- Email: [email protected]
367 – The experience of parents living with a schizophrenic child
184
ABSTRACTS / Schizophrenia Research 98 (2008) 3–199
Conclusions: Generalized cognitive deficits are detectable in psychosis subjects evaluated at initial stages (up to approximately 2 years) after first contact with mental health services. Some of these deficits occur in direct proportion to the severity of negative symptoms, but are unrelated to other clinical variables.
366 – ASENAPINE AMELIORATES SET-SHIFTING DEFICIT IN RATS WITH MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX LESION V. Brown 1, H. Marston 2, D. Tait 1, L. Porrino 3, M. Shahid 2. 1
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.431
365 – CLINICAL CORRELATES OF SOCIAL COGNITIVE DEFICITS IN 206 PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA N. Bazin 1, E. Brunet-Gouet 1, C. Bourdet 1, M.C. Hardy-Baylé 1, C. Passerieux 1. 1
Inserm ERI 15/UVSQ EA 4047, Le Chesnay, France
Presenting Author details: [email protected] 177 route de Versailles, 78150 Le Chesnay, France, Tel.: +33 1 39639011; fax: +33 1 39639080. Background: Schizophrenia is associated with impairments of social cognition and, particularly, theory-of-mind (ToM). The relations between these deficits and clinical variables are still debated: different authors attempted to explain disorganization and/or first rank symptoms as the clinical expression of ToM impairments. Recently, a meta-analysis showed that ToM performances are related to disorganization (1). Methods: To give a new insight into this question, we assessed a large group of schizophrenic patients (N = 206) with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and with a new task (Versailles–Situational Intention Reading, V-SIR) which is based on video excerpts depicting complex real-life scenes of social interactions. During this task, subjects were required to rate the probabilities of several affirmations of the intentions of one of the characters. Results: PANSS mean scores were respectively 16.4 (SD± 5.15) for the positive, 10 (SD ± 5.8) for the negative and 39.6 (SD± 9.9) for the general subscales. Mean V-SIR scores were 24.3 (SD ± 8) (in a previous study, 15 healthy subjects had mean scores of 10.8 SD ± 2.9). No effect of sex on V-SIR was found (p = .38). Significant correlations of V-SIR were found with age (r = .19, p = .006) and with PANSS negative scores (r = .22, P = .001). An item analysis showed that the strongest positive correlations of V-SIR were found with PANSS conceptual disorganization and abstraction difficulties. Conclusions: Complex social cognition requiring attribution of intentions to others, assessed with V-SIR, exhibits inhomogeneous relations with clinical variables. In contradiction with some theoretical accounts, no correlation with hallucinations or delusions was found. Links with disorganization found here will be discussed within the theoretical framework proposed by Hardy-Baylé et al. (2003). Acknowledgement: This study was performed in collaboration with Lilly France. References: 1. Sprong, Br. J. Psychiatry 191, 5 (2007). 2. Hardy-Bayle Schiz. Bull. 29, 459 (2003).
