Biomedical subjects

E Daneluzzo

Publications and source records attributed to E Daneluzzo.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1994

Sensorimotor gating and habituation evoked by electro-cutaneous stimulation in schizophrenia.

The present study has been performed in order to evaluate two relevant phenomena related to startle reflex (SR) evoked by electro-cutaneous stimulation in schizophrenic patients: 1) the effect of different interstimulus intervals on R1, R2 magnitude and on R2 latency in schizophrenia in order to verify if the gating effect influences all blink reflex (BR) parameters and 2) to replicate and extend our previous data on SR habituation. Our data have confirmed the existence of an impairment of habituation and an abnormal facilitatory effect of R1 component of BR in schizophrenics compared to healthy controls. The present study provides further evidence of specific defective mechanisms of information processing in schizophrenia. The methodology used for SR paradigm appears to be founded on a sound research basis and represents an advantageous paradigm for assessing attentional variables of information processing in mental disorders.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Startle reflex habituation in functional psychoses: a controlled study.

The habituation of the startle reflex in a paradigm using electrical stimulation was studied in 17 psychotic patients and 18 healthy controls. The magnitude of the R2 component of the blink reflex differed between the groups (ANOVA, F = 5.81; P = 0.022) and during the course of trials (F = 25.72; P < 0.0001). Furthermore a statistically significant interaction of diagnosis x trials (F = 3.34; P = 0.022) emerged suggesting that an impairment in habituation of startle is present in patients but not in healthy controls despite a comparable reactivity.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in a population of DSM-III-R schizophrenic patients and control subjects.

Phenomenological, biological, genetic, treatment-response, and outcome data support a link between schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) and schizophrenia. Furthermore, SPD and normal schizotypy also seem connected, although the relationship can at times be ambiguous. In this regard, this study was conducted to test the hypothesis of a possible association between neurocognitive performance evaluated by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and schizotypal personality traits evaluated by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) in a nonclinical sample and a sample of schizophrenic patients. The main finding of the study was that WCST performance was correlated with SPQ (total and subscale) scores in the control group; on the contrary, in the patients, the relationship between WCST and SPQ scores was weaker. Taken together, our results seem to support the hypothesis that different cognitive aspects (i.e., elementary WCST subcomponent scores) correlate differentially with some SPQ schizotypal traits in a group of nonclinical subjects. This report underlines the relevance of studying normal subjects within the brain-behavior paradigm to highlight the brain-behavior relationship in the mental illness.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cognitive function in euthymic bipolar patients, stabilized schizophrenic patients, and healthy controls.

Studies on cognitive function in bipolar disorder have led to contrasting results and few data are available on affected subjects during the euthymic phase. In the present study we investigated the cognitive function of a cohort of bipolar (n=40) and schizophrenic (n=66) patients compared to healthy controls (n=64). Patients were evaluated in the outpatient setting over at least 3 months using a computerized version of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Schizophrenic patients showed the worst performance while that of the bipolar patients was somewhere between schizophrenic and controls. A discriminant analysis was able to classify correctly 60.59% of the subjects (schizophrenics 48.5%, bipolars 40%; healthy controls 85. 9%). The scores of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test were entered into a principal component analysis, which yielded a 2-factor solution. Even in that analysis bipolar patients showed intermediate features in comparison with the other groups. These data indicate that bipolar patients have subtle neurocognitive deficits even after the resolution of an affective disorder. As well as observing quantitative differences between groups, the results show different dimensions of cognitive performance within groups suggesting that the deficit of euthymic bipolars could be a dishomogeneous entity, probably more heterogeneous than that in schizophrenia. Studies administering a more complete neuropsychological battery could further clarify the nature and meaning of the cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Tower of Hanoi and WCST performance in schizophrenia: problem-solving capacity and clinical correlates.

