Public stigma profile toward mental disorders across different university degrees in the University of Valencia (Spain).

Background: A large proportion of studies carried out in recent years in different populations have shown that stigma toward mental disorders is highly prevalent. In the present study we conducted a comprehensive assessment of stigma to describe and compare stigma toward mental disorders in students enrolled in five different university degrees. Methods: Three hundred and twenty-five students from the University of Valencia (Spain), attending the second term of their first-degree courses in the faculties of medicine, psychology, teaching, economics, and data science participated in this cross-sectional study. Stigma was measured using: the Reported and Intended Behavior Scale (RIBS), the Scale of Community Attitudes toward Mental Illness (CAMI), the Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-27), and the Knowledge about Mental Illness test (KMI). Results: We found different patterns of stigma according to gender, the fact of knowing or living with a person with mental disorders and the university degree studied. Overall, women show fewer stigmatizing attitudes than men but similar stereotypes and prejudice toward people with mental disorders. However, the pattern of results across degrees is more complex. Overall, students of medicine, psychology and teaching showed fewer stigmatizing attitudes than students of economics and data science but differences between degrees were more subtle in stereotypes and prejudice toward people with mental disorders. Conclusion: Our study suggests the existence of different profiles of stigma in relation to mental disorders in university students. These profiles varied in relation with the degree being studied, gender and already knowing or living with a person with mental disorders.

Forma corta de cuatro subtest de la WAIS-IV para la evaluación de pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia / Four-subtest short-form of the WAIS-IV for assessment of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia

Introducción: El objetivo de este estudio ha sido obtener una forma corta de la versión española de la WAIS-IV para pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia que necesite entorno a media hora para ser administrada. Una forma abreviada puede ser muy útil en contextos clínicos y de investigación cuando se necesite una estimación del cociente intelectual de pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia para su adscripción a programas de intervención o para la descripción de la muestra.Materiales y métodosParticipó en el estudio una muestra de 143 pacientes. Noventa y uno formaron el grupo de test, y los otros 52 se utilizaron en un análisis de validación cruzada. Para aumentar la validez de contenido, se tomó la decisión de crear una forma corta compuesta por un subtest de cada uno de los 4 dominios cognitivos que mide la escala.ResultadosVarios análisis mostraron que la mejor combinación era la compuesta por los subtest: Información, Cubos, Aritmética y Búsqueda de Símbolos. Se calcularon 9 criterios diferentes para evaluar la calidad de esta forma corta.ConclusionesLos datos mostraron muy buenos resultados en los criterios basados en las correlaciones, las diferencias de medias y la validación cruzada, y resultados satisfactorios en los criterios de acuerdos en la categoría, margen de error, precisión clínica y fiabilidad. (AU)

Introduction: The present study aimed to obtain a short form of the Spanish version of the WAIS-IV for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia that requires about half an hour to be administered. The reduced test can be very useful in clinical and research settings when an estimation of the intelligence quotient is required to decide about intervention programmes or to describe the sample.Materials and methodsA sample of 143 patients participated in the study, 91 out of them were the test group, and the other 52 were used for a cross-validation analysis. To increase the content validity, the decision was made to create a short form composed of a subtest of each of the four cognitive domains that the scale measures.ResultsSeveral analyses showed that the best combination was composed of the Information, Block Design, Arithmetic, and Symbol Search subtests. Nine different criteria were calculated to evaluate the quality of the short form.ConclusionsThe data showed very good results for the criteria: correlations, difference of means, and cross-validation. The results were satisfactory for: category agreement, band of error, clinical accuracy, and reliability. (AU)

Four-subtest short-form of the WAIS-IV for assessment of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to obtain a short form of the Spanish version of the WAIS-IV for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia that requires about half an hour to be administered. The reduced test can be very useful in clinical and research settings when an estimation of the intelligence quotient (IQ) is required to decide about intervention programs or to describe the sample. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A sample of 143 patients participated in the study, 91 out of them were the test group, and the other 52 were used for a cross-validation analysis. To increase the content validity, the decision was made to create a short form composed of a subtest of each of the four cognitive domains that the scale measures. RESULTS: Several analyses showed that the best combination was composed of the Information, Block Design, Arithmetic, and Symbol Search subtests. Nine different criteria were calculated to evaluate the quality of the short form. CONCLUSIONS: The data showed very good results for the criteria: correlations, difference of means, and cross-validation. The results were satisfactory for: category agreement, band of error, clinical accuracy, and reliability.

