PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Paolo Stratta

Publications and source records attributed to Paolo Stratta.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

The effect of verbalization strategy on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenic patients receiving classical or atypical antipsychotics.

BACKGROUND: A number of reports showed en encouraging remediation in some patients' executive deficits thanks to the use of 'information processing strategies'. Moreover the impact of antipsychotics on cognitive functions of the schizophrenics is an important issue, especially if an integrated psychosocial treatment is needed. The aim of this paper is to evaluate different executive performance and response to verbalization, a strategy of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) remediation, in subjects on classical vs atypical antipsychotic (AP) treatment. METHODS: Sixty-three schizophrenic subjects undertook the WCST under standard and modified (verbalization) administration. Subjects were stratified by the kind of WCST response (i.e. good, poor and remediable) and AP treatment (i.e. atypical vs. classical). RESULTS: Subjects on atypical APs showed a better performance than those on classical ones. More poor performers who did not remediate were seen in the sample with classical Aps while subjects who remediated the performance were seen in the subgroup with atypical APs only. An increase of perseverative and total errors was seen in poor performers subjects on classical APs. CONCLUSION: Subjects on atypicals showed a better cognitive pattern in terms of WCST performance. Since the naturalistic assignment of medication we cannot draw conclusions about its effect on cognitive performance and its interaction with cognitive remediation potential. However the data lead us to hypothesize that subjects with potential room for remediation did so with the atypical APs.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism in schizophrenia: associations with cognitive and motor impairment.

Cognitive and motor deficits have been proposed as markers of abnormal neurodevelopment in schizophrenia and have been associated with genetic liability. In a multicenter study involving 106 subjects, 56 with deficit schizophrenia and 50 with nondeficit schizophrenia, we tested the hypothesis that the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val(158)Met polymorphism is associated with cognitive and motor deficits either in schizophrenia as a whole or in its deficit subtype. The COMT Val(158)Met polymorphism shared 6.6% of the executive/attention dysfunction variance in patients with schizophrenia and 15.6% of the motor impairment variance in patients with deficit schizophrenia. These results support the hypothesis that the COMT Val(158)Met polymorphism influences executive functions in schizophrenia and the neuromotor performance in the deficit subtype only.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

COMT Val(158)Met and BDNF C(270)T polymorphisms in schizophrenia: a case-control study.

In a multicenter study involving 217 subjects of European ancestry [106 patients with schizophrenia and 111 healthy subjects], we tested the hypothesis that the catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) Val(158)Met and/or the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) C(270)T gene polymorphisms are associated with schizophrenia. The COMT and BDNF genotype and their allele distribution did not differ between patients with schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects. These results do not support the hypothesis that the COMT Val(158)Met or BDNF C(270)T gene polymorphisms are associated with liability to schizophrenia.

Alleles↗
PubMed2005

Executive function assessment of patients with schizophrenic disorder residual type in olanzapine treatment: an open study.

Cognitive deficits are a fundamental feature of the schizophrenic disorder, but the effect of antipsychotic treatment is still debated. The study assesses the effect of olanzapine on neurocognitive functioning and symptomatology of patients with schizophrenic disorder residual type. Executive function evaluation by the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) was performed on 39 patients treated with olanzapine (5-20 mg/day); the efficacy of drug in improving symptomatology, safety and quality of life was also evaluated. After 7 months of treatment, the mean number of WCST categories tended to increase. Correct responses increased with a statistically significant change from the baseline. The total and unique errors decreased significantly. At all post-baseline visits a decrease from baseline in the PANSS total, positive and negative scores was seen. The proportion of patients with less severe illness (CGI), increased over the course of the study with a corresponding decrease of patients with more severe illness. The quality of life scores also tended to improve during treatment. The Simpson Angus scale, Barnes-akathisia and abnormal involuntary movement scale scores decreased consistently. The most common treatment emergent drug related adverse events were weight gain, insomnia, agitation and anxiety. Neurocognitive functioning in terms of executive performance and symptomatology improved in people with schizophrenia residual type.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Relationship of good and poor Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance to illness duration in schizophrenia: a cross-sectional analysis.

