The efficacy of SMS text messages to compensate for the effects of cognitive impairments in schizophrenia.

Background And Aims: Many people with schizophrenia have severe cognitive impairments that hamper their activities. The effect of pharmacological and behavioural interventions on cognitive functioning has been demonstrated, but even after successful intervention considerable impairments can remain. Therefore, we sought for alternative ways to help patients cope with the effects of their cognitive impairments.

The predictive value of measures of social cognition for community functioning in schizophrenia: implications for neuropsychological assessment.

The objective of this study was to examine the unique contribution of social cognition to the prediction of community functioning and to explore the relevance of social cognition for clinical practice. Forty-six schizophrenia patients and 53 healthy controls were assessed with tests of social cognition [emotion perception and Theory of Mind (ToM)], general cognition, and, within the patient sample, psychiatric symptoms. Community functioning was rated by nurses or family members.

Impaired perception of negative emotional prosody in schizophrenia.

This paper aims to report on the perception of emotional prosody in schizophrenia and to discuss its relationship with performance on neurocognitive measures. It consists of a comparison of 20 clinically stable schizophrenia patients with 20 healthy controls. Schizophrenia patients were impaired in emotional prosody perception, in particular in the perception of negative emotions.

Deviant strategy on The Modified Six Elements Test in patients with schizophrenia.

Impaired executive functioning is found in a considerable proportion of schizophrenia patients. Neuropsychological tests are originally designed to measure the behavior of neurological patients and may therefore miss psychiatry-related cognitive deficits. Qualitative information on tests for executive functioning is important in psychiatric populations.

Measuring the executive functions in schizophrenia: the voluntary allocation of effort.

Introduction: Executive functioning reflects not only what a patient does, but also how he does it or whether he does it at all [Lezak MD. The problem of assessing executive functions. Int.

What is measured by verbal fluency tests in schizophrenia?

Introduction: Schizophrenia patients perform below the norm on verbal fluency tests. The causes for this are unknown, but defective memory, executive functioning and psychomotor speed may play a role.

Method: We examined 50 patients with schizophrenia and related disorders, and 25 healthy controls with a cognitive test battery containing tests for verbal memory, executive functioning and psychomotor speed, and a categorical fluency test.

Cognitive deficits and social functioning in schizophrenia: a clinical perspective.

Impaired social functioning is one of the diagnostic features of schizophrenia. Cognitive functioning is also often impaired in several domains. Meta-analysis has shown a predictive value of cognition for a variety of domains related to social functioning (Green, Kern, Braff, & Mintz, 2000).

Disturbed cognitive functioning and clinical symptoms: two independent problem areas in schizophrenia.

Background: Research findings on the relationship between cognitive functioning and psychiatric symptoms in schizophrenia have yielded inconsistent results. Although several models were postulated linking cognition and symptoms, the most recent studies point in the direction of cognition and symptoms being relatively independent disease processes.

Objective: The hypothesis that cognitive decline and psychiatric symptoms are independent disease processes was tested.

Low IQ scores in schizophrenia: primary or secondary deficit?

Background: Schizophrenia is consistently associated with lower IQ compared to the IQ of control groups, or estimated premorbid IQ. It is not likely that the IQ scores deteriorate during the prodromal phase or first psychotic episode; they are already present before the onset of the prodromal phase and have been detected in childhood.

Methods: We investigated cognitive functioning and IQ levels in a group of 36 patients with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders.

Attention and driving in traumatic brain injury: a question of coping with time-pressure.

Background: Diffuse and focal traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result in perceptual, cognitive, and motor dysfunction possibly leading to activity limitations in driving. Characteristic dysfunctions for severe diffuse TBI are confronted with function requirements derived from the hierarchical task analysis of driving skill.

Objective: Specifically, we focus on slow information processing, divided attention, and the development of procedural knowledge.

[Cognitive impairments among older drivers: medical examination and driving test].

The aim of this study was to gain insight in the prevalence of cognitive impairments among active older drivers and in driving performance of cognitively impaired ones. The study was implemented in the existing Dutch relicensing procedure for older drivers and consisted of three evaluation moments: a medical screening (for all subjects), a neuropsychological assessment and a test-drive (for candidates with cognitive impairments). In total, 2992 drivers were medically evaluated.

Fitness to drive in older drivers with cognitive impairment.

This paper is a literature review on assessment of fitness to drive in older drivers with cognitive impairment. Early studies on dementia and driving generally failed to distinguish between safe and unsafe drivers on the basis of cognitive test performance. Predictive studies demonstrated that cognitively impaired persons as a group perform significantly worse than controls on both neuropsychological and driving measures.

The influence of voluntary upper body exercise on the performance of stimulated paralysed human quadriceps.

In this study the influence of voluntary upper body exercise on the performance of stimulated paralysed human quadriceps was investigated in five subjects with spinal cord lesions in the thoracic spine. The experimental setup consisted of computer-controlled stimulation of the quadriceps using electrodes on the surface of the skin, a dynamometer for isometric or isokinetic loading of the lower leg, and a rowing ergometer for upper body exercise. In all subjects, quadriceps fatigue tests were conducted to study the influence of upper body exercise on knee torque during sustained continuous or intermittent stimulation of quadriceps.