scholarly journals Decision making under ambiguity and risk in adolescent-onset schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dandan Li ◽  
Fengyan Zhang ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Yifan Zhang ◽  
Tingting Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Abnormal Pattern ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Objective Numerous studies have identified impaired decision making (DM) under both ambiguity and risk in adult patients with schizophrenia. However, the assessment of DM in patients with adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS) has been challenging as a result of the instability and heterogeneity of manifestations. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Game of Dice Task (GDT), which are frequently used to evaluate DM respectively under ambiguity and risk, are sensitive to adolescents and neuropsychiatric patients. Our research intended to examine the performance of DM in a relatively large sample of patients with AOS using the above-mentioned two tasks. We also aimed to take a closer look at the relationship between DM and symptom severity of schizophrenia. Methods We compared the performance of DM in 71 patients with AOS and 53 well-matched healthy controls using IGT for DM under ambiguity and GDT for DM under risk through net scores, total scores and feedback ration. Neuropsychological tests were conducted in all participants. Clinical symptoms were evaluated by using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in 71 patients with AOS. Pearson’s correlation revealed the relationship among total score of DM and clinical and neuropsychological data. Results Compared to healthy controls, patients with AOS failed to show learning effect and had a significant difference on the 5th block in IGT and conducted more disadvantageous choices as well as exhibited worse negative feedback rate in GDT. Apart from DM impairment under risk, diminished DM abilities under ambiguity were found related to poor executive function in AOS in the present study. Conclusions Our findings unveiled the abnormal pattern of DM in AOS, mainly reflected under the risky condition, extending the knowledge on the performance of DM under ambiguity and risk in AOS. Inefficient DM under risk may account for the lagging impulse control and the combined effects of developmental disease. In addition, our study demonstrated that the performance on IGT was related to executive function in AOS.

scholarly journals Decision Making under Risk in Patients Suffering from Schizophrenia or Depression

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1178
Author(s):  
Theresa Benke ◽  
Josef Marksteiner ◽  
Beatrix Ruepp ◽  
Elisabeth M. Weiss ◽  
Laura Zamarian
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Decision Making Behavior ◽  
Negative Syndrome

Studies have reported difficulties in decision making for patients with schizophrenia or depression. Here, we investigated whether there are differences between schizophrenia patients, depressed patients, and healthy individuals (HC) when decisions are to be made under risk and cognitive flexibility is required. We were also interested in the relationships between decision making, cognitive functioning, and disease severity. Thirty HC, 28 schizophrenia patients, and 28 depressed patients underwent structured clinical assessments and were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale or Hamilton Rating Scale. They performed the Probability-Associated Gambling (PAG) Task and a neuropsychological test battery. Both patient groups obtained lower scores than HC in memory and executive function measures. In the PAG task, relative to HC, depressed patients made slower decisions but showed a comparable number of advantageous decisions or strategy flexibility. Schizophrenia patients were slower, riskier, and less flexible compared to HC. For them, the decision making behavior correlated with the symptom severity. In both groups, decision making scores correlated with memory and executive function scores. Patients with schizophrenia or depression may have difficulties under risk when quick and flexible decisions are required. These difficulties may be more pronounced in patients who have marked cognitive deficits or severe clinical symptoms.

Contribution of executive functions to eating behaviours in obesity and eating disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 725-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Segura-Serralta ◽  
Sonia Ciscar ◽  
Lorena Blasco ◽  
Javier Oltra-Cucarella ◽  
María Roncero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Central Coherence ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Eating Behaviours

AbstractBackground:Patients with eating disorders (ED) or obesity show difficulties in tasks assessing decision-making, set-shifting abilities and central coherence.Aims:The aim of this study was to explore executive functions in eating and weight-related problems, ranging from restricting types of ED to obesity.Method:Two hundred and eighty-eight female participants (75 with obesity; 149 with ED: 76 with restrictive eating, 73 with bingeing-purging symptoms; and 64 healthy controls) were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Iowa Gambling Task, and the Group Embedded Figures Test to assess set-shifting, decision-making and central coherence, respectively.Results:Participants with either obesity or ED performed poorly on tests measuring executive functioning compared with healthy controls, even after controlling for age and intelligence. Both participants with obesity and participants with ED showed a preference for global information processing.Conclusions:The findings suggest that treatments for obesity and ED would benefit from addressing difficulties in cognitive functioning, in addition to the more evident clinical symptoms related to eating, body weight and shape.

scholarly journals Nicotine dependence and illness severity in schizophrenia

2012 ◽  
Vol 201 (4) ◽  
pp. 306-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajeev Krishnadas ◽  
Sameer Jauhar ◽  
Susan Telfer ◽  
Somashekara Shivashankar ◽  
Robin G. McCreadie
Keyword(s):  
Nicotine Dependence ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Never Smokers ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Higher Doses

