Clinical accounts and previous evidence suggest that socio-emotional impairments may be present in people with bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of this paper was to systematically review studies of social cognition, and to evaluate whether social cognitive deficits exist in BN.

Keywords were identified using an existing model of social cognition (Green et al., 2007) [16], and used to search for relevant papers in three online databases. Records were then screened according to a priori inclusion/exclusion criteria.

Five papers reporting seven social cognition tasks were identified as pertinent to the review. All involved either theory of mind ability or emotional processing skills. Participants with BN had impaired performance on the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale and showed greater attentional bias than controls on an emotional Stroop task. There were no overall group differences for any other tasks, although there were small differences for some specific test items.

Basic social cognition does not appear to be impaired in people with BN. Future research should make use of more complex, ecologically valid measures, and consider the relationship between task performance and everyday social functioning.

Since the outcome in schizophrenia is heterogeneous and often poor, identification of specific predictors of outcome would be useful in clinical practice.

Subjects with schizophrenic psychoses (n = 103) included in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (n = 12,058), representing the general population, were followed-up for an average of 16.4 years. Predictor and outcome data were collected from the nationwide Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, hospital records and interviews.

Insidious onset of illness predicted a rehospitalization due to psychosis in the 2 years after the initial discharge. Being single, having an early onset, insidious onset, suicidal ideations upon the first admission, a rehospitalization and a high number of treatment days due to psychosis in the early stages of the illness all predicted a poorer clinical outcome in the longer term, after a minimum follow-up of 10 years.

This population-based study indicates that clinical and sociodemographic factors around the onset of illness have significance for the long-term outcome in schizophrenia. These prognostic factors should be taken into account in clinical practice.

Subjects with psychoses have significantly increased rates of physical illnesses, but the nature of the relationship remains largely unknown.

The present study is part of the European Prediction of Psychosis Study (EPOS). Data were collected from 245 help-seeking individuals from six European centers (age 16–35) who met criteria for ultra-high risk of psychosis criteria. This paper seeks to investigate self-reported physical ill health and its associations with psychiatric symptoms and disorders, risk factors, and onset of psychosis during 48 months of follow-up.

In multivariate analysis, lifetime panic disorder (OR = 2.43, 95%CI: 1.03–5.73), known complications during pregnancy and delivery (OR = 2.81, 95%CI: 1.10–7.15), female gender (OR = 2.88, 95%CI: 1.16–7.17), family history of psychosis (OR = 3.08, 95%CI: 1.18–8.07), and having a relationship (OR = 3.44, 95%CI: 1.33–8.94) were significantly associated with self-reported physician-diagnosed illness. In the Cox proportional hazard model we found no significant differences between those who had undergone a transition to psychosis and those who had not.

The physical health of patients defined to be at ultra-high risk of psychosis seems to be commonly impaired and associated with female gender, marital status, complications during pregnancy and birth, lifetime panic disorder, and genetic risk of psychosis.

Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders, that is attened by psychologists. There are many treatment method for depression. According to research findings, family has important role in creating, maintaining and treating of depression syndrome, also research findings showed that Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) is effective in treatment of depression. Therefore, family therapy based on cognitive-behavioral approach, is suggested in treating depression.

The main aime of this study was to explore the effect of family therapy based on cognitive-behavioral approch as an effective treatment.

Method of the study was case study research. Data were obtained by clinical interview and psychological tests. In this study, a severly depressed subject (17 years old) was treated by using on CBT family therapy.

Almost all the subscale of MMPI and SCL-90 and other instruments showed significant decrease in psychological problems after therapy as compared with the obtained results before the therapy.

It can be concluded that some probable reasons for decreasing the depression of the client included solving conflicts and interpersonal problems by means of training certain skills such as problem solving, developing relationship with others, effective coping, assertiveness and positive thinking were effective. Consistency and inconsistency of the results was discussed.

Smoking rates in schizotypic individuals are shown to be elevated, as in patients with schizophrenia, although findings on the association of smoking with different symptomatology of schizotypy have been mixed. Moreover, possible moderating effects of schizotypy on the relationship between smoking and cognition have not been well documented.

The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) and the full version of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) were administered to 501 healthy adults. Subjects were divided into smokers (n = 85) and non-smokers (n = 416) based on the presence/absence of current smoking.