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.432
University of St. Andrews Organon Laboratories Ltd 3 Wake Forest University School of Medicine 2
Presenting Author details: [email protected] South Street, KY16 9RH St Andrews, United Kingdom, Tel.: +44 133 4850929. Background: Asenapine is a novel psychopharmacologic agent being developed for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Asenapine may reverse cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. We assessed the ability of asenapine to attenuate performance impairments induced by medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) lesions. Methods: Lister hooded rats were given saline (SC, 1 mL/kg) or asenapine (SC, 0.05 or 0.075 mg/kg) and tested in an attentional setshifting task using an intra-dimensional (ID) /extra-dimensional (ED) task. The set-shifting task is a series of two-choice discriminations between digging bowls, with the location of food associated with a specific odor (digging substrate irrelevant) or digging substrate (odor irrelevant) that assessed acquisition of new exemplars and reversal learning. The acquisition stages compared learning of a simple discrimination (SD), a compound discrimination (CD), ID acquisition and ED acquisition, after which, the stimulus contingencies were reversed. Results: Lesioned rats showed stable performance impairments relative to controls at the ED and reversal stages (all P b 0.05), but not at any other stage. Asenapine (0.075 mg/kg) ameliorated lesioninduced deficits at the ED and reversal stages (all P b 0.05), but was without effects at any other stage. Conclusions: Asenapine improved performance by attenuating the deficit induced by lesions of the mPFC during the ED and reversal stages. Improvements in behavior are not likely to be mediated by the action of asenapine within the mPFC itself, because this region was lesioned. Rather, improvements are likely to be mediated by structures over which the mPFC exerts a modulatory influence (for example, the striatum). doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.433
367 – THE EXPERIENCE OF PARENTS LIVING WITH A SCHIZOPHRENIC CHILD M.C. Castillo 1, N. Vinatier 2, I. Urdapilleta 3, J.C. Seznec 4. 1
Université Paris 8, Equipe de Recherche en Psychologie Clinique, Paris, France 2 Université Paris 8, Paris, France 3 Université Paris 8, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Paris, France 4 Hôpital du Kremlin-Bicêtre, Paris, France
Presenting Author details: [email protected] 2, rue de la Liberté, 93526 Saint-Denis cedex, France, Tel.: +33 1 49 40 64 69.
ABSTRACTS / Schizophrenia Research 98 (2008) 3–199 Background: The parents of the schizophrenic have acquired with time a status of caregivers. The alliance between schizophrenics' families and professional caregivers is now considered as essential in the areas of compliance to treatment and prevention of relapse. Comprehensive studies of the experience of parents living with a schizophrenic child should be developed in order to improve psychoeducation programs for parents on the one hand and on the other hand to promote communication and relationship between parents and professional caregivers. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 parents of a schizophrenic child. For ethical and deontological reasons, we recruited parents involved in an association of help (UNAFAM). They all gave a written agreement to participate in this study. Results: Parents express difficulties in the management of the daily life, such as the difficulty to make the patients take their medication or have some activity. The crisis situations raise moral dilemmas such as the need to rush the child to hospital against his or her will. Schizophrenics appear to be dependent on their parents although they have an adult status. This duality is very confusing for the parents and leads to a psychological distress, a modification of social relations and makes ambiguous the relations between parents and professional caregivers, especially psychiatrists. Although parents are intensely involved in the course of the disease and its social, medical and psychological consequences, they encounter difficulties in obtaining medical information from the physician, such as diagnosis information which is part of professional secrecy. The announcement of diagnosis appears besides as the core problem of the relations between parents and professionals. Conclusions: Considerable efforts have been made to associate parents to the medical care of the schizophrenic patients but we can still progress in the areas of the communication between the families and the professional caregivers. Acknowledgement: The UNAFAM association and all the parents for this study.
Methods: Fifty-four patients with schizophrenia were recruited from the Institute of Mental Health of Peking University and Beijing Anding Hospital. Moreover, fifty-eight participants with SPD, screened by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, and fifty-six healthy controls were recruited for the study. All participants were administered with the computer test of temporal processing and a set of neurocognitive function tests. Results: The findings showed that (1) some of the time processing functions (time production, time reproduction) were different among groups, mainly between schizophrenia and controls, few difference were found between participants with SPD and control; (2) some correlations were found between time processing and soft sign; (3) some correlations were found between time processing and working memory. Conclusions: The current findings suggest that there was an impaired sequencing and coordination of sensorimotor and mental processes in schizophrenia as reflected in temporal processing such as time discrimination, time production, and time reproduction in patients with schizophrenia but not in participants with SPD. Acknowledgement: This project was supported in part by the Research Initiation Fund of the 100-Scholar Plan of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China to Raymond Chan. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.435
369 – EVIDENCE FOR A MISATTRIBUTION OF SEMANTIC SALIENCE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA O.J. Doughty 1, S.J. Masson 1, D.J. Done 1, A.A. Al-Mousawi 2. 1
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.434
368 – TEMPORAL PROCESSING DEFICIT IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND SCHIZOTYPY R. Chan 1, Z. Li 2, X. Yu 3. 1
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Anding Hospital 3 Institute of Mental Health, Peking University 2
Presenting Author details: [email protected] 4A Datun Road, 100101 Beijing, China, Tel.: +86 10 64836274. Background: The potential role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia has been highlighted by Andreasen's hypothesis of “cognitive dysmetria” that a disruption in the fluid coordination of mental activity that is the hallmark of normal cognition. According to this hypothesis, poor coordination of mental activity provides a clue that the underlying mechanism may reflect an abnormality in a basic process that regulates the synchrony of both thought and action. The current study aimed to examine the temporal processing such as time discrimination, time production and time reproduction in patients with schizophrenia and individuals with schizotypal personality disorders (SPD).
