Digital Technology for Internet Access by Patients With Early-Stage Schizophrenia in Spain: Multicenter Research Study.

BACKGROUND: Digital technology and social networks are part of everyday life in the current internet age, especially among young people. To date, few studies have been published worldwide on the pattern of use of digital technology devices and applications in patients with early-stage schizophrenia and even fewer comparing them with healthy participants (not using data from general population surveys) from the same demographic areas. In Spain, no such study has been carried out. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze how patients with early-stage schizophrenia use internet and social networks compared with healthy participants matched by age and gender and also to examine which devices are utilized to access internet resources. METHODS: A cross-sectional, multicentric study was carried out through a semistructured interview asking about the use of digital technology devices and internet. The sample comprised 90 patients and 90 healthy participants. The semistructured interview was conducted on 30 outpatients and 30 healthy subjects in each of the 3 different cities (Madrid, Alicante, and Cuenca). Student t test was used for continuous variables and chi-square test for categorical variables. In the case of ordinal variables, nonparametric Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests for independent samples were performed to compare groups. RESULTS: The results indicated that a large proportion of patients with early-stage schizophrenia have access to different digital devices and use them frequently. In addition, both groups coincide in the order of preference and the purpose for which they use the devices. However, a lower frequency of use of most digital technology devices was detected in patients compared with healthy participants. In the case of some devices, this was due to the impossibility of access and not a lack of interest. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze patterns of internet access and use of digital technology devices and applications in Spanish patients with early-stage schizophrenia compared with healthy participants from the same demographic areas. The results on significant access and use of digital technology and internet shown in this cross-sectional study will allow enhanced and more efficient treatment strategies to be planned, utilizing digital technology devices, for patients with early-stage schizophrenia.

Cognitive versus emotional modulation within a Stroop paradigm in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a complex disorder involving deficits in both cognitive and emotional processes. Specifically, a marked deficit in cognitive control has been found, which seems to increase when dealing with emotional information. AIMS: With the aim of exploring the possible common links behind cognitive and emotional deficits, two versions of the emotional Stroop task were administered. METHOD: In the cognitive-emotional task, participants had to name the ink colour (while ignoring the meaning) of emotional words. In contrast, the emotional-emotional task consisted of emotional words superimposed on emotional faces, and the participants had to indicate the emotional valence of the faces. Fifty-eight participants (29 in-patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 29 controls) took part in the study. RESULTS: Patients and controls showed similar response times in the cognitive-emotional task; however, patients were significantly slower than controls in the emotional-emotional task. This result supports the idea that patients show a more pronounced impairment in conflict modulation with emotional content. Besides, no significant correlations between the tasks and positive or negative symptoms were found. This would indicate that deficits are relatively independent of the clinical status of patients. However, a significant correlation between the emotional-emotional task and cognitive symptoms was found. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest a restricted capacity of patients with schizophrenia to deal with the attentional demands arising from emotional stimuli.

Neighborhood Vulnerability and Disability in First Episode of Psychosis: A Multilevel Study.

Objective: Neighborhood socioeconomic status seems to be related to functioning in patients with first episode of psychosis (FEP). The present study aimed to assess if neighborhood vulnerability and risk of social exclusion could predict functional outcomes in people with FEP after controlling for other key variables identified in previous literature.Methods: A total of 137 patients with FEP (DSM-IV-TR criteria) and 90 controls comprised the study sample from February 2013 to May 2019. Functioning was assessed with the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule. Neighborhood vulnerability was measured using a multidimensional socioeconomic deprivation index; data for the index were collected by the Madrid City Council and based on the participant's home address. Multilevel mixed-effects regression analyses were conducted to estimate the effects of neighborhood vulnerability on functioning.Results: Our results show that FEP patients could be more vulnerable to the effects of neighborhood-level characteristics than healthy controls (B = 1,570.173; z = 3.91; P < .001). In addition, our findings suggest that higher neighborhood vulnerability is related to greater functional disability in people with FEP, after controlling for other relevant confounders (B = 1,230.332; z = 2.59; P = .010).Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of incorporating contextual factors into assessment of patients with FEP, since psychosocial difficulties observed in these patients could be partially related to the quality of neighborhood social-related resources.

Social cognition remediation interventions: A systematic mapping review.

BACKGROUND: Impairments in social cognition have been described in several psychiatric and neurological disorders. Given the importance of the relationship between social cognition and functioning and quality of life in these disorders, there is a growing interest in social cognition remediation interventions. The aim of this study was to carry out a systematic mapping review to describe the state of the art in social cognition training and remediation interventions. METHODS: Publications from 2006 to 2016 on social cognition interventions were reviewed in four databases: Scopus, PsycINFO, PubMed and Embase. From the initial result set of 3229 publications, a final total of 241 publications were selected. RESULTS: The study revealed an increasing interest in social cognition remediation interventions, especially in the fields of psychiatry and psychology, with a gradual growth in the number of publications. These were frequently published in high impact factor journals and underpinned by robust scientific evidence. Most studies were conducted on schizophrenia, followed by autism spectrum disorders. Theory of mind and emotional processing were the focus of most interventions, whilst a limited number of studies addressed attributional bias and social perception. Targeted interventions in social cognition were the most frequent practice in the selected papers, followed by non-specific treatment interventions and broad-based interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Research in social cognition remediation interventions is growing. Further studies are needed on attributional bias and social perception remediation programs, while the comparative efficacy of different interventions also remains unclear.