WAIS-IV Performance in Patients With Schizophrenia.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure cognitive functioning. The aims of this study were 1) to obtain the cognitive profile of Spanish patients with schizophrenia on the WAIS-IV; 2) to compare their profile to the profile of a healthy control group; and 3) to compare the cognitive profile of patients with schizophrenia to the performance observed in two separate previous studies in Canada and China. A sample of 99 outpatients and 99 healthy control participants, matched on age, sex, and educational level, were measured using the WAIS-IV, including 10 core subtests, 4 indices, and 2 general intelligence scores, to obtain their cognitive profile. Results showed that only the performance on the Verbal Comprehension Index and its subtests was similar in the patient and control groups. This pattern of cognitive impairment was similar to the pattern reported in the Canadian and Chinese studies.

The effect of associative strength on semantic priming in schizophrenia.

The present research was designed to investigate the pattern of semantic priming in schizophrenia as a function of strength of association (or semantic distance between concepts in the semantic network). Thirty schizophrenia patients, without formal thought disorder, and twenty-nine healthy controls participated in a lexical decision task in which prime-target associative strength (strong, weak and not related) and stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA: 250ms and 750ms) were manipulated. Patients and controls showed the same associative strength effect on RTs. In the short SOA condition priming effects were obtained for both strong and weak prime-target associative conditions. However in the long SOA priming was only significant for strongly associated pairs. This pattern of priming effects was similar in both groups, with higher priming on the short SOA and strong association conditions. Altogether results suggest that automatic semantic spreading activation is unimpaired in schizophrenia patients without formal thought disorder. These results are in line with the general evidence of impaired implicit priming observed only in patients with formal thought disorder. At the same time patients use context as controls to facilitate word processing. Finally, these findings evidence that, prime-target associative strength could moderate results in studies of semantic memory deficits in schizophrenia.

Forma abreviada de la WAIS: IV estudio piloto en pacientes con esquizofrenia / WAIS-IV short form: a pilot study with schizophrenia patients

No disponible

The aim of this study is to develop a WAIS-IV short form of the Spanish version for its use with schizophrenia patients, which would allow estimating their intellectual capacity in a short period of time (approximately 30 minutes). The sample was composed by a clinical group consisting of 35 schizophrenia patients and a control group consisting of 35 people with no known history of mental illness. Data demonstrated that the best combination of tests was: Similarities (Verbal comprehension), Visual puzzles (Perceptual reasoning), Arithmetic (Working memory) and Coding (Processing speed). With this short form, it was possible to obtain a linear correlation between the IQ of the full scale and that of the abridged form of 0.941 in the clinical and 0.940 in the control group. For both groups, the differences between the real IQ averages and the estimated ones were not significant. Moreover, the short form is capable of classifying a substantial number of people in the same IQ category than the full scale does (AU)

Spanish norms for completion of restricted length word stems.

This study presents a normative database of Spanish restricted length word stems that provides useful information for the selection of stimuli in memory experiments with Word Stem Completion (WSC) tasks. The database includes indices relative to stems (total baseline completion, priming baseline completion, priming, number of completions, ratio between given and deleted letters, and syllabic structure), and indices relative to characteristics of the words used to obtain the stems (frequency, familiarity, number of meanings, length, number of syllables, arousal, and valence). A WSC task was performed by 515 participants to calculate priming and baseline indices. An Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that these indices are grouped in four factors: perceptual, lexical, emotional, and response competition. Stepwise regression analyses performed with these factors showed that the lexical, response competition, and perceptual factors predict priming baseline completion, while only the lexical factor predicts priming. The model that best explains the relationship between priming and priming baseline completion was a cubic model, and the optimum baseline values for achieving priming were between .31 and .36. These norms can be downloaded as Supplemental Materials for this article from https://nuvol.uv.es/owncloud/index.php/s/hpj9by1qbENdjfj .

Priming in word stem completion tasks: comparison with previous results in word fragment completion tasks.

This study investigates priming in an implicit word stem completion (WSC) task by analyzing the effect of linguistic stimuli characteristics on said task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. Analysis revealed that priming (mean = 0.22) was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that they were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for the data of the unique-solution stems. Correlations between priming and familiarity, frequency of use, and baseline completion were significant. The less familiar words, which were less frequent, had higher priming values. At the same time, the stems with lower baseline completion generated more priming. A regression analysis showed that baseline completion was the only significant predictor of priming, suggesting that the previous processing of the stimuli had a greater impact on the stimuli with low baseline performance. At the same time, baseline completion showed significant positive correlations with familiarity and frequency of use, and a negative correlation with length. When baseline completion was the dependent variable in the regression analysis, the significant variables in the regression were familiarity and length. These results were compared with those obtained in a study using word fragment completion (WFC) by Soler et al. (2009), in which the same words and procedure were employed. Analysis showed that the variables that correlated with priming were the same as in the WSC task, and that completion baseline was the variable that showed the greatest predictive power of priming. This coincidence of results obtained with WFC and WSC tasks highlights the importance of controlling the characteristics of the stimuli used when exploring the nature of priming.

Implicit memory functioning in schizophrenia: explaining inconsistent findings of word stem completion tasks.

The definitive implicit memory profile of schizophrenia is yet to be clarified. Methodological differences between studies could be the reason for the inconsistent findings reported. In this study, we have examined implicit memory functioning using a word stem completion task. In addition, we have addressed methodological issues related with lexical and perceptual stimuli characteristics, and with the strategy used to calculate priming scores. Our data show similar performance values in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, we have not detected significant differences in priming between the two groups, even when this parameter was calculated using three different procedures. These results are in line with those we have reported previously using the same stimuli in a word fragment completion task. Considered as a whole, our research suggests that implicit memory functioning in schizophrenia is unimpaired when assessed using word fragment or stem completion tasks. In light of this, future studies should follow standardized criteria to assess implicit memory when the sensitivity of the task employed is essential for identifying potential memory deficits in schizophrenia.

Short form of Spanish version of the WISC-IV for intelligence assessment in elementary school children.

In educational settings, quick assessments of intelligence are often required to screen children with potential special needs. The WISC-IV is administered individually and takes between one and two hours to complete. Given its widespread use in Spain, a short-form of the Spanish version is likely to be of use to professionals. The goal of this research was to develop a short form of the WISC-IV that can be performed in approximately half an hour. Data obtained in 100 elementary school children were analyzed following the criteria of Resnick and Entin (1971) . The results showed that the most accurate estimation of intelligence was achieved with a combination of the Vocabulary, Block Design, Letter-Number Sequencing, and Coding subtests.

Perceptual priming and reading speed among fourth grade children

This study evaluated the perceptual priming in fourth grade primary school children using a word-fragment completion task. The children were classified into two categories according to their reading speed: high and low. Using several sub-scales of the WISC-IV, their working memory was measured, and their total IQ was estimated, in order to control for their effects on priming. The statistical analyses showed that children with high reading speed were significantly better at word-fragment completion and showed greater priming (p < .01); in other words, the prior processing of the words from which the fragments came produced a greater benefit in the performance of the word-fragment completion task. A regression model was developed to explain reading speed based on the following variables: perceptual priming, working memory and percentage of completed fragments belonging to words not previously processed (adjusted R2 = 0.64) (AU)

No disponible

Perceptual priming and reading speed among fourth grade children.

