Biomedical subjects

Grigoris Kiosseoglou

Publications and source records attributed to Grigoris Kiosseoglou.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Functional cognitive assessment scale (FUCAS): a new scale to assess executive cognitive function in daily life activities in patients with dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

BACKGROUND: Several tests have been developed to examine performance of demented patients in daily life activities. However, most of them are based either on the subjective evaluation of performance by the patient him/herself, or on the reports of relatives. Functional Cognitive Assessment Scale (FUCAS) is a new reliable (alpha > 0.89 - 0.92) cognitive-behavioral scale that assesses executive function in daily life activities directly in patients with dementia. AIMS: This study aimed at testing FUCAS' internal consistency of items, criterion-related validity, interrater reliability, discriminative ability, and effect of age, sex, and education on FUCAS scores. RESULTS: Criterion-related validity was supported by significant correlations between FUCAS, CAMCOG, MMSE, and FRSSD. The interrater reliability of FUCAS' total score for two raters was r 0.997 and we found no significant effect of age, sex, or education on FUCAS' total performance. Discriminant analysis has identified that FUCAS was able to sufficiently discriminate the patients with MCI from those with moderate-severe dementia. CONCLUSION: FUCAS is a useful and reliable diagnostic tool for MCI. Cognitive-behavioral assessment such as that provided by FUCAS can provide objective information that can serve to enhance the quality of clinical decision-making.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2006

Implicit theories of intelligence, perceived academic competence, and school achievement: testing alternative models.

In the present study 3 alternative causal models concerning the relationships between implicit theories of intelligence, perceived academic competence, and school achievement were tested. The direction of changes in implicit theories and perceived competence during early adolescence also was examined. A total of 187 fifth and sixth graders were tested and retested a year later, when they were sixth and seventh graders, respectively. Cross-lagged regression analyses indicated that school achievement determined the adoption of a particular implicit theory through the mediation of perceived competence. Implicit theories were found to change toward the adoption of more incremental beliefs and perceived academic competence declined; however, high achievers, as compared with their low- and middle-level classmates, adopted more incremental beliefs and had significantly higher perceived competence.

Achievement↗

PubMed2005

Verbal fluency in institutionalized patients with schizophrenia: age-related performance decline.

Several studies have reported a relatively stable level of cognitive deficits among patients with schizophrenia regardless of age, while others have suggested continued deterioration with age. We compared the performance of 42 institutionalized patients with schizophrenia and 42 age- and education-matched healthy controls on a semantic and phonemic verbal fluency test. Each group was divided into young participants (<65 years old) and elderly participants (> or =65 years old). We found a fluency condition x diagnostic group x age group interaction on total words produced, a fluency condition x diagnostic group interaction on the number of cluster-related words, and a fluency condition x age group interaction on the number of switches. Patients with schizophrenia generally used similar strategies (i.e., semantic or phonemic cluster-related words and switches) as healthy individuals when generating words, but to a lesser degree. We found a disproportionate decline in the elderly schizophrenic patients relative to that of healthy controls only on the phonemic, relative to the semantic test. This decline in performance appears related to the effects of aging rather than severity or chronicity of illness, duration of institutionalization, or a progressive degenerative process associated with the disorder.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Semantic and phonological processing in illiteracy.

Researchers of cognitive processing in illiteracy have proposed that the acquisition of literacy modifies the functional organization of the brain. They have suggested that, while illiterate individuals have access only to innate semantic processing skills, those who have learned the correspondence between graphemes and phonemes have several mechanisms available to them through which to process oral language. We conducted 2 experiments to verify that suggestion with respect to language processing, and to elucidate further the differences between literate and illiterate individuals in the cognitive strategies used to process oral language, as well as hemispheric specialization for these processes. Our findings suggest that semantic processing strategies are qualitatively the same in literates and illiterates, despite the fact that overall performance is augmented by increased education. In contrast, explicit processing of oral information based on phonological characteristics appears to be qualitatively different between literates and illiterates: effective strategies in the processing of phonological information depend upon having had a formal education, regardless of the level of education. We also confirmed the differential abilities needed for the processing of semantic and phonological information and related them to hemisphere-specific processing.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Parental psychological control and attachment in late adolescents and young adults.

The aim of this study was to examine the association between parental psychological control and parental attachment. Another goal was to investigate the differential and combined effects of these two constructs on indices of psychological well-being, namely, self-esteem, positive or negative affect, and personal and interpersonal efficacy. Subjects were 319 males (n = 142) and females (n = 177) with an age range of 15 yr., 9 mo. to 22 yr., 5 mo. (M = 20.0, SD = 1.6). Analysis showed that psychological control was negatively related to attachment. Both psychological control and attachment predicted self-esteem, and there was some indication that psychological control exercised by mothers had a stronger influence on self-esteem. Attachment was also a significant predictor of positive and negative affect and perceived personal efficacy. No sex or age differences were found.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Neuropsychological profile of cognitively impaired patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose in undertaking the present study was to explore the existence of specific areas of cognitive deficits within the context of generalized poor performance in a group of Greek patients with schizophrenia. We also sought to identify any patients who might be cognitively normal. METHOD: Participants were 70 patients with schizophrenia and 42 healthy control subjects. The 2 groups were matched on age and male-female ratio but differed in their level of education. A battery of neuropsychological tests was selected to assess executive functions/abstraction, fluency, verbal and spatial working memory, verbal and nonverbal memory, attention, visuospatial ability, and psychomotor speed. RESULTS: Patients with schizophrenia performed more poorly than healthy control subjects, when we controlled for differences in level of education, on executive functions, working memory, verbal memory, nonverbal memory, fluency, visuospatial ability, and attention. In contrast, no significant differences were found between the 2 groups on psychomotor speed. Patients showed a more pronounced deficit on executive functions, verbal and visual memory, and visuospatial ability. Overall, 13% to 62% of the patients with schizophrenia scored within 1 SD of the mean z scores of healthy control group depending on the cognitive domains examined. In the entire sample of patients with schizophrenia, however, no individual scored within 1 SD of the mean z scores of the control group in all cognitive domains. CONCLUSIONS: We found a generalized deficit in cognitive functioning in a group of patients with schizophrenia. We failed to find any individual patients who were healthy across all cognitive areas. The current neuropsychological profile, indicating widespread impairment, is comparable to that reported in the international literature and thus appears to be characteristic of schizophrenia. Our findings of increased difficulties with executive functions, verbal and visual memory, and visuospatial ability support previous suggestions of generalized brain dysfunction in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Adult↗