Arthur A. Berberian
Federal University of São Paulo
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Featured researches published by Arthur A. Berberian.
Physiology & Behavior | 2014
Elson Asevedo; Lucas B. Rizzo; Ary Gadelha; Rodrigo B. Mansur; Vanessa Kiyomi Ota; Arthur A. Berberian; Bruno S. Scarpato; Antônio Lúcio Teixeira; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan; Elisa Brietzke
Although several studies have pointed to a possible role of interleukin 2 (IL-2) in schizophrenia (SZ), association between IL-2 and the different groups of symptoms has not been explored. The objective of this study was to investigate a possible correlation of peripheral IL-2 levels with symptoms and cognitive performance in patients with SZ. In addition, we compared the plasma levels of IL-2 between patients with SZ and healthy controls. Twenty-nine chronically medicated outpatients with SZ according to DSM-IV were compared with twenty-six healthy controls. The patients were evaluated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). All the participants had blood collected into EDTA tubes by venipuncture between 9:00 and 10:00AM. Plasma concentrations of IL-2 were determined by cytometric bead array. A computerized neuropsychological battery assessed verbal learning, verbal fluency, working memory, set shifting, executive function, inhibition and intelligence. Patients with SZ had lower levels of IL-2 than healthy controls (p<0.001). In the SZ group, IL-2 levels were positively correlated with scores in the digit span test (rho=0.416, P=0.025) and intelligence (rho=0.464, P=0.011). We also found a negative correlation between IL-2 and total score in the negative subscale of PANSS (rho=-0.447, p=0.015). Our findings suggest that IL-2 may be involved in the mechanisms related to cognitive deterioration and negative symptomatology in schizophrenia.
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria | 2014
Cinthia Higuchi; Bruno Bertolucci Ortiz; Arthur A. Berberian; Cristiano Noto; Quirino Cordeiro; Sintia Iole Belangero; José Cássio do Nascimento Pitta; Ary Gadelha; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan
OBJECTIVES The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was developed to assess the symptoms of schizophrenia dimensionally. Although it is widely used in clinical trials in Brazil, it is not fully validated. The aim of this study is to assess the factor structure of the Brazilian PANSS and generate validation data for its current version. METHODS A total of 292 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were enrolled. RESULTS Principal component analysis suggested a forced five-factor final model that accounted for 58.44% of the total variance, composed of negative, disorganization/cognition, excitement, positive, and depression/anxiety. CONCLUSION The Brazilian PANSS has a similar factor structure and internal consistency compared to versions in several other languages.
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria | 2009
Arthur A. Berberian; Bruna Tonietti Trevisan; Tais S. Moriyama; José Maria Montiel; José Ari Oliveira; Alessandra Gotuzo Seabra
OBJECTIVE Working memory impairment is common in schizophrenia and is possibly a cause of multiple features of the disorder. However few studies have replicated such findings of impairment patterns in Brazilian samples. The main target of this study was to assess auditory and visual working memory in patients with schizophrenia, to assess if they work as separate systems, and to correlate working memory deficits with executive functions. METHOD Twenty subjects with schizophrenia and twenty healthy subjects matched by gender, age, and schooling have participated. The abilities assessed were auditory and visual working memory, selective attention, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and planning. RESULTS Patients showed declines in all measures evaluated, except for a measure reaction time of inhibitory control. Auditory working memory was correlated to selective attention, inhibition, flexibility and planning while Visual working memory to planning and flexibility. CONCLUSION The present study suggests that working memory and executive functions deficits are present in patients with schizophrenia in the Brazilian sample evaluated. Alterations in executive functions may lead to incapacity of operation of processes of working memory. These findings may contribute to delineate and develop new strategies of schizophrenia treatment in the Brazilian population.
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria | 2016
Arthur A. Berberian; Giovanna V. Moraes; Ary Gadelha; Elisa Brietzke; Ana Olívia Fonseca; Bruno S. Scarpato; Marcella de O. Vicente; Alessandra Gotuzo Seabra; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan; Acioly L.T. Lacerda
Objective: To investigate if verbal fluency impairment in schizophrenia reflects executive function deficits or results from degraded semantic store or inefficient search and retrieval strategies. Method: Two groups were compared: 141 individuals with schizophrenia and 119 healthy age and education-matched controls. Both groups performed semantic and phonetic verbal fluency tasks. Performance was evaluated using three scores, based on 1) number of words generated; 2) number of clustered/related words; and 3) switching score. A fourth performance score based on the number of clusters was also measured. Results: Individuals with schizophrenia produced fewer words than controls. After controlling for the total number of words produced, a difference was observed between the groups in the number of cluster-related words generated in the semantic task. In both groups, the number of words generated in the semantic task was higher than that generated in the phonemic task, although a significant group vs. fluency type interaction showed that subjects with schizophrenia had disproportionate semantic fluency impairment. Working memory was positively associated with increased production of words within clusters and inversely correlated with switching. Conclusion: Semantic fluency impairment may be attributed to an inability (resulting from reduced cognitive control) to distinguish target signal from competing noise and to maintain cues for production of memory probes.
