Video Games for the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.

Video games are a promising area of intervention for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, reviews on this topic are scarce. This review on studies exploring video games for the treatment of ASD followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and its protocol was registered in PROSPERO. PubMed, PsycInfo, Embase, WebOfScience and clinicaltrials.gov databases were searched. Twenty-four articles were included in the review. Video game-based interventions were effective for alleviating ASD symptoms, albeit with small effect sizes. High rates of acceptability and adherence to treatment were obtained. Conclusion: Video games are a promising area for improving the treatment of children with ASD. Exploring commercial video games is one of the lines for future research.

A retrospective naturalistic study on the psychopharmacological treatment of schizoaffective disorder.

Evidence on the effectiveness of psychopharmacological treatment of schizoaffective disorder is scarce and mostly comes from indirect, nonspecific sources. We carried out a large retrospective study (n = 770) of every other consecutively numbered clinical record with a recorded ICD-10 diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder in the Andalusian Health Service record system. We gathered sociodemographic, drug treatment and clinical outcomes such as improvement, relapses and change over time on DSM-5 psychotic dimensions. We analyzed data to explore associations between drug use and clinical improvement. Antipsychotics were the most commonly used drugs (77%). 22.4% of patients experienced at least a mild improvement. Clozapine (odds ratio [OR] = 2.4) and aripiprazole (OR = 2.3) for global improvement, and quetiapine (OR = 3.5) for depression were the most effective drugs. Antidepressants, mood stabilizers and benzodiazepines were also associated with a better outcome in some DSM-5 dimensions such as delusions, hallucinations and language, respectively. Antipsychotic monotherapy was not associated with a better outcome. Our findings corroborate the role of antipsychotics as the essential psychopharmacological treatment for different symptoms of schizoaffective disorder. However, the role of mood stabilizers, antidepressants or BZD is controversial and should be individually considered.

Paraganglioma neuroendocrine tumor and psychiatric implications. A case report / Tumores neuroendocrinos de tipo paraganglioma e implicaciones psiquiátricas: Caso clínico

Objective: Paragangliomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors. Occasionally they secrete catecholamines in sufficient quantities to cause symptoms. The majority of the cases, with the resection of the tumor, the psychotic symptoms disappeared and that is associated with the decreased levels of catecholamines. Clinical case: We report the case of 56-year-old women with residual schizophrenia who started with acute symptoms characterized by palpitations, dyspnea, headache and facial rubbing with no response to antihypertensive treatment. At the same time she suddenly had positive psychosis symptoms, after a long time with residual and negative symptoms. Conclusions: With the presentation of this case we want to highlight the signs that suggest the autonomic instability in psychosis patients, and how crucial is excluding underlying somatic conditions. We also examine the possible relationships between neural crest cell tumor that secrete catecholamines and schizophrenia. (AU)

Objetivo: Los paragangliomas son tumores neuroendocrinos infrecuentes. Ocasionalmente secretan catecolaminas en cantidades suficientes para causar síntomas. En la mayoría de los casos, los síntomas psicóticos desaparecen con la resección del tumor, lo cual está asociado con la reducción en los niveles de catecolaminas. Caso clínico: Reportamos el caso de una mujer de 56 años de edad con esquizofrenia residual, que comenzó con síntomas agudos caracterizados por palpitaciones, disnea, cefalea y rubor facial, que no respondían al tratamiento antihipertensivo. Al mismo tiempo, tuvo síntomas psicóticos repentinos y positivos, tras un largo periodo de síntomas residuales y negativos. Conclusiones: Con la presentación de este caso queremos resaltar los signos que sugieren inestabilidad autónoma en los pacientes psicóticos, así como la esencialidad de excluir las condiciones somáticas subyacentes. También examinamos las posibles relaciones entre los tumores de las células de la cresta neural que secretan catecolaminas, y la esquizofrenia. (AU)