The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on the three factor scores as well as the total score of the SPQ, controlling for age and gender, revealed that cognitive-perceptual factor was significantly associated with an increased rate of smoking (P = 0.048). The ANCOVA on the WMS-R indices, with smoking group as a fixed factor and age, gender and total SPQ score as covariates, revealed that the schizotypy-by-smoking interaction was significant for attention/working memory (P = 0.029).

Positive schizotypy may be associated with more smoking. Schizotypy and smoking could interact with each other to negatively affect attention/working memory.

Depression is common among schizophrenia patients and constitutes a major risk factor for suicide. Calgary Depression Scale (CDSS) is the most widely used instrument for measuring depression in schizophrenia. CDSS has never been examined in patients with predominant negative symptoms, thus possibly hindering both accurate assessment and understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The current study is the first to examine CDSS’ structure in this population.

We conducted Principal Component Analysis (n = 184) for the CDSS items. Thereafter, we correlated emerging factors with psychopathological, demographic and side effect variables. We assessed internal consistency and reliability of the emerging factors, as well as demographic correlations.

The analysis yielded two factors: depression-hopelessness and guilt. Factors distinctly correlated with separate variables. Removal of item #7 (early waking) improved internal consistency. The depression-hopelessness factor had an inverse correlation with negative symptoms, and positive correlation with neuroleptic side effects.

CDSS structure indicated of two separate factors, i.e., depression-hopelessness and guilt, suggesting separate underlying processes. The validity of the scale might benefit from a two-fold structure and the removal/replacement of item #7 (early waking). A noteworthy inverse correlation was found between the depression factor and negative symptoms, as well as a positive correlation between depression factor and neuroleptic side effects.

To compare mental health of 136 young adults without neurosensory handicaps born with low birthweight (LBW, birthweight less than 2000 g) with 132 adults with normal birthweight (NBW).

A cohort of moderate LBW and NBW young adults were assessed with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) at 19 years and the Children Assessment Schedule (CAS) at 11 years of age.

At 19 years of age, 44 out of 136 (32%) LBW young adults were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder compared to 10% NBW (OR: 2.8; 95% CI: 1.1, 4.5, P = 0.02). Among the LBW young adults, affective-, anxiety-, ADHD- and antisocial personality disorders were most common, and nine subjects (20%) had more than one diagnosis. Of 97 LBW subjects examined both at 11 and 19 years of age, 54 (56%) were mentally healthy though out adolescence. This was half as many as for controls (OR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.3 to 0.9).

Moderate LBW was associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders in young adulthood. Only half of LBW young adults stayed healthy throughout adolescence.

The aim of the present study was to undertake a systematic review using meta-analysis procedures to assess the relationships between eating disorders and peer and family influence and to evaluate whether gender plays a moderator role in that relationship.

PsycINFO, Medline, Web of Science, EPSCO and Embase databases from 1980 to 2010 were searched in June and October 2010. Hand searching of relevant reference sections was also undertaken.

It was possible to obtain 83 effect sizes from the 25 studies selected. Results showed that both peers and family influence dieting behavior, body dissatisfaction and bulimic symptoms in adolescent girls and boys. Furthermore, the analyses of the moderator variables showed that the variability of the effect sizes found was, in some cases, explained by gender, influence type and the country of the sample.

These results highlight how daily social interactions can influence unhealthy eating practices in adolescent girls and boys, and suggest that weight-related issues of parents and peers can be transmitted to adolescents.

There are new materials in looking for objective tools of mental conditions of depression patients. Grant of Russian humanitarian scientific fund: 11-06-00869.

21 patient (7 male; 14 female; mean age - 38.2 years).

Assessment of beta-endorphin concentration in peripheral blood in patients with mild and moderate unipolar depression. Implementation of this parameter as a marker of treatment efficacy.

Ethically approved prospective study; HDRS; ELISA; statistical analysis

Changes in beta-endorphin level appeared to be more significant marker than peptides‘ absolute level. Degree of beta-endorphin changes and degree of HDRS score changes were significantly correlated (p = 0.009; Spearman correlation coefficient ρ = - 0.6). Individual change was calculated as ratio of previous value divided by subsequent value. Therefore, higher increase of beta-endorphin concentration was associated with higher decrease in HDRS score. Figure.

