has been recently developed in the United States specifically for the assessment of neurocognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia. The MATRICS test battery consists of 10 individually administered tests to measure cognitive performance in the following 7 domains: speed of processing, attention/vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition. Besides giving a detailed description of the test, the authors also aim to point out the advantages and novel features of the test compared to already existing neuropsychological test batteries used to assess cognition in patients with schizophrenia.