185
2
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, UK
Presenting Author details: [email protected] College Lane, AL10 9AB Hatfield, United Kingdom, Tel.: +44 1 707284494. Background: It has been frequently reported that people with schizophrenia attend to contextually irrelevant semantic concepts. This tendency has been proposed to explain formal thought disorder (Spitzer et al., 1993) and more recently the development of delusions (Kapur et al., 2003). It is suggested that a dysregulation of the dopamine system in schizophrenia leads to certain concepts becoming imbued with salience (Kapur 2003, 2005). In support of this, studies (e.g. Copland 2005) have found a relationship between a misattribution of semantic salience and hyperdopaminergia in nonpsychiatric controls. However no one has yet directly measured semantic salience in schizophrenia. Methods: In this study 20 patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and 15 non-psychiatric controls were compared on a test of semantic salience involving identifying the most important attribute to a concept e.g. what attribute is most important to the concept bicycle? Wheels, Helmet or Stabilizers?. The level of semantic knowledge was assessed using naming and categorization tests and measures of current and premorbid IQ were taken. Results: The patients with schizophrenia made significantly more errors on the salience task with a tendency for making large errors for example by assigning high importance to the least important attribute.
ABSTRACTS / Schizophrenia Research 98 (2008) 3–199
Conclusions: Generalized cognitive deficits are detectable in psychosis subjects evaluated at initial stages (up to approximately 2 years) after first contact with mental health services. Some of these deficits occur in direct proportion to the severity of negative symptoms, but are unrelated to other clinical variables.
366 – ASENAPINE AMELIORATES SET-SHIFTING DEFICIT IN RATS WITH MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX LESION V. Brown 1, H. Marston 2, D. Tait 1, L. Porrino 3, M. Shahid 2. 1
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.431
365 – CLINICAL CORRELATES OF SOCIAL COGNITIVE DEFICITS IN 206 PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA N. Bazin 1, E. Brunet-Gouet 1, C. Bourdet 1, M.C. Hardy-Baylé 1, C. Passerieux 1. 1
Inserm ERI 15/UVSQ EA 4047, Le Chesnay, France
Presenting Author details: [email protected] 177 route de Versailles, 78150 Le Chesnay, France, Tel.: +33 1 39639011; fax: +33 1 39639080. Background: Schizophrenia is associated with impairments of social cognition and, particularly, theory-of-mind (ToM). The relations between these deficits and clinical variables are still debated: different authors attempted to explain disorganization and/or first rank symptoms as the clinical expression of ToM impairments. Recently, a meta-analysis showed that ToM performances are related to disorganization (1). Methods: To give a new insight into this question, we assessed a large group of schizophrenic patients (N = 206) with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and with a new task (Versailles–Situational Intention Reading, V-SIR) which is based on video excerpts depicting complex real-life scenes of social interactions. During this task, subjects were required to rate the probabilities of several affirmations of the intentions of one of the characters. Results: PANSS mean scores were respectively 16.4 (SD± 5.15) for the positive, 10 (SD ± 5.8) for the negative and 39.6 (SD± 9.9) for the general subscales. Mean V-SIR scores were 24.3 (SD ± 8) (in a previous study, 15 healthy subjects had mean scores of 10.8 SD ± 2.9). No effect of sex on V-SIR was found (p = .38). Significant correlations of V-SIR were found with age (r = .19, p = .006) and with PANSS negative scores (r = .22, P = .001). An item analysis showed that the strongest positive correlations of V-SIR were found with PANSS conceptual disorganization and abstraction difficulties. Conclusions: Complex social cognition requiring attribution of intentions to others, assessed with V-SIR, exhibits inhomogeneous relations with clinical variables. In contradiction with some theoretical accounts, no correlation with hallucinations or delusions was found. Links with disorganization found here will be discussed within the theoretical framework proposed by Hardy-Baylé et al. (2003). Acknowledgement: This study was performed in collaboration with Lilly France. References: 1. Sprong, Br. J. Psychiatry 191, 5 (2007). 2. Hardy-Bayle Schiz. Bull. 29, 459 (2003).