Pharmacological interventions in social cognition deficits: A systematic mapping review.

Social cognition is an important research field in psychiatry due to its relevance in the functioning and quality of life of patients. The objective of this work is to conduct a systematic mapping review of pharmacological strategies for improving social cognition deficits. Publications from 2006 to 2016 were reviewed in Scopus, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Embase. From the initial 1059 publications obtained, a final number of 110 were selected. The results show an increasing interest in pharmacological approaches in different medical fields (especially psychiatry, pharmacology, and endocrinology, with schizophrenia and autism as the most studied disorders), as can be observed in the progressive increase in the number of publications, the high degree of scientific evidence, and the high impact factor of publications. However, it is also observed that most studies were conducted with oxytocin, psychostimulants, and antipsychotics (mainly risperidone and olanzapine), with few studies using other drugs. In the different social cognition domains, the majority of publications were focused on emotional processing or theory of mind, with few studies in other domains. Thus, this systematic mapping review shows that, even though there are increasing research activities, there are some important gaps to cover in future investigation.

Influence of emotional contexts on facial emotion attribution in schizophrenia.

Recent emotion recognition studies in schizophrenia have reported misattribution of emotional content to emotionally neutral faces. While in these studies faces are presented in the absence of any contextual reference, in daily life facial expressions are typically perceived within a specific situational context. However, there is no evidence on the possible modulatory role of contextual aids on emotion attribution to neutral faces. We address this issue in the present study. Thirty schizophrenia patients and thirty paired controls performed an emotion categorization task (by choosing one among six labels of emotions) with neutral target faces that were superimposed on affectively positive, negative or neutral scenes. In presence of positive contexts, patients categorized neutral faces as happy and fearful more frequently than controls. When negative contexts were present, patients also categorized neutral faces as fearful more frequently than controls. However, in the presence of neutral contexts patients and controls did not differ in their categorization pattern. These results suggest that explicit presence of a neutral context seems to compensate for the bias showed by patients. With the purpose of correcting emotion misattribution in schizophrenia, emotionally neutral contexts might be incorporated to treatments aimed at improving social cognition performance in this patient population.

Clinical usefulness and economic implications of continuation/maintenance electroconvulsive therapy in a Spanish National Health System public hospital: A case series.

INTRODUCTION: Continuation/maintenance electroconvulsive therapy has been shown to be effective for prevention of relapse in affective and psychotic disorders. However, there is a limited nubber of studies that investigate clinical management, associated costs, and perceived quality variables. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A series of 8 cases included during the first 18 months of the Continuation/Maintenance Electroconvulsive Therapy Program of the Psychiatry Department at 12 de Octubre University Hospital is presented. Clinical variables (Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale, length of hospitalization, number of Emergency Department visits, number of urgent admissions) before and after inclusion in the continuation/maintenance electroconvulsive therapy program were compared for each patient, as well as associated costs and perceived quality. RESULTS: After inclusion in the program, 50.0% of patients reported feeling « much better ¼ and 37.5% « moderately better ¼ in the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale. In addition, after inclusion in the continuation/maintenance electroconvulsive therapy program, patients were hospitalized for a total of 349 days, visited the Emergency Department on 3 occasions, and had 2 urgent admissions, compared to 690 days of hospitalization (P = .012), 26 Emergency Department visits (P = .011) and 22 urgent admissions (P = .010) during the same period before inclusion in the program. Associated direct costs per day of admission were reduced to 50.6% of the previous costs, and costs associated with Emergency Department visits were reduced to 11.5% of the previous costs. As regards perceived quality, 87.5% of patients assessed the care and treatment received as being « very satisfactory ¼, and 12.5% as « satisfactory ¼. CONCLUSIONS: This continuation/maintenance electroconvulsive therapy program has shown to be clinically useful and to have a favourable economic impact, as well as high perceived quality.

Is it possible to combine different psychotic symptom scales in bipolar disorder?

It has been suggested that data on positive and negative psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia as assessed using different scales may be combined. For the first time, we assessed correlations between the positive syndrome subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS-P) and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), and between the negative syndrome subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS-N) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) in patients with bipolar disorder. We also aimed to confirm these correlations in patients with schizophrenia. This cross-sectional study was conducted with a group of 94 patients (40 diagnosed with bipolar disorder, 54 with schizophrenia). Assessments were carried out using the PANSS, SAPS and SANS. Large significant correlations were found between the PANSS-P and SAPS, and between the PANSS-N and SANS, in both the bipolar disorder group and the schizophrenia group. These results confirm previous findings regarding correlations between these scales in schizophrenia, and support the hypothesis that similar correlations exist in bipolar disorder. Therefore, our data support the potential usefulness in collaborative research of combining results from different scales for the assessment of psychotic symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder.