Behavioral self-regulation in pediatric bipolar disorder and healthy offspring of bipolar patients.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated behavioral self-regulation problems using the Children's Hostility Inventory (CHI) in pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD), healthy offspring of bipolar disorder patients (HOBD), and healthy controls (HC) without previous history of psychiatric disorders. METHODS: The CHI was administered to 41 consecutive children and adolescents diagnosed with PBD, to 16 HOBD, and to 22 HC. The inventory assessed irritability, expression, hostility, and aggression and was completed by the children with the help of their mothers. Adolescents and their respective parents were interviewed separately using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). RESULTS: All subscales of the CHI presented statistically significant differences, except for the subscale assessing feelings of suspicion. Pairwise comparisons revealed consistently significant differences between the PBD group and controls, indicating more self-regulation difficulties in the PBD group, represented by high levels of hostility and aggressive behavior. There were no significant differences between the PBD and HOBD groups. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies should further investigate if such behavior is state-dependent or a trait of bipolar juvenile expression. Expression of hostility and irritability should be considered relevant targets in psychosocial approaches addressing this population.

Behavioral self-regulation in pediatric bipolar disorder and healthy offspring of bipolar patients

Objectives: This study investigated behavioral self-regulation problems using the Children's Hostility Inventory (CHI) in pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD), healthy offspring of bipolar disorder patients (HOBD), and healthy controls (HC) without previous history of psychiatric disorders. Methods: The CHI was administered to 41 consecutive children and adolescents diagnosed with PBD, to 16 HOBD, and to 22 HC. The inventory assessed irritability, expression, hostility, and aggression and was completed by the children with the help of their mothers. Adolescents and their respective parents were interviewed separately using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). Results: All subscales of the CHI presented statistically significant differences, except for the subscale assessing feelings of suspicion. Pairwise comparisons revealed consistently significant differences between the PBD group and controls, indicating more self-regulation difficulties in the PBD group, represented by high levels of hostility and aggressive behavior. There were no significant differences between the PBD and HOBD groups. Conclusions: Future studies should further investigate if such behavior is state-dependent or a trait of bipolar juvenile expression. Expression of hostility and irritability should be considered relevant targets in psychosocial approaches addressing this population.

Cognitive behavioral rehabilitation for bipolar disorder patients: A randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Bipolar disorder is frequently associated with cognitive impairment even during euthymia. Previous studies have reported significant impairments in functional and quality of life outcomes and a possible relationship between these variables and cognitive performance. Cognitive rehabilitation interventions have been proposed to address these outcomes but positive results are still scarce. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of a new intervention developed to address both cognitive and functional impairment. METHODS: Thirty-nine individuals were included in this randomized controlled trial. All participants were evaluated by the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and completed functional and quality of life (QOL) scales. Patients were randomized to either treatment as usual (TAU) or Cognitive Behavior Rehabilitation (CBR), an add-on treatment delivered in 12 weekly group sessions. All individuals were revaluated after 12 weeks. RESULTS: A total of 39 bipolar type I or II patients were included in the analysis, 19 in the TAU group and 20 in the CBR condition. At the entrance of the study, both groups were statistically similar regarding clinical, socio-demographics and cognitive variables. After the end of the intervention, CBR individuals had significantly improved reaction time, visual memory and emotion recognition. In contrast, individuals in the CBR did not present a statistically change in functional and QOL scores after the 12-week intervention. CONCLUSIONS: CBR intervention showed promising results in improving some of the commonly impaired cognitive domains in BD. A longer follow-up period may be necessary to detect changes in functional and QOL domains.