The authors investigated whether schizophrenic patients with good and poor performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) showed cognitive modifications related to duration of illness. Of the 154 patients evaluated with the WCST, 56 subjects had normal or mildly impaired performance and 98 showed impairment on the basis of the number of categories achieved (0-3 categories = poor performance). These subsamples were then cross-sectionally divided into three subsamples depending on length of illness (< 5 years, 6-10 years, > 10 years). The inclusion of 69 healthy controls allowed the effect of age to be taken into account. The schizophrenic group as a whole and the group of poor performers did not show differences in any of the WCST indices related to length of illness. Good performers instead showed improvement on the intermediate length-of-illness group (6-10 years of illness), and then decline in the third one (> 10 years). Good performers only showed a positive significant correlation between age, age at onset, educational level and successful WCST performance. Results for the poor performers support the hypothesis of no progressive 'deteriorating' course of schizophrenia, while good performers show an unstable pattern of cognitive functions. These data support the hypothesis that cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia cannot be considered a unitary trait, but emerge along different hypothetical trajectories.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Insight and neuropsychological function in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychotic features.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the pattern of association between patient unawareness of illness and neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function in subjects with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) with psychotic features. METHOD: We administered the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST) and a shortened version of the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) to a sample of 64 patients with psychosis (42 with schizophrenia and 22 with BD). RESULTS: None of the correlations between WCST scores and insight scores were statistically significant, either in the total group or in each group analyzed separately. Further, no differences were seen in insight scores between sexes and between the diagnostic groups. CONCLUSIONS: The 3 insight dimensions (that is, awareness of mental disorder, awareness of social consequences of mental disorder, and awareness of the benefits of medication) do not appear to be associated with frontal impairment, as measured by the WCST.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Subjective experiences in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

Studies comparing 'subjective experiences' in schizophrenic and affective disorders have reached inconclusive results. We investigated the pattern of 'subjective perceived cognitive disturbances' in a group of 55 schizophrenic patients and 39 bipolar patients hospitalized for an index psychotic episode. The assessment of the subjective experiences was made using the Frankfurter Beschwerde-Fragebogen (FBF). Comparing the two groups on the four FBF factors, schizophrenic patients showed significantly higher scores in the areas of 'central cognitive disturbances', 'perception and motility' other than a significantly higher FBF total score. Our results suggest that cognitive, perception and motility disturbances are the most characteristic subjective experiences of schizophrenic patients in comparison with bipolar patients. This finding need to be further explored in light of the issue of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test performance does not discriminate different patterns of premorbid behavioral abnormalities in schizophrenic patients.

It is well documented that premorbid behavior abnormalities precede the onset of schizophrenia in a large number of patients. The research findings suggest that there are differences in the type and severity of these premorbid dysfunctions. Another research field has shown impairment of preschizophrenic patients in several cognitive domains. The present study reports retrospective childhood and adolescence neurobehavioral assessment in 31 patients with schizophrenia by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and current Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test (WCST) evaluation in order to investigate whether specific behavioral abnormality (BA) patterns are related to executive function as evaluated by the WCST. Cluster analysis was conducted on the childhood premorbid behavior ratings for the schizophrenic patients and two subgroups emerged: (i) Cluster I with an initial low level of BA that increased over the years; and (ii) Cluster II with a high level of BA that remained relatively stable until early adulthood. Furthermore, Cluster II showed more severe current negative and total symptoms, but the two groups did not differ in WCST performance. Our results show that the patterns and severity of CBCL upon retrospective evaluation are not related to WCST performance, which seems to be a feature inherent to the disease process. Different factors could be responsible for cognitive and behavioral disturbances in schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The contribution of temperament and character to schizotypy multidimensionality.

Schizotypy could be viewed either as an underlying "personality organization" that includes the "liability" to schizophrenia, i.e., as a hypothetical latent construct, or it could be referred to the phenotypic manifestations of a particular personality organization. The psychobiologic model of the structure of personality accounts for dimensions of both temperament and character. This study examined the covariances between Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) scores and aspects of Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) scores in a nonclinical sample. The results showed the relationship between the number of schizotypal phenotypic traits, as quantified by SPQ measures, and a specific configuration of character, namely, high self-transcendence (ST), low self-directedness (SD), and low cooperativeness (C). Data suggested that the unique combination of high ST, low SD, and low C seems to lead to a special risk for schizotypy. In particular, ST is a predictor either of psychosis proneness or mature, effective adapted and self-satisfied personalities, depending on its interaction with other TCI dimensions, both temperament and character.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Executive function remediation in schizophrenia: possible strategies and methods].

AIM AND METHOD: The paper is a selective review of the literature on strategies and methods of cognitive remediation in schizophrenic disorders. It has been focused on the remediation of executive functions and the present hypotheses about the possibility of an improvement of the neurocognitive deficit through specific interventions. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: People with Schizophrenic Disorders have some degree of cognitive deficit that often precede the clinical onset not secondary to the pathology characteristics persisting even when the positive symptoms have been resolved. The possibility that the neurocognitive deficits could be modified by psychological remediation with effects not exclusively confined to the cognitive domain has been nowadays accepted and numerous studies demonstrate that these interventions are effective and durable with a positive impact on social and working abilities, symptomatology and self-esteem.

Cognition Disorders↗