Empathy and the Medical Student House Call: The Effect of Clinical Settings on Empathy in Third Year Medical Students.

Objective: This study measured the effect the experience of house calls might have on third-year medical students.

Methods: Students were surveyed via an anonymous online survey at the start of their geriatrics clerkship, again at the end of their clerkship, and once more three months later. Empathy was measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student version (JSE) and student attitudes towards the geriatrics population was measured using the UCLA Geriatrics Attitudes Scale (GAS).

Evaluating schizotypy and alcohol usage as predictors of increased engagement in risky sexual behaviors in an undergraduate sample.

The window of risk for developing a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder overlaps with young adulthood, a time of increased independence and self-sufficiency. Research suggests that this period is also associated with increased substance use and risky sexual encounters. The current study aimed to examine rates of alcohol usage and risky sexual behaviors in those demonstrating higher rates of schizotypy (i.

The examination of sleep hygiene, quality of life, and schizotypy in young adults.

The co-occurrence of sleep disruption and schizophrenia-spectrum symptomology is common, with current research supporting the use of interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi), which include sleep hygiene education. Sleep hygiene refers to patterns of pre-sleep behaviors that can promote or impair sleep. These behaviors are easily identified and modifiable, potentially holding promise as targets of research and clinical practice.

Schizotypy, Lifestyle Behaviors, and Health Indicators in a Young Adult Sample.

Problematic lifestyle behaviors and high rates of physical illness are well documented in people with schizophrenia, contributing to premature mortality. Yet, there is a notable absence of research examining general lifestyle and health issues in participants at risk for psychosis. This form of research may help identify concerns that exist during prodromal periods related to future outcomes.

Cognitive Failures and the Role of Emotion in Dimensional Schizotypy: A Replication and Extension.

Introduction: Cognitive failures are commonplace within the general population but may be particularly heightened in those with higher levels of schizotypy. This is especially salient in the context of enduring trait and momentary state negative emotion which often contributes to increases in daily impairments, leading to a more debilitating and distracted life. Particularly, individuals with elevated levels of schizotypy may be more likely to experience cognitive failures, especially in the presence of negative trait emotion such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

Acceptability and effectiveness of a novel cycling training on the parkinsonian motor and psychiatric symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia: A pilot study.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that high-speed, low-resistance stationary cycling training (termed as speedwork) alleviates motor symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease. Similar motor symptoms commonly exist in people with schizophrenia (Sz); however, they were neglected in the previous literature.

Objectives: Our objective was to evaluate if speedwork could also be used as a strategy to improve parkinsonian motor symptoms in Sz.

The relationship of categorical and phonological verbal fluency to negative schizotypy and social functioning in a non-clinical sample.

Introduction: Research suggests that levels of schizotypy are related to cognitive and social functioning, with negative schizotypy being particularly related to deficits in verbal fluency (VF) and distinct social skills. Considering the possibility that different VF tasks may involve both shared and unique underlying processes, this study sought to examine the separate contributions of categorical and phonological forms of VF to social functioning in those with varying levels of negative schizotypy.

Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted in which 228 college students completed VF tasks, the SPQ-BR, and a social functioning questionnaire.

Comparative Study of Personality Trait Characteristics and Reactivity in Schizophrenia Using a Film Clip Paradigm.

The empirical examination of personality characteristics related to the experience of strong negative emotions and the associated physiological response may help account for idiosyncratic responses to life events in schizophrenia. The current study examines the relationship between levels of neuroticism and arousability and physiological and emotional reactivity during the viewing of film clips with differing emotional valance. Data were collected on emotional and cardiovascular and cortisol reactivity across experimental conditions for a sample of outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia and a comparison group of nonpsychiatric controls.

Vocal acoustic analysis as a biometric indicator of information processing: implications for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Vocal expression reflects an integral component of communication that varies considerably within individuals across contexts and is disrupted in a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. There is reason to suspect that variability in vocal expression reflects, in part, the availability of "on-line" resources (e.g.

Internal versus external auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia: symptom and course correlates.

Introduction: The auditory hallucinations associated with schizophrenia are phenomenologically diverse. "External" hallucinations classically have been considered to reflect more severe psychopathology than "internal" hallucinations, but empirical support has been equivocal.

Methods: We examined associations of "internal" versus "external" hallucinations with (1) other characteristics of the hallucinations, (2) severity of other symptoms and (3) course of illness variables, in a sample of 97 stable outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who experienced auditory hallucinations.

Speech deficits in serious mental illness: a cognitive resource issue?

Speech deficits, notably those involved in psychomotor retardation, blunted affect, alogia and poverty of content of speech, are pronounced in a wide range of serious mental illnesses (e.g., schizophrenia, unipolar depression, bipolar disorders).

Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised: psychometric replication and extension.