This study evaluated the perceptual priming in fourth grade primary school children using a word-fragment completion task. The children were classified into two categories according to their reading speed: high and low. Using several sub-scales of the WISC-IV, their working memory was measured, and their total IQ was estimated, in order to control for their effects on priming. The statistical analyses showed that children with high reading speed were significantly better at word-fragment completion and showed greater priming (p < .01); in other words, the prior processing of the words from which the fragments came produced a greater benefit in the performance of the word-fragment completion task. A regression model was developed to explain reading speed based on the following variables: perceptual priming, working memory and percentage of completed fragments belonging to words not previously processed (adjusted R 2 = 0.64).

Supporting parenting of infants: evaluating outcomes for parents and children in a community-based program.

This research presents an evaluation of the intervention dose-effect of the Parent-Child Psychological Support Program (PCPS). The PCPS is a universal community-based program to support parenting, during the first 18 months, and to promote protective adaptive systems in children through a schedule of quarterly office-based appointments, starting at 3 months of age. Generally children attend for six visits. When the Program opens in a particular area, parents of all children under 18 months are invited. The different ages of the children who are joining present a unique opportunity to obtain groups to evaluate the program dose-effect using a cohort-sequential design. This dose-effect on parent and infant outcomes was examined by: (1) self-report of parental sense of competence and factors negatively affecting their parenting and (2) the quality of the child's attachment, using Ainsworth's Strange Situation Test. The study was based on 594 families. Results showed dose effects for parental sense of competence, in the parental self-efficacy dimension. The proportion of securely attached children was significantly higher in groups with medium and high program dose. These results were obtained after considering the effect on the parent and child outcomes of two socio-demographic factors that showed differences among the groups under study: single parenthood and working at home. In the variables under study the PCPS, serving a socially deprived area, showed dose effects. The evaluation strategy can be useful for evaluators and planners working with universal programs that offer a longitudinal service.

Satisfacción de pacientes y familiares con una Unidad de Hospitalización Psiquiátrica / Satisfaction levels of patients and their families with a Psychiatric Hospital Unit

Durante las últimas décadas se ha desarrollado un interés creciente por el estudio de la satisfacción de los pacientes psiquiátricos con los servicios de salud mental dado que puede influir de forma importante en la adherencia al tratamiento y la evolución clínica. La satisfacción de los pacientes psiquiátricos constituye un indicador de la calidad de dichos servicios y es un importante predictor de la futura utilización que los pacientes harán de los servicios y de su cooperación con el tratamiento. En nuestro país existen pocos estudios de satisfacción con las unidades de hospitalización psiquiátrica. En este trabajo se analiza la satisfacción de pacientes ingresados en una unidad de hospitalización psiquiátrica y de sus familiares. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto una satisfacción general elevada con el servicio recibido en la unidad, siendo particularmente alta con el comportamiento y la competencia percibida en los profesionales, y más moderada con la información recibida y la posibilidad de implicación en el plan de tratamiento. Se analiza además la influencia que ejercen determinadas variables (sociodemográficas, relacionadas con el ingreso, relacionadas con la enfermedad mental y el funcionamiento social) sobre la satisfacción de los pacientes psiquiátricos y de sus familiares (AU)

In recent decades there has been growing interest in examining patient satisfaction since it can have great influence on the patients’ adherence to treatment and their clinical evolution. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that the satisfaction of psychiatric patients is an indicator of the quality of mental health services. It has also been demonstrated that it is a strong predictor of the future use that psychiatric patients will make of these services and their willingness to cooperate with treatment. In Spain, there have been few studies conducted on patient satisfaction in Spanish psychiatric hospital units. This study analyzes the satisfaction levels of in-patients in a psychiatric hospital unit and those of their family members. The results show high levels of overall satisfaction with the services received in the unit. They show particularly high levels of satisfaction with regard to the perceived behavior and competence of the professionals involved and more moderate levels of satisfaction with regard to the information received and opportunities to become involved in the treatment plan. The study also analyzes the influence of social demographic variables and other variables (related to admission, the type of mental illness, and the social functioning of the patient) on the satisfaction levels of psychiatric patients and their family members (AU)

Effectiveness of the cognitive differentiation program of the integrated psychological therapy: group versus individual treatment.

