2008 in Review Am J Psychiatry (subscription) - The paper by Veling and colleagues in the January issue (1) adds a critical piece of information to the schizophrenia literature, explaining the curious ...
Brain Compound 'Throws Gasoline Onto The Fire' Of Schizophrenia Science Daily (press release) - Nov 18, 2008 Though schizophrenia is commonly characterized by hallucinations and delusions, patients also have problems with what is known as cognitive flexibility or ...
From the Editor?s desk British Journal of Psychiatry, UK - Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug now showing evidence of efficacy in a very large range of psychiatric disorders, not only schizophrenia and ...
New theory suggests genetic origins of mental illness CTV.ca, Canada - Nov 23, 2008 If the father's genes are silenced, the effect could be a hyper-developed social brain, which is associated with schizophrenia. Crespi began working on this ...
Targacept, Inc. Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript Seeking Alpha, NY - Nov 20, 2008 There is currently no product approved specifically for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction and schizophrenia, and we believe the potential market is ...TRGT
Kynurenic Acid may be Behind Problem-solving Deficits in ... MedIndia, India - Nov 21, 2008 Apart from hallucinations and delusions, schizophrenia patients also have problems with what is known as cognitive flexibility or executive decision-making. ...
Extending the frontiers of artificial intelligence EUROPA, Belgium - Nov 27, 2008 The world of artificial cognitive systems and machine learning is moving at a fast pace and is becoming a major international research challenge. ...
Lundbeck expands its pipeline - initiating phase II clinical ... Ad-Hoc-News (Pressemitteilung), Germany - Nov 25, 2008 However, even in stable periods, many patients suffer from cognitive disturbances that make it difficult to establish and maintain social contacts, ...
Shrink rap WHOI, IL - Nov 21, 2008 Schizophrenia is marked by the presence of unusual thoughts or perceptions (like hearing voices that aren?t there), loss of ability to take part in daily ...
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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: schizophrenia + 832,000 + web Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)
Schizophrenia risk gene identified News Wales, UK - Scientists from Cardiff University have identified a risk gene associated with the mental health disorder schizophrenia. An international group of ...
Unusual Chromosomal Changes Oneindia, India - "The results strongly support the notion that schizophrenia may be partly caused by the effects of such structural changes in genes, both across the whole ...
Study: Schizophrenia is price of evolution United Press International - 4 (UPI) -- British, German and Chinese researchers say they've determined schizophrenia is an unfortunate consequence of the rapid evolution of the human ...
Preoperative Cardiac Evaluation: When Should the Surgeon Consult the Cardiologist? - M Koizumi, N Sata, Y Yasuda, H Nagai, Y Saito, Y … - Surgery Today, 2006 - Springer ... Fatty liver 5 0.6 2 0.8 Schizophrenia 5 0.6 0 0 ... Examinations Cost (JPY) Cases Total
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Cognitive deficits unique to social functioning in schizophrenia
There are specific cognitive deficits that appear to impact uniquely on social functioning in patients with schizophrenia, say investigators who note that they differ from those identified in individuals with bipolar affective disorder.
"If specific cognitive deficits uniquely predict functional impairment in schizophrenia, the association of select aspects of brain dysfunction with daily living would suggest an intervention target and perhaps a means by which to improve the functioning of schizophrenia patients," JoAn Laes and Scott Sponheim from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA, observe.
The researchers investigated the relationship between cognition and social functioning in 39 patients with schizophrenia, 27 with bipolar affective disorder, and 38 mentally healthy individuals.
Generalized cognitive function and symptomatology both contributed to social functioning, but in each case the impact was greater among patients with schizophrenia than for those with bipolar disorder.
Specifically, generalized cognitive function accounted for 11.8% of the variance in social function in schizophrenia patients, for 2.1% of the variance in patients with bipolar disorder, and 14.3% in the mentally healthy individuals. The values for symptomatology were 22.2% for schizophrenia patients compared with just 8.4% for those with bipolar disorder.
After taking into account generalized cognitive function, the investigators note that, of the cognitive indices, secondary verbal memory contributed to social functioning in the schizophrenia patients, explaining 11.9% of the variance, but not in the patients with bipolar disorder.
"Difficulty with encoding, retaining, and retrieving verbal materials appears to be a unique and significant impediment for schizophrenia patients trying to function in the community," Laes and Sponheim comment in the journal Schizophrenia Research.
In contrast, they found that bipolar disorder patients with worse planning and problem solving were those with the worst social functioning.
The researchers note that several studies have demonstrated that verbal memory dysfunction may serve as a specific target for intervention in schizophrenia, which in turn could help improve social function.