The psychometric screening and detection of schizotypy through the use of concise self-report assessment instruments such as the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised (SPQ-BR; Cohen, Matthews, Najolia, & Brown, 2010) enables an expeditious identification of individuals at putatively elevated risk to develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Using 2 large, culturally diverse, independent samples, this study expanded the psychometric evaluation of this instrument by presenting a series of confirmatory factor analyses; reviewing internal consistency reliabilities; and evaluating the construct validity of the scale by way of examining group differences in SPQ-BR scores between individuals with and without self-reported family histories of schizophrenia. The results indicate a 2-tier factor solution of the measure and indicate strong internal reliability for the scale.

The development of the Lifestyle and Habits Questionnaire-brief version: relationship to quality of life and stress in college students.

The authors describe the development and preliminary evaluation of the Lifestyle and Habits Questionnaire-brief version (LHQ-B). Three hundred seventy-seven undergraduate students (ages 18-25) participated. Responses were collected through either a web-based or face-to-face survey.

On the boundaries of blunt affect/alogia across severe mental illness: implications for Research Domain Criteria.

There is growing awareness that reduced expressive behaviors (e.g., blunt affect, alogia, psychomotor retardation) are characteristic of a range of psychiatric conditions, including mood and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Oil and water or oil and vinegar? Evidence-based medicine meets recovery.

With the increasing prominence of the notions of "recovery" and "recovery-oriented practice," practitioners, program managers, and system leaders are increasingly asking about the relationship between "evidence-based practices" and recovery. After reviewing the concepts of recovery from mental illness, being in recovery with a mental illness, recovery-oriented care, and evidence-based medicine, the authors argue for a complementary relationship between recovery and evidence-based practices. This relationship is neither simple nor straightforward, but results in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts through which each element benefits from the influence of the other.

Attribution biases in schizophrenia: relationship to clinical and functional impairments.

Background: Patients with schizophrenia exhibit impairment in their ability to accurately recognize facial emotions in others, and the severity of this emotion perception deficit has been associated with poorer functioning. However, the mechanisms underlying facial emotion perception deficits are poorly understood. There is evidence to suggest that patients, particularly those with certain positive symptoms, may misinterpret other people's facial expressions as having an overly negative valence.

Remission and recovery in schizophrenia: practitioner and patient perspectives.

Schizophrenia remains a complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional, and poorly understood condition. Although the concept of heterogeneity in outcome has conceptually overturned the post Kraepelinian legacy of progressive deterioration, a number of factors appear to contribute to perpetuating a pessimistic attitude toward outcome within the field. These include the limited access people with schizophrenia have to effective interventions and the phenomenon of the "clinician's illusion," which refers to the tendency of practitioners to assume that patients remain seriously ill when outside of the clinical care settings in which they are typically seen.

Computerized measurement of negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Accurate measurement of negative symptoms is crucial for understanding and treating schizophrenia. However, current measurement strategies are reliant on subjective symptom rating scales, which often have psychometric and practical limitations. Computerized analysis of patients' speech offers a sophisticated and objective means of evaluating negative symptoms.

Normal personality characteristics in schizophrenia: a review of the literature involving the FFM.

Schizophrenia is generally viewed as a disruption of normal functioning because of an underlying core illness. A number of theorists have speculated that this core illness may unilaterally disrupt normal personality functioning. However, recent data suggests that the relationship may be more complex and reciprocal than previously conceptualized.

The cognitive origins of specific types of schizophrenic speech disturbances.

Objective: Cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia might be expected to have a marked impact on the ability to produce coherent speech, yet associations between cognitive performance and speech disorder have typically been weak. Findings on this question may have been limited by measurement methods and by the heterogeneity of speech disorder. This study examined the contributions of impairments in sustained attention and sequencing abilities to schizophrenic speech disorder, measured in terms of communication failures and divided into different types of disorder.

Attentional dysfunction, social perception, and social competence: what is the nature of the relationship?

The aim of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between attentional dysfunction and social competence deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Attentional functioning, social perception, and social competence were assessed in 56 inpatients. Measures of vigilance and span of apprehension were administered to assess attentional functioning.

Diminished emotionality and social functioning in schizophrenia.

There is indirect evidence to suggest that a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia exhibit a diminished capacity to experience both positive and negative emotions. To date however, no studies have focused specifically on this diminished emotionality (DE). The main objective of the present project was to determine whether patients with self-reported DE differed from other patients in level of social functioning, physical and social anhedonia, and negative/deficit symptoms.

Stress and arousability in schizophrenia.

This paper examines trait arousability (TA), a temperament characteristic, in 47 stable outpatients with schizophrenia and 50 non-psychiatric controls. Self-reported levels of stress were obtained during a negative and positive memory speech task. Levels of TA, and the association of TA scores with reported stress during the speech tasks, were examined both between and within groups.

Self-reported stress and the deficit syndrome of schizophrenia.

GENERALLY speaking, schizophrenia is not associated with diminished positive and negative emotions. Even patients with negative symptoms such as blunted affect have generally not differed in their levels of self-reported emotionality compared to patients without negative symptoms. However, there is evidence to suggest that a subgroup of patients with negative symptoms, those with the deficit syndrome, have a diminished capacity to experience positive and negative emotions.