The aim of the current pilot study was to compare two strategies in the application of the cognitive differentiation program of Integrated Psychological Therapy for people with schizophrenia. Twenty-six outpatients were randomly assigned to the application of the program in group sessions (CDg), or to its application in individualized sessions (CDi). The program provides cognitive exercises to promote better performance in cognition, and both groups of participants completed the same number of exercises following the same number of sessions per week. Outcomes were assessed on neuropsychological measures of attention, executive functioning and everyday memory, and everyday functioning. Effect sizes showed the absence of effects in everyday memory and social functioning, higher improvements in the CDi group in attention, and a higher improvement in the CDg condition in executive functioning. The results suggest that the program application model could be individualized, depending on patient-specific cognitive deficits.

Perceptual priming in schizophrenia evaluated by word fragment and word stem completion.

Implicit memory seems to be preserved in schizophrenia as a whole, but dissociations between conceptual and perceptual tasks and between accuracy and reaction time measures have appeared. The present research has revealed some methodological limitations in many studies to date that are focused on the study of perceptual implicit memory in schizophrenic patients using accuracy measures. The review of these studies revealed that limitations are related to an inadequate definition of performance and priming measures, a lack of control over the characteristics of the stimuli, and the absence of information on the experimental procedures used in data collection. Moreover, the task used in these studies is word stem completion, a task that makes use of perceptual and conceptual processes. In the experiment reported here we use a pure perceptual implicit task and stimuli selected from a normative database to measure perceptual implicit memory in schizophrenic patients. Their performance was compared with that of normal participants. Thirty-two schizophrenic patients and 30 healthy control participants were administered a word fragment completion task. Direct comparison between the two groups yielded similar results in priming, suggesting that perceptual implicit memory is preserved in schizophrenia.

Speech recognition and working memory capacity in young-elderly listeners: effects of hearing sensitivity.

Young normal-hearing listeners and young-elderly listeners between 55 and 65 years of age, ranging from near-normal hearing to moderate hearing loss, were compared using different speech recognition tasks (consonant recognition in quiet and in noise, and time-compressed sentences) and working memory tasks (serial word recall and digit ordering). The results showed that the group of young-elderly listeners performed worse on both the speech recognition and working memory tasks than the young listeners. However, when pure-tone audiometric thresholds were used as a covariate variable, the significant differences between groups disappeared. These results support the hypothesis that sensory decline in young-elderly listeners seems to be an important factor in explaining the decrease in speech processing and working memory capacity observed at these ages.

Datos normativos de 269 fragmentos de palabras españolas a partir de la base de Dasí, Soler y Ruiz (2004) / Normative data of 269 Spanish word fragments from the extension of Dasí, Soler and Ruiz (2004) database

En este trabajo se presenta una base de 269 fragmentos de palabras españolas a partir de la ampliación de la de Dasí, Soler y Ruiz (2004). La nueva base incorpora los siguientes índices: dificultad, familiaridad, facilitación, número de significados, frecuencia, número de letras dadas en el fragmento, ratio entre letras dadas y eliminadas, primera y/o última letra dada, valencia y activación. Los análisis realizados han conseguido replicarlos efectos experimentales de frecuencia, dificultad y facilitación poniendo de relieve que la tarea de completar fragmentos (fase estudio y test) es una buena prueba de memoria implícita. Se realizaron dos análisis factoriales que mostraron tres componentes: un factor léxico, un factor perceptual y uno afectivo. En la posterior regresión realizada con dichos factores para explicar la dificultad se mostraron significativos los dos primeros. Otro análisis de regresión sobre la facilitación sólo mostró influencia del primer factor. Se realizó un ajuste cúbico entre facilitación y dificultad que mostró que el 0.32 es el nivel de dificultad en el que se consigue mayor facilitación. También se llevó a cabo un ajuste entre activación y valencia confirmándose el modelo cuadrático en forma de bumerán como el más explicativo (AU)