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.432
University of St. Andrews Organon Laboratories Ltd 3 Wake Forest University School of Medicine 2
Presenting Author details: [email protected] South Street, KY16 9RH St Andrews, United Kingdom, Tel.: +44 133 4850929. Background: Asenapine is a novel psychopharmacologic agent being developed for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Asenapine may reverse cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. We assessed the ability of asenapine to attenuate performance impairments induced by medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) lesions. Methods: Lister hooded rats were given saline (SC, 1 mL/kg) or asenapine (SC, 0.05 or 0.075 mg/kg) and tested in an attentional setshifting task using an intra-dimensional (ID) /extra-dimensional (ED) task. The set-shifting task is a series of two-choice discriminations between digging bowls, with the location of food associated with a specific odor (digging substrate irrelevant) or digging substrate (odor irrelevant) that assessed acquisition of new exemplars and reversal learning. The acquisition stages compared learning of a simple discrimination (SD), a compound discrimination (CD), ID acquisition and ED acquisition, after which, the stimulus contingencies were reversed. Results: Lesioned rats showed stable performance impairments relative to controls at the ED and reversal stages (all P b 0.05), but not at any other stage. Asenapine (0.075 mg/kg) ameliorated lesioninduced deficits at the ED and reversal stages (all P b 0.05), but was without effects at any other stage. Conclusions: Asenapine improved performance by attenuating the deficit induced by lesions of the mPFC during the ED and reversal stages. Improvements in behavior are not likely to be mediated by the action of asenapine within the mPFC itself, because this region was lesioned. Rather, improvements are likely to be mediated by structures over which the mPFC exerts a modulatory influence (for example, the striatum). doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.433
367 – THE EXPERIENCE OF PARENTS LIVING WITH A SCHIZOPHRENIC CHILD M.C. Castillo 1, N. Vinatier 2, I. Urdapilleta 3, J.C. Seznec 4. 1
Université Paris 8, Equipe de Recherche en Psychologie Clinique, Paris, France 2 Université Paris 8, Paris, France 3 Université Paris 8, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale, Paris, France 4 Hôpital du Kremlin-Bicêtre, Paris, France
Presenting Author details: [email protected] 2, rue de la Liberté, 93526 Saint-Denis cedex, France, Tel.: +33 1 49 40 64 69.