BackgroundReasons for the increased prevalence of cigarette smoking in schizophrenia are unclear. Studies assessing clinical symptoms have sampled heterogeneous populations, with discrepant findings.AimsTo examine the relationship between clinical features, social adjustment and nicotine dependence in a geographically defined population of people with schizophrenia.MethodCross-sectional clinical study of 131 people with schizophrenia in Nithsdale, Scotland.ResultsSmokers were younger, mostly males and three times more likely to be unemployed. Those with severe nicotine dependence had greater scores on the positive subscale of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and were prescribed higher doses of antipsychotic. Those with mild–moderate dependence had greater scores on the PANSS negative subscale. Greater symptom severity was associated with poorer social adjustment. Psychopathology and social adjustment were similar in quitters and never-smokers.ConclusionsOur findings indicate an association between nicotine dependence, clinical symptoms and social adjustment in schizophrenia. Although causal links cannot be inferred, identifying the relationship between nicotine dependence and psychopathology may have some value in the management of smoking in schizophrenia. Further longitudinal studies are required to explore this relationship.

scholarly journals Prediction of Clinical Symptoms of Schizophrenia Based on Comt Methylation Marker

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nour El Huda Abd Rahim ◽  
Mohd Nabil Fikri Rahim ◽  
Norsidah Ku Zaifah ◽  
Hanisah Mohd Noor ◽  
Kartini Abdullah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Comt Gene ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Methylation Marker ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Dopamine Hypothesis ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
The Relationship

Introduction: The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia is based on the fact that hyperdopaminergic state is involved in causing psychosis and antipsychotic drugs block the dopamine receptor. COMT regulates the homeostatic levels of neurotransmitter dopamine in the synapses and plays a role in the neurocognitive function. The dysregulation of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex influences the cognitive function and the severity of the psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. During epigenetic event, methylated COMT gene may cause reduction in its expression and contribute to the clinical presentation of schizophrenia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of using COMT DNA methylation for the prediction of specific psychotic presentation of schizophrenia. Materials and method: In this study, 138 schizophrenia patients were recruited from the Psychiatry Clinic, Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan Pahang. Genomic DNA from peripheral blood was subjected to the Methylight Taqman® analysis for quantitative measurement of the COMT DNA methylation. The psychopathological symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results: The regression analysis showed that the Positive and Excited subdomains of PANSS were significant predictors of COMT hypomethylation (β= -0.288, p= -0.031; β= - 0.288, p= -0.031). The Excited subdomain of PANSS was negatively correlated with COMT DNA methylation (r 2 = -0.380, p= 0.000) as well as the Depressed subdomain (r 2 = -0.288, p= 0.001). Conclusion: The relationship between DNA methylation of COMT with the positive, excited and depressed symptoms might indicate the epigenetic role of COMT gene in the manifestation of schizophrenia.

scholarly journals EEG Microstates and Its Relationship With Clinical Symptoms in Patients With Schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaoling Sun ◽  
Jiansong Zhou ◽  
Huijuan Guo ◽  
Ningzhi Gou ◽  
Ruoheng Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Positive Symptoms ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Class B ◽  
Icd 10 ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

Schizophrenia is a complex and devastating disorder with unclear pathogenesis. Electroencephalogram (EEG) microstates have been suggested as a potential endophenotype for this disorder. However, no clear dynamic pattern of microstates has been found. This study aims to identify the dynamics of EEG microstates in schizophrenia and to test whether schizophrenia patients with altered clinical symptoms severity showed different microstates abnormalities compared with healthy controls. Resting-state EEG data in 46 individuals who met the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and 39 healthy controls was recorded. The patients with schizophrenia were divided into subgroups based on the level of their negative or positive symptoms assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Microstate parameters (contribution, occurrence, and duration) of four prototypical microstate classes (A–D) were investigated. Compared with healthy controls, individuals with schizophrenia showed increased duration and contribution of microstate class C, decreased contribution and occurrence of microstate class B. Different microstate patterns were found between subgroups and healthy controls. Results in this study support the consistent observation of abnormal EEG microstates patterns in patients with schizophrenia and highlight the necessity to divide subjects into subgroups according to their clinical symptoms.

scholarly journals Modification of the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT) for Motivation Studies in Schizophrenia Patients

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 138-155
Author(s):  
V. Plakunova ◽  
A.S. Tkhostov ◽  
M. Alfimova
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Reward Magnitude ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Young Patients ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Negative Syndrome

Recent evidence indicates a decrease in willingness to exert effort for rewards in patients with schizophrenia. The exact mechanism of this deficit is unknown, which necessitates further research of the issue using adequate experimental procedures to measure willingness to exert efforts. Among the latter, the most widely used paradigm is the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT). However, the original version of the task cannot be used in all populations because of socio-economic differences between countries. The present study was aimed to adapt the EEfRT for use in the Russian population. We shortened the task and selected levels of rewards enabling the assessment of patterns of effort expenditure in patients and healthy people. To test the psychodiagnostic properties of the modified version, it was administered to 20 young people (including 15 women) with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls matched to the patients on demographic characteristics. In addition, we assessed clinical symptoms with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in patients and evaluated schizotypal traits with SPQ-74 in healthy controls. The modified version of EEfRT successfully revealed the normal patterns of effort expenditure for a monetary reward. A decrease in willingness to exert effort and an attenuation of moderating effects of reward magnitude and probability in young patients with schizophrenia were demonstrated. The task therefore allows study those motivational deficits in psychiatric patients, which cannot be assessed with clinical psychometric tools.