We administered a computerized version of WCST, a well established test, sensitive to executive function deficits in schizophrenia that involves many features of cognitive processing, and of Tower of Hanoi, a test that may offer cognitive challenges more specifically related to planning and sequencing, to 28 schizophrenic patients and 28 matched controls to examine a worthwhile question regarding the relative ability of these two tasks to differentiate schizophrenia and normal groups as well as exploring the relationship of these two instruments to clinical variables. The schizophrenic patients performed significantly worse than normal subjects both on Tower of Hanoi test and on WCST. The discriminant analysis identified in a multivariate way a pattern of indexes that differentiate the two groups. This pattern, characterized by specific indexes of WCST and TOH, could suggest the existence of a common underlying factor that determines the cognitive impairment in problem-solving of schizophrenics. These findings and the relationship with positive and negative symptoms have been discussed in the light of the model of the impairment in the internal representation of context information.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[The use of the Italian version of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) in a clinical sample and in a student group: an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis study].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to verify the construct validity of the Italian version of Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) a questionnaire which estimates the parental style as reported by the son or daughter. METHOD: The questionnaire was administered to a group of 102 students (62 males and 40 females) attending University of L'Aquila and to a sample of 128 patients (76 males and 52 females) consecutively admitted to a psychiatric unit for an index episode. We compared the means of the two factors (care, protection) separately for each parent in the two groups using a t-test for independent samples. After having estimated the internal consistency of items of each scale by calculating Cronbach's coefficient alpha, a factor analysis was performed for students and patients to find the structural factors of the questionnaire; then, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of the PBI items, for the students only, to evaluate the fit of the real items to models proposed in the literature. RESULTS: The Italian version of the Parental Bonding Instrument, demonstrated the ability to discriminate between patients and controls; it showed an high internal consistency. The factor analysis identified a two factors solution which accounted for 44.6% and 44.3% of the variance of the mother's and father's PBI scores respectively for the group of students and it identified two factors which accounted for 49.3% and 46.6% of the variance in the group of patients. CONCLUSIONS: The psychiatric patients showed a low "care"-high "protection" confirming an association between the "affectionless control" pattern and psychiatric disorders.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Patterns of comorbidity among DSM-III-R personality disorders.

The aim of this study was to examine patterns of comorbidity among personality disorders (PDs) in a sample of 156 psychiatric inpatients. PDs were assessed with Semistructured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders. To determine significant co-occurrence among axis II diagnoses, odds ratio and the percent of co-occurrence of pairs of disorders were calculated. Both statistical methods revealed high rates of comorbidity: significance association was found for 36 pairs of disorders using the percent of co-occurrence, and for 22 pairs of disorders using the odds ratio. These results support the concept of 'apparent comorbidity' for most PDs, deriving from conceptual and definitional artifacts or from a 'state-biasing effect'. In light of these observations, a categorical approach to PDs, resulting in a list of diagnoses, appears useless in psychiatric practice. A dimensional classification is probably better suited for PDs, improving the understanding of personality psychopathology and its clinical implications.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Remediation of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenia. A controlled study.

Previous studies have shown encouraging plasticity in some schizophrenic patients' Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performance while receiving detailed specific instructions on task and reinforcement. The present study examines the efficacy of a modified procedure for WCST administration that bound schizophrenic patients to use a conceptually driven cognitive strategy without instruction or reinforcement. The schizophrenics' results were also compared to those obtained with the same procedure from a matched control sample. By using this procedure, 63.2% of WCST schizophrenic poor performers dramatically improved their results. Schizophrenic poor performers who did not achieve remediation were of a younger age at onset and had more negative symptoms. This pattern was strictly associated with more perseverative errors on WCST that increased even more when the conceptually driven processing was forced. Our findings could have important implications for our understanding of the underlying cognitive deficit of the poor neuropsychological performance and allow the distinction of schizophrenic subtypes who show peculiar features that probably reflect a different pathophysiology and would potentially benefit from different modalities of treatment and rehabilitation.

Adult↗