ABSTRACTS / Schizophrenia Research 98 (2008) 3–199 Background: The parents of the schizophrenic have acquired with time a status of caregivers. The alliance between schizophrenics' families and professional caregivers is now considered as essential in the areas of compliance to treatment and prevention of relapse. Comprehensive studies of the experience of parents living with a schizophrenic child should be developed in order to improve psychoeducation programs for parents on the one hand and on the other hand to promote communication and relationship between parents and professional caregivers. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 parents of a schizophrenic child. For ethical and deontological reasons, we recruited parents involved in an association of help (UNAFAM). They all gave a written agreement to participate in this study. Results: Parents express difficulties in the management of the daily life, such as the difficulty to make the patients take their medication or have some activity. The crisis situations raise moral dilemmas such as the need to rush the child to hospital against his or her will. Schizophrenics appear to be dependent on their parents although they have an adult status. This duality is very confusing for the parents and leads to a psychological distress, a modification of social relations and makes ambiguous the relations between parents and professional caregivers, especially psychiatrists. Although parents are intensely involved in the course of the disease and its social, medical and psychological consequences, they encounter difficulties in obtaining medical information from the physician, such as diagnosis information which is part of professional secrecy. The announcement of diagnosis appears besides as the core problem of the relations between parents and professionals. Conclusions: Considerable efforts have been made to associate parents to the medical care of the schizophrenic patients but we can still progress in the areas of the communication between the families and the professional caregivers. Acknowledgement: The UNAFAM association and all the parents for this study.
Methods: Fifty-four patients with schizophrenia were recruited from the Institute of Mental Health of Peking University and Beijing Anding Hospital. Moreover, fifty-eight participants with SPD, screened by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, and fifty-six healthy controls were recruited for the study. All participants were administered with the computer test of temporal processing and a set of neurocognitive function tests. Results: The findings showed that (1) some of the time processing functions (time production, time reproduction) were different among groups, mainly between schizophrenia and controls, few difference were found between participants with SPD and control; (2) some correlations were found between time processing and soft sign; (3) some correlations were found between time processing and working memory. Conclusions: The current findings suggest that there was an impaired sequencing and coordination of sensorimotor and mental processes in schizophrenia as reflected in temporal processing such as time discrimination, time production, and time reproduction in patients with schizophrenia but not in participants with SPD. Acknowledgement: This project was supported in part by the Research Initiation Fund of the 100-Scholar Plan of the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China to Raymond Chan. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.435
369 – EVIDENCE FOR A MISATTRIBUTION OF SEMANTIC SALIENCE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA O.J. Doughty 1, S.J. Masson 1, D.J. Done 1, A.A. Al-Mousawi 2. 1
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.12.434
368 – TEMPORAL PROCESSING DEFICIT IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND SCHIZOTYPY R. Chan 1, Z. Li 2, X. Yu 3. 1
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Anding Hospital 3 Institute of Mental Health, Peking University 2
Presenting Author details: [email protected] 4A Datun Road, 100101 Beijing, China, Tel.: +86 10 64836274. Background: The potential role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia has been highlighted by Andreasen's hypothesis of “cognitive dysmetria” that a disruption in the fluid coordination of mental activity that is the hallmark of normal cognition. According to this hypothesis, poor coordination of mental activity provides a clue that the underlying mechanism may reflect an abnormality in a basic process that regulates the synchrony of both thought and action. The current study aimed to examine the temporal processing such as time discrimination, time production and time reproduction in patients with schizophrenia and individuals with schizotypal personality disorders (SPD).
185
2
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, UK
Presenting Author details: [email protected] College Lane, AL10 9AB Hatfield, United Kingdom, Tel.: +44 1 707284494. Background: It has been frequently reported that people with schizophrenia attend to contextually irrelevant semantic concepts. This tendency has been proposed to explain formal thought disorder (Spitzer et al., 1993) and more recently the development of delusions (Kapur et al., 2003). It is suggested that a dysregulation of the dopamine system in schizophrenia leads to certain concepts becoming imbued with salience (Kapur 2003, 2005). In support of this, studies (e.g. Copland 2005) have found a relationship between a misattribution of semantic salience and hyperdopaminergia in nonpsychiatric controls. However no one has yet directly measured semantic salience in schizophrenia. Methods: In this study 20 patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and 15 non-psychiatric controls were compared on a test of semantic salience involving identifying the most important attribute to a concept e.g. what attribute is most important to the concept bicycle? Wheels, Helmet or Stabilizers?. The level of semantic knowledge was assessed using naming and categorization tests and measures of current and premorbid IQ were taken. Results: The patients with schizophrenia made significantly more errors on the salience task with a tendency for making large errors for example by assigning high importance to the least important attribute.