[Figure]

A0 - mean HDRS sample score (n=21); A1 - mean HDRS score in patients with beta-endorphin decrease (n=6); A2 - mean HDRS score in patients with beta-endorphin increase (n=15).

Preliminary data show that increase in beta-endorphin plasma level in patients with non-psychotic unipolar depression after 2 weeks of treatment is associated with positive response to treatment.

To analyze the interface between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and bipolarity in depressed patients comorbid with BPD.

As part of National Multi-site Study of 493 consecutive DSM-IV major depressive patients evaluated in at least two semi-structured interviews 1 month apart, 19 (3.9%) had comorbid BPD (BPD+), whereas 474 (96.1%) did not manifest this comorbidity (BPD−).

Compared to BPD (−), BPD (+) patients displayed higher rates of bipolar (BP) disorders and temperaments, an earlier age at onset with a family history of affective illness, more comorbidity, more stressors before the first episode which was more often depressive or mixed, as well as a greater number and severity of affective episodes.

The hypothesis which fitted at best our findings was to consider BPD as a contributory factor in the development of BP disorder, which could have favoured the progression from unipolar major depression to BP disorder. We could not however exclude that some features of BP disorder may have contributed to the development of BPD.

There is evidence showing that men and women differ with regard to the processing of emotional information. However, the mechanisms behind these differences are not fully understood.

The sample comprised of 275 (167 female) right-handed, healthy participants, recruited from the community. We employed a customized affective priming task, which consisted of three subtests, differing in the modality of the prime (face, written word, and sound). The targets were always written words of either positive or negative valence. The priming effect was measured as reaction time facilitation in conditions where both prime and target were emotional (of the same positive or negative valence) compared with conditions where the emotional targets were preceded by neutral primes.

The priming effect was observed across all three modalities, with an interaction of gender by valence: the priming effect in the emotionally negative condition in male participants was stronger compared with females. This was accounted for by the differential priming effect within the female group where priming was significantly smaller in the emotionally negative conditions compared with the positive conditions. The male participants revealed a comparable priming effect across both the emotionally negative and positive conditions.

Reduced priming in negative conditions in women may reflect interference processes due to greater sensitivity to negative valence of stimuli. This in turn could underlie the gender-related differences in susceptibility to emotional disorders.

Impaired cognition is a prominent feature of schizophrenia. To what extent the heterogeneous cognitive impairments can be accounted for by considering only a single underlying impairment or a small number of core impairments remains elusive. This study examined whether cognitive impairments in antipsychotic-naïve, first-episode schizophrenia patients may be determined by a relative slower speed of information processing.

Forty-eight antipsychotic-naïve patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 48 matched healthy controls were administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests to assess domains of cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. Composite scores were calculated, grouping tests into cognitive domains.

There were significant differences between patients and healthy controls on global cognition and all cognitive domains, including verbal intelligence, processing speed, sustained attention, working memory, reasoning and problem solving, verbal learning and memory, visual learning and memory, and reaction time. All these significant differences, except for verbal intelligence and global cognition, disappeared when processing speed was included as a covariate.

At the first stage of illness, antipsychotic-naïve patients with schizophrenia display moderate/severe impairments in all the cognitive domains assessed. The results support the contention of a global cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia that to some extent may be determined by impaired processing speed.

To test whether the association between childhood adversity and positive and negative psychotic experiences is due to genetic confounding.

Childhood adversity and psychotic experiences were assessed in an ongoing sample of 226 twins from the general population. A monozygotic (MZ) twin differences approach was used to assess possible genetic confounding.

In the whole sample, childhood adversity was significantly associated with positive (β = 45; SE = 0.16; P = 0.008) and negative psychotic experiences (β = 0.77; SE = 0.18; P < 0.01). Within-pair MZ twin differences in exposure to childhood adversity were significantly associated with differences in positive (β = 71; SE = 0.29; P = 0.016) and negative psychotic experiences (β = 98; SE = 0.38; P = 0.014) in a subsample of 85 MZ twin pairs.

Individuals exposed to childhood adversity are more likely to report psychotic experiences. Furthermore, our findings indicate that this association is not due to genetic confounding.