Quality of life in youth with bipolar disorder and unaffected offspring of parents with bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: There have been few studies investigating quality of life (QoL) in pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) patients and none comparing it with that observed in unaffected offspring of parents with BD and healthy controls. METHODS: The self-report Youth Quality of Life Instrument-Research version (YQoL-R) was administered in 26 pediatric BD patients, 17 unaffected offspring of parents with BD, and 24 individuals with no history of DSM-IV Axis I psychiatric disorders. All diagnoses were determined through interviews based on the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version. RESULTS: There were statistical differences among the groups for all YQoL-R domains. Pairwise comparisons showed that perceived QoL was significantly worse in the BD group than in the unaffected offspring and healthy subjects, a difference that persisted even when only euthymic subjects were analyzed. There were no significant differences between the unaffected offspring and healthy subjects for any YQoL-R domain. LIMITATIONS: Our sample was small. There was no QoL report from subjects parents nor data about family environment or BD parents' mood state. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for studies to investigate in greater detail the relationship between QoL and psychological resilience, particularly in the unaffected offspring of parents with BD.

Evidências da elevação angular como indício de distância absoluta em aléia visual / Evidences of angular elevation as an absolute distance cue in visual alley

Em duas condições de movimentos vergenciais, fusional e acomodativo, e condição de vergência reduzida, o efeito da elevação angular foi observado em duas condições relativas ao plano do olho, (1) plano do nível do olho na altura do objeto e (2) elevação de 48,8 cm acima do piso da aléia. A elevação angular em conjunção com os sinais vergenciais permitiu estimativas acuradas de distância absoluta maiores que um metro. Outros fatores, não-perceptuais e tendências perceptuais do observador, podem também ter combinado com a elevação angular (AU)

Ha um espaco real dentro do espaco visual

Estimativas verbais da dimensao espacial distancia (egocentrica e exocentrica) exibiram um espaco visual caracterizado pela funcao perfeitamente linear, indicando o fenomeno da constancia perceptiva. Esse achado permite inferir um possivel espaco visual euclidiano apontando para a ocorrencia do espaco fisico na representacao visual da cena. A constancia perceptiva perfeita foi explicada pela magnitude de fontes de informacoes visuais especificas a dimensao espacial e disponiveis ao observador. Nossos achados poderao dar suporte as teorias do espaco visual construido a partir das transformacoes vetoriais produzidas pela quantidade e qualidade da fonte de informacao visual.

Análise dos desvios angulares da locomoçäo em uma tarefa para evitar colisäo contra objeto fixo em ambiente rígido: uma breve comunicaçäo / Angular deviation analysis of locomotion in a task to avoid colision against obstacles: a brief communication

Pessoas controlam através da informaçäo visual disponível suas açöes para realizar tarefas com metas específicas. Em uma tarefa do caminhar direto para pontos de evitaçäo visualizados previamente com objetivos de evitar colisäo contra um obstáculo fixo, foram analisados os erros de desvio ou o componentes de locomoçäo, a translaçäo e a rotaçäo. Os erros angulares de desvios foram observados dentro dos limites considerados para uma acurácia da orientaçäo espacial percebida, e produziram componentes da locomoçäo acurados para evitar colisäo. A acurácia foi explicada por dois fatores, a disponibilidade de fontes de informaçöes espaciais e a potência das propriedades da cena, que permitiram aos observadores a construçäo de uma representaçäo visual da cena física, e a manutençäo da orientaçäo espacial durante a locomoçäo para alvos predeterminados de modo seguro a fim de evitar possíveis acidentes de choque contra obstáculos

Analise dos desvios angulares da locomocao em uma tarefa para evitar colisao contra objeto fixo em ambiente rigido: uma breve comunicacao

Pessoas controlam atraves da informacao visual disponivel suas acoes para realizar tarefas com metas especificas. Em uma tarefa do caminhar direto para pontos de evitacao visualizadas previamente como objetivos d evitar colisao contra um obstaculo fixo, foram analisados os erros de desvio ou os componentes da locomocao, a translacao e a rotacao. Os erros angulares de desvio foram observados dentro dos limites considerados para uma acuracia da orientacao espacial percebida, e produziram componentes da locomocao acurados para evitar colisao. A acuracia foi explicada por dois fatores, a disponibilidade de fontes de informacoes espaciais e a potencia das propriedades da cena, que permitiram aos observadores a construcao de uma representacao visual da cena fisica, e a manutencao da orientacao espacial durante a locomocao para alvos predeterminados de modo seguro a fim de evitar possiveis acidentes de choque contra obstaculos.