In this article normative data of 269 Spanish word fragments from the extension of Dasí, Soler and Ruiz (2004) data base are presented. The new database includes the following indices: difficulty; familiarity; number of meanings; frequency; number of letters given in the fragment; first/last letters given; ratio of letters to blanks; affective valence and activation. The analyses performed has obtained a replication of the experimental effects of frequency, difficulty and priming. These results confirm that the fragment completion task (with study and test phases) is an appropriate implicit memory test. We have performed two factorial analyses, obtaining three factors: lexical factor; perceptual factor; and affective factor. The subsequent regression analysis using factor scores as predictors indicated that difficulty is loaded by lexical and perceptual factors. Results on priming only showed significant influence of the lexical factor. A cubic fitting model between priming and difficulty found that 0.32is the optimum difficulty level to get the highest priming level. Moreover, a quadratic model (boomerang figure) was the best to explain the relation between affective valence and activation (AU)

Datos normativos de 269 fragmentos de palabras españolas a partir de la base de Dasí, Soler y Ruiz (2004) / Normative data of 269 Spanish word fragments from the extension of Dasí, Soler and Ruiz (2004) database

En este trabajo se presenta una base de 269 fragmentos de palabras españolas a partir de la ampliación de la de Dasí, Soler y Ruiz (2004). La nueva base incorpora los siguientes índices: dificultad, familiaridad, facilitación, número de significados, frecuencia, número de letras dadas en el fragmento, ratio entre letras dadas y eliminadas, primera y/o última letradada, valencia y activación. Los análisis realizados han conseguido replicarlos efectos experimentales de frecuencia, dificultad y facilitación poniendode relieve que la tarea de completar fragmentos (fase estudio y test) es unabuena prueba de memoria implícita. Se realizaron dos análisis factorialesque mostraron tres componentes: un factor léxico, un factor perceptual y unoafectivo. En la posterior regresión realizada con dichos factores paraexplicar la dificultad se mostraron significativos los dos primeros. Otroanálisis de regresión sobre la facilitación sólo mostró influencia del primerfactor. Se realizó un ajuste cúbico entre facilitación y dificultad que mostróque el 0.32 es el nivel de dificultad en el que se consigue mayor facilitación.También se llevó a cabo un ajuste entre activación y valencia confirmándoseel modelo cuadrático en forma de bumerán como el más explicativo (AU)

In this article normative data of 269Spanish word fragments from the extension of Dasí, Soler and Ruiz (2004)database are presented. The new database includes the following indices:difficulty; familiarity; number of meanings; frequency; number of lettersgiven in the fragment; first/last letters given; ratio of letters to blanks;affective valence and activation. The analyses performed has obtained areplication of the experimental effects of frequency, difficulty and priming.These results confirm that the fragment completion task (with study and testphases) is an appropriate implicit memory test. We have performed twofactorial analyses, obtaining three factors: lexical factor; perceptual factor;and affective factor. The subsequent regression analysis using factor scoresas predictors indicated that difficulty is loaded by lexical and perceptualfactors. Results on priming only showed significant influence of the lexicalfactor. A cubic fitting model between priming and difficulty found that 0.32is the optimum difficulty level to get the highest priming level. Moreover, aquadratic model (boomerang figure) was the best to explain the relationbetween affective valence and activation (AU)

Influence of articulation rate on two memory tasks in young and older adults.

This study investigated the relation between phonological loop functioning and age. Phonological loop is a time-based subsystem of the Working Memory Model of Baddeley and Wilson, which uses rehearsal of information as an active process to avoid phonological decay. Performance differences were examined between young and older adults in two speech-based memory tasks, such as the immediate serial recall of words and the Digit Ordering Task. Analysis showed that performance on both tasks was lower for the older group. Articulation rate was also measured to test the hypothesis that the impairment of some cognitive functions in adults can be associated to their slowness or the greater time needed by older adults for the rehearsal process. A significant negative correlation was found for articulation rate with age. When the effect of articulation rate on Serial Recall and Digit Ordering Tasks was partialled out, the difference between the two groups was eliminated.