Voice Sequelae Following Recovery From COVID-19.

INTRODUCTION: Covid-19 is an infectious disease with a different symptomatic implication depending on each person. There are sequelae in the nervous, cardiovascular, and/or digestive system that involve the approach and multidisciplinary work of different health professionals where the speech therapist is included. In this way, we can speak of a direct relationship between speech therapy and Covid-19; especially in those patients with serious sequelae such as the inability to eat and/or speak and the loss of voice. The damage caused to the laryngeal mucosa triggers the loss of some of the qualities of the voice, limiting oral communication. That is why we can find dysphonias caused by a great weakness, by a continuous overexertion or because of a paralysis of the vocal cords. OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The objective of this study was to identify the patterns of behavior in the biomechanical correlates of people who passed Covid-19 symptomatically with sequelae in voice. METHODS: An experimental study with a total of 21 participants (11 women and 10 men) with sequelae in voice post Covid-19 is presented. Voice samples were collected and biomechanical correlates were analyzed through the Voice Clinical Systems program. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results show different altered biomechanical patterns between men and women that correlate with other infectious diseases.

Diseño y análisis psicométrico de un instrumento para evaluar celos / Design and psychometric analysis of an instrument to assess jealousy

Resumen El objetivo de la presente investigación fue diseñar y analizar las propiedades psicométricas del CECLA, un instrumento para evaluar celos. La prueba se realizó con base en las respuestas de las entrevistas aplicadas a una muestra clínica, que coincidieron con los planteamientos teóricos desde una perspectiva patológica. Para esto, se realizó una investigación de tipo instrumental en la que se contó con una muestra de 1218 personas que contestaron la prueba, de las cuales ocho conformaron la muestra clínica, 408 participaron en la prueba piloto, y 802 en la prueba final. Los participantes fueron hombres y mujeres con edades entre los 18 y los 71 años, de diferente estado civil, orientación sexual, nivel socioeconómico, educativo, ocupación y región de Colombia. Para la validación de contenido participaron doce expertos, ocho psicólogos clínicos y cuatro metodólogos. En definitiva, el instrumento quedó conformado por 19 ítems que evalúan tres clases de celos: pasionales, obsesivos y delirantes. La consistencia interna, la evidencia de validez mediante análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio, la estabilidad temporal, la validez convergente, el ajuste de los ítems al modelo de Rasch y la equivalencia de estos indicadores bajo los dos modelos analizados indican que el CECLA es un instrumento válido, fiable y útil para el objetivo y contexto para el cual fue elaborado.

Abstract The objective of this research was to design and analyze the psychometric properties of CECLA, an instrument to evaluate jealousy. The test was carried out based on the answers to the interviews applied to a clinical sample, which coincided with the theoretical approaches from a pathological perspective. For this purpose, an instrumental research was carried out in which a sample of 1218 people answered the test, of which eight made up the clinical sample, 408 participated in the pilot test, and 802 in the final test. The participants were men and women between the ages of 18 and 71, of different marital status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic and educational level, occupation and region of Colombia. Twelve experts, eight clinical psychologists and four methodologists participated in the validation of the content. In short, the instrument was made up of 19 items that evaluate three kinds of jealousy: passionate, obsessive and delusional. Internal consistency, evidence of validity using exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis, temporal stability, convergent validity, items adjustment to Rasch's model and equivalence of these indicators under the two models analyzed indicate that CECLA is a valid, reliable and useful instrument for the objective and context for which it was elaborated.

[Progression of symptoms in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in treatment with methylphenidate]. / Progresión de los síntomas en niños con trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad en tratamiento con metilfenidato.

Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological disorder frequent in childhood. The main symptoms are attention disorder and/or impulsivity and/or hyperactivity. There are different subtypes of ADHD according to the degree of presence of these three symptoms. There are different therapeutic approaches with high proved effectiveness. Methylphenidate, a stimulant that acts through the dopaminergic and adrenergic pathways, is commonly used for the treatment of ADHD. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural screening instrument internationally used for the screening of mental health problems in children and adolescents. It consists in a 25 items questionnaire with 5 different scales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity / inattention, peer relationship problems and prosocial behaviours. The SDQ score was collected in a sample of ADHD patients with an age between 7 and 12 years. The score obtained before starting treatment with methylphenidate was compared before and after starting treatment, every 3-6 months and up to a period of 2 years. Statistical processing was performed using R, which is a free program for statistical and graphical analysis, that allows temporary analysis. The results indicate that hyperactivity improves throughout the first year of treatment, emotional symptoms and behavioral problems improve during the first 6 months of treatment, pro-social symptoms slowly improve over 2 years. Problems with partners do not improve in the analyzed time.

El trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad (TDAH) es un trastorno neurobiológico frecuente en la infancia. Sus síntomas cardinales involucran a la atención y/o la impulsividad y/o la hiperactividad. Hay diferentes subtipos de TDAH según la expresividad clínica de esos tres síntomas. Hay distintas estrategias terapéuticas de alta efectividad. El metilfenidato, un estimulante que actúa en las vías dopaminérgicas y adrenérgicas, se utiliza con frecuencia en su tratamiento. El Cuestionario de Cualidades y Dificultades (SDQ) es un cuestionario de despistaje breve utilizado para la detección de problemas de salud mental en niños y adolescentes. Consta de 25 preguntas que se distribuyen en 5 escalas: sintomatología emocional, problemas de conducta, hiperactividad/inatención, problemas con los compañeros y conducta prosocial. Se recogió la puntuación del SDQ en una muestra de pacientes con TDAH con una edad situada entre los 7 y 12 años. Se comparó la puntuación obtenida antes de comenzar el tratamiento con metilfenidato y después de comenzar tratamiento, cada 3-6 meses y hasta un periodo de 2 años. Se realizó el procesamiento estadístico mediante R, que es un programa gratuito para análisis estadísticos y gráficos, y permite análisis temporales. Los resultados indican que la hiperactividad mejora a lo largo del primer año de tratamiento, la sintomatología emocional y los problemas de comportamiento mejoran durante los primeros 6 meses de tratamiento, la sintomatología prosocial mejora lentamente a lo largo de los 2 años y los problemas con compañeros no mejoran en el tiempo analizado.

Progresión de los síntomas en niños con trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad en tratamiento con metilfenidato / Progression of symptoms in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in treatment with methylphenidate

El trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad (TDAH) es un trastorno neurobiológico frecuente en la infancia. Sus síntomas cardinales involucran a la atención y/o la impulsividad y/o la hiperactividad. Hay diferentes subtipos de TDAH según la expresividad clínica de esos tres síntomas. Hay distintas estrategias terapéuticas de alta efectividad. El metilfenidato, un estimulante que actúa en las vías dopaminérgicas y adrenérgicas, se utiliza con frecuencia en su tratamiento. El Cuestionario de Cualidades y Dificultades (SDQ) es un cuestionario de despistaje breve utilizado para la detección de problemas de salud mental en niños y adolescentes. Consta de 25 preguntas que se distribuyen en 5 escalas: sintomatología emocional, problemas de conducta, hiperactividad/inatención, problemas con los compañeros y conducta prosocial. Se recogió la puntuación del SDQ en una muestra de pacientes con TDAH con una edad situada entre los 7 y 12 años. Se comparó la puntuación obtenida antes de comenzar el tratamiento con metilfenidato y después de comenzar tratamiento, cada 3-6 meses y hasta un periodo de 2 años. Se realizó el procesamiento estadístico mediante R, que es un programa gratuito para análisis estadísticos y gráficos, y permite análisis temporales. Los resultados indican que la hiperactividad mejora a lo largo del primer año de tratamiento, la sintomatología emocional y los problemas de comportamiento mejoran durante los primeros 6 meses de tratamiento, la sintomatología prosocial mejora lentamente a lo largo de los 2 años y los problemas con compañeros no mejoran en el tiempo analizado.

Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological disorder frequent in childhood. The main symptoms are attention disorder and/or impulsivity and/or hyperactivity. There are different subtypes of ADHD according to the degree of presence of these three symptoms. There are different therapeutic approaches with high proved effectiveness. Methylphenidate, a stimulant that acts through the dopaminergic and adrenergic pathways, is commonly used for the treatment of ADHD. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural screening instrument internationally used for the screening of mental health problems in children and adolescents. It consists in a 25 items questionnaire with 5 different scales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity / inattention, peer relationship problems and prosocial behaviours. The SDQ score was collected in a sample of ADHD patients with an age between 7 and 12 years. The score obtained before starting treatment with methylphenidate was compared before and after starting treatment, every 3-6 months and up to a period of 2 years. Statistical processing was performed using R, which is a free program for statistical and graphical analysis, that allows temporary analysis. The results indicate that hyperactivity improves throughout the first year of treatment, emotional symptoms and behavioral problems improve during the first 6 months of treatment, pro-social symptoms slowly improve over 2 years. Problems with partners do not improve in the analyzed time.

Efficacy of a computer-based cognitive training program to enhance planning skills in 5 to 7-year-old normally-developing children.

We designed and evaluated the efficacy of a computer-based cognitive training program (Executive Function Enhancement Program [EFEP]) to stimulate executive functions through enhancing planning in normally-developing children. A total of 111 Colombian children participated in the study. Fifty-nine (53%) of the children were assigned to the experimental condition (application of the EFEP program) with two levels of planning performance, and fifty-two (47%) to the waiting list control condition with the same two levels of planning. The training program was applied three times a week over six weeks, with post-intervention assessment two weeks after the end of training. A follow-up assessment was carried out three months later. Results showed that the intervention program was particularly effective in the children with lower pre-intervention performance in planning, demonstrating that the program is an efficient therapeutic instrument for enhancing the executive function of planning in children between 5 and 7 years old.

Ansiedad y depresión en la esclerosis múltiple remitente-recidivante: relación con las alteraciones neuropsicológicas y la percepción subjetiva de deterioro cognitivo en pacientes con discapacidad mínima/leve / Anxiety and depression in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: association with neuropsychological performance and subjective cognitive impairment in patients with minimal levels of neurological disability

Introducción. La ansiedad y la depresión son trastornos psiquiátricos vinculados a la Esclerosis Múltiple (EM). Sin embargo, la ansiedad no ha sido prácticamente estudiada. Objetivos. Examinar la asociación de ambos trastornos con el deterioro neuropsicológico y su contribución a la autopercepción de deterioro cognitivo. Sujetos y métodos. Se estudiaron 33 pacientes con EM Remitente-Recidivante y niveles de discapacidad mínima-leve. Instrumentos: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Screening Questionnaire; Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests. El examen neuropsicológico se aplicó a 67 controles. Resultados. La ansiedad y la depresión no están relacionadas con el deterioro neuropsicológico. La gravedad de la sintomatología ansiosa está especialmente asociada a una menor duración de la EM. Ansiedad y depresión están altamente correlacionadas y ambas predicen la percepción subjetiva de deterioro. La capacidad predictiva del HADS-total sobre la percepción subjetiva de deterioro fue similar a la obtenida por las subescalas de ansiedad y depresión por separado. Conclusiones. La autopercepción de deterioro cognitivo en la EMRR con discapacidad mínima podría estar relacionada con un factor de malestar psicológico general compartido por la ansiedad y la depresión. Nuestros resultados resaltan la importancia de detectar y tratar la sintomatología ansiosa en fases iniciales de la EM.

Introduction. Anxiety and depression are common psychiatric symptoms among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, anxiety is relatively under-studied. Aims. To examine the associations of anxiety and depression with cognitive functioning and to evaluate their contribution to subjective cognitive impairment, after accounting for neuropsychological impairment. Subjects and methods. 33 patients with relapsing-remitting MS and minimal levels of disability were evaluated. Assessment measures: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Screening Questionnaire-self report (MSNQ-S); Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests (BRB). We also assessed a group of 67 controls with the BRB. Results. Neuropsychological impairment was not significantly correlated to anxiety or depression. Increased severity of anxiety symptoms was remarkably related with low disease duration. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that anxiety and depression predicted MSNQ-S. Anxiety and depression were highly correlated. HADS total score predicted a similar amount of variance to subjective cognitive impairment, compared with independent anxiety and depression measures. Conclusions. In RR MS patients with minimal levels of neurological disability, cognitive complaints could be related with a component of general psychological distress common to anxiety and depression. Despite this overlap, our study highlights the importance of assessing and treating anxiety symptoms in the first years since onset.