Inter-individual variability of social perception and social knowledge impairments among patients with schizophrenia.

Deficits in social perception and knowledge and their negative impact on social functioning, have been repeatedly reported among patients with schizophrenia. However, earlier studies have focused on an overall assessment of social perception and social knowledge, without exploring their sub-components nor the interindividual variation of the deficit. This study aims to refine the exploration of this deficit and to assess its interindividual variation. Twenty-nine patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy controls, matched for age and gender, completed a validated and integrated social perception and knowledge task (i.e. the PerSo test). Patients with schizophrenia had reduced performance in all PerSo subtests, namely contextual fluency, interpretation and social convention. However, these deficits were not correlated with the severity of clinical symptoms, and individual profiles analyses showed a marked heterogeneity among patients on their abilities. Our study confirms the existence of deficits in social perception and knowledge and underlines their considerable heterogeneity. Therefore, it is necessary to test and rehabilitate individually social perception and knowledge.

Do patients from the Democratic Republic of Congo with schizophrenia have facial emotion recognition deficits?

Patients with schizophrenia can have difficulty recognizing emotion, and the impact of this difficulty on social functioning has been widely reported. However, earlier studies did not thoroughly explore how this deficit may vary according to emotion intensity, or how it may differ among individuals and across cultures. In the present study, our aim was to identify possible deficits in facial emotion recognition across a wide range of emotions of different intensities among patients with schizophrenia from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thirty stable patients with schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls matched for age and level of education were evaluated using a validated and integrative facial emotion recognition test (TREF). A total recognition score and an intensity threshold were obtained for each emotion. Patients with schizophrenia had emotion recognition deficits, particularly for negative emotions. These deficits were correlated to the severity of negative symptoms. Patients showed no threshold deficit at the group level, but analysis of individual profiles showed marked heterogeneity across patients for the intensity of the emotion decoding deficit. Our study confirms the existence of deficits in emotion recognition for negative emotions in patients with schizophrenia, generalizes it to DRC patients, and underlines considerable heterogeneity among patients.

[Stress syndrome in patients receiving outpatient treatment at the General Hospital, in Bangui, in a context of armed conflict]. / États de stress en consultation externe à l'hôpital général de Bangui dans un contexte de conflit arme: étude transversale descriptive.

CONTEXT: in Africa's zones of conflict, recent studies report a high frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) particularly in community settings. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to contribute to a better management of patients experiencing violence subsequent to the Central African Republic socio-political conflict. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of the medical records of patients receiving outpatient treatment in the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (France) Trauma Center, Bangui. RESULTS: 33.33% (n=35) of patients had PTSD, while 17.14% (n=18) of patients had acute stress syndrome. Stress syndrome (SS) was associated with female sex, rape, anxiety and depression. Rape multiplied the risk of SS occurrence by 8. The average age was 30 years (P25:22 years; P75:40 years). The majority of patients had mood disorder (63.81%; n=67). Insomnia was present in 62.83% (n=66) of patients. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was present in 44.76 % of patients. Depression was found in 40.95% (n=43) of patients. CONCLUSION: The obtained results show how the society, apart from militia members, is affected by conflict-related violence in the country. These results can enrich the reflections on health organisation and on the management of patients in Central African, by considering the impact of conflict-related acute stress syndome in the short, medium and long term.