Differences in Reward and Persistency characterise Behavior in Chronic Pain for the Iowa Gambling Task in a Web-based Lab-in-the-field study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili Zhang ◽  
Himanshu Vashisht ◽  
Alekhya Nethra ◽  
Brian Slattery ◽  
Tomas Ward
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Learning Curves ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Pain Experiences

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is a significant world-wide health problem. It has been reported that people with chronic pain experience decision-making impairments, but these findings have been based on conventional lab experiments to date. In such experiments researchers have extensive control of conditions and can more precisely eliminate potential confounds. In contrast, there is much less known regarding how chronic pain impacts decision-making captured via lab-in-the-field experiments. Although such settings can introduce more experimental uncertainty, it is believed that collecting data in more ecologically valid contexts can better characterize the real-world impact of chronic pain. OBJECTIVE We aim to quantify decision-making differences between chronic pain individuals and healthy controls in a lab-in-the-field environment through taking advantage of internet technologies and social media. METHODS A cross-sectional design with independent groups was employed. A convenience sample of 45 participants were recruited through social media - 20 participants who self-reported living with chronic pain, and 25 people with no pain or who were living with pain for less than 6 months acting as controls. All participants completed a self-report questionnaire assessing their pain experiences and a neuropsychological task measuring their decision-making, i.e. the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in their web browser at a time and location of their choice without supervision. RESULTS Standard behavioral analysis revealed no differences in learning strategies between the two groups although qualitative differences could be observed in learning curves. However, computational modelling revealed that individuals with chronic pain were quicker to update their behavior relative to healthy controls, which reflected their increased learning rate (95% HDI from 0.66 to 0.99) when fitted with the VPP model. This result was further validated and extended on the ORL model because higher differences (95% HDI from 0.16 to 0.47) between the reward and punishment learning rates were observed when fitted on this model, indicating that chronic pain individuals were more sensitive to rewards. It was also found that they were less persistent in their choices during the IGT compared to controls, a fact reflected by their decreased outcome perseverance (95% HDI from -4.38 to -0.21) when fitted using the ORL model. Moreover, correlation analysis revealed that the estimated parameters had predictive value for the self-reported pain experiences, suggesting that the altered cognitive parameters could be potential candidates for inclusion in chronic pain assessments. CONCLUSIONS We found that individuals with chronic pain were more driven by rewards and less consistent when making decisions in our lab-in-the-field experiment. In this case study, it was demonstrated that compared to standard statistical summaries of behavioral performance, computational approaches offered superior ability to resolve, understand and explain the differences in decision- making behavior in the context of chronic pain outside the lab.

scholarly journals The relationship of insight with psychopathological dimensions in patients with schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 204380872110199
Author(s):  
Si-Sheng Huang ◽  
Cheng-Chen Chang
Keyword(s):  
Medical Center ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Psychiatric Ward ◽  
Neurocognitive Functions ◽  
Bivariate Correlation ◽  
Syndrome Scale ◽  
Acute Psychiatric Ward ◽  
Negative Syndrome ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Impaired insight in patients with schizophrenia results in less satisfactory clinical outcomes. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between insight and individual psychopathological dimensions in inpatients with schizophrenia using a self-report questionnaire. In this study, 90 patients with schizophrenia aged 18–75 years admitted in the acute psychiatric ward of a medical center in Taiwan were enrolled. Patient insight was measured using the Self-Appraisal of Illness Questionnaire (SAIQ), and psychopathological dimensions were measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and its five-factor structure model. A higher SAIQ score indicates greater insight. In bivariate correlation analyses, statistically significant correlations were observed between age, single marital status, educational level, and positive, excited, and depressed symptom factor of the PANSS and SAIQ score. In regression analyses, age and excited and depressed symptom factors were significantly associated with SAIQ score. No significant association was observed between insight and neurocognitive functions. Considering demographic characteristics, psychopathology, and neurocognition, in the acute phase of schizophrenia, younger patients with less severe excited symptoms and more severe depressive symptoms had greater insight.

scholarly journals Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetes Mellitus: Further Evidence of a Relationship

1982 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon A. Warren ◽  
K.G. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Degree Relative ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Prevalence Of Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Second Degree

SUMMARY:One hundred multiple sclerosis (MS) patients were compared to healthy controls to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in their families. Significantly, more MS patients than controls were diabetic or reported at least one first degree relative (parent, sibling, child) with diabetes. The relationship between MS and diabetes persisted when second degree relatives (grandparents, aunts and uncles) were taken into consideration.A greater percentage of MS patients with another MS relative were diabetic or reported a first degree relative with diabetes mellitus than MS patients without an MS relative. However the difference was not statistically significant. Nor was there a significant difference when percentages reporting either a first or a second degree relative with diabetes were compared.

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