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria | 2017
Camila T. Matsuzaka; Denise Maria Christofolini; Vanessa Kiyomi Ota; Ary Gadelha; Arthur A. Berberian; Cristiano Noto; Diego Robles Mazzotti; Leticia Maria Spindola; Patricia N. Moretti; Marília de Arruda Cardoso Smith; Maria Isabel Melaragno; Sintia Iole Belangero; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan
Objective: Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia, related to dopaminergic dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). It is hypothesized that functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4680 of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene could mediate the relationship between cognition and dopamine activity in the PFC. Other COMT SNPs could also play a role. Methods: We evaluated the role of three COMT SNPs (rs737865, rs165599, and rs4680) in schizophrenia and their impact on three working memory tasks. For genetic association analyses, 212 individuals with schizophrenia and 257 healthy controls (HCs) were selected. The Visual Working Memory (VWM) Task, Keep Track Task, and Letter Memory Task were administered to 133 schizophrenics and 93 HCs. Results: We found a significant association of rs737865, with the GG genotype exerting a protective effect and the GA haplotype (rs4680/rs165599) exerting a risk effect for schizophrenia. COMT rs4680 AA carriers and rs737865 AA carriers scored lowest on the Keep Track Task. When the genotype*group interaction effect was evaluated, rs165599 exerted opposite effects for VWM and Keep Track task performance in patients and controls, with AA carriers scoring lowest on both tests among controls, but highest among patients. Conclusion: These data support the hypothesis that COMT polymorphisms may be associated with schizophrenia and modulate cognition in patients and controls.
Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics | 2013
Mariane N. Noto; Cristiano Noto; Danilo Rocha de Jesus; André Zugman; Rodrigo B. Mansur; Arthur A. Berberian; Emilie Leclerc; Roger S. McIntyre; Christoph U. Correll; Elisa Brietzke
Bipolar disorder (BD) usually follows a neurobiological progression pathway, but a relatively long interval between the first symptoms of the disorder and the correct diagnosis and treatment takes place in most patients. Strategies used to recognize BD at an early stage and even prior to the first manic episode could help identify the risk and modifying factors that influence the onset and course of disease, and improve outcomes. Drawing on current research results, this article presents considerations on risk factors for the development of BD, including genetic/familial risk, endophenotypes and clinical characteristics. Taken together, this article provides a framework and tools for research on the BD prodrome, as well as for the early recognition and timely treatment of patients prior to and immediately after the emergence of BD.
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria | 2013
Amanda Cristina Galvão Oliveira de Almeida; Gerardo Maria de Araújo Filho; Arthur A. Berberian; Clarissa Trezsniak; Fabiana Nery-Fernandes; Cesar Augusto Araujo Neto; Andrea Parolin Jackowski; Ângela Miranda-Scippa; Irismar Reis de Oliveira
OBJECTIVE Functional neuroimaging techniques represent fundamental tools in the context of translational research integrating neurobiology, psychopathology, neuropsychology, and therapeutics. In addition, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has proven its efficacy in the treatment of anxiety disorders and may be useful in phobias. The literature has shown that feelings and behaviors are mediated by specific brain circuits, and changes in patterns of interaction should be associated with cerebral alterations. Based on these concepts, a systematic review was conducted aiming to evaluate the impact of CBT on phobic disorders measured by functional neuroimaging techniques. METHODS A systematic review of the literature was conducted including studies published between January 1980 and April 2012. Studies written in English, Spanish or Portuguese evaluating changes in the pattern of functional neuroimaging before and after CBT in patients with phobic disorders were included. RESULTS The initial search strategy retrieved 45 studies. Six of these studies met all inclusion criteria. Significant deactivations in the amygdala, insula, thalamus and hippocampus, as well as activation of the medial orbitofrontal cortex, were observed after CBT in phobic patients when compared with controls. CONCLUSION In spite of their technical limitations, neuroimaging techniques provide neurobiological support for the efficacy of CBT in the treatment of phobic disorders. Further studies are needed to confirm this conclusion.
Psychiatry Research-neuroimaging | 2013
Vanessa Kiyomi Ota; Arthur A. Berberian; Ary Gadelha; Marcos Leite Santoro; Gustavo L. Ottoni; Camila T. Matsuzaka; Jair de Jesus Mari; Maria Isabel Melaragno; Diogo R. Lara; Marília de Arruda Cardoso Smith; Sintia Iole Belangero; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan
We aimed to investigate UFD1L polymorphisms in schizophrenia and in relation to cognition. A total of 299 cases and 363 controls were genotyped, and 130 patients completed nine neuropsychological tests. We found that rs5992403 AA-genotype carriers showed lower scores on the set-shifting task. Therefore, UFD1L may participate in the core cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia.
Jornal Brasileiro De Psiquiatria | 2015
Arthur A. Berberian; Ary Gadelha; Natália Martins Dias; Tatiana Pontrelli Mecca; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan; Acioly T. Lacerda
Objective This study describes the development of two updating measures of working memory (WM): Letter Updating Test (LUT) and Word Updating Test (WUT). Methods In stage 1, items were created and the instruments were assessed by experts and laymen. In stage 2, tests were given to 15 patients with schizophrenia and 15 paired controls. All were able to understand and respond to the instruments. In stage 3, 141 patients with schizophrenia and 119 healthy controls aged 18 to 60 took part; they were assessed on WM, processing speed (PS) and functional outcome. Results The results showed adequate rates of internal consistency for both measures developed, for both the total sample and each group separately, as well as evidence of convergent validity, discriminant validity and sensitivity to differentiate performance among the groups. Principal component analysis yielded two components, one for updating tests and other for PS measures, indicating factorial validity. Positive and significant, yet low, correlations were found with functionality measures. Conclusion These results provide adequate psychometric parameters for the measures developed, applicable to cognitive research settings in schizophrenia.
Jornal Brasileiro De Psiquiatria | 2017
Tiago R. Silva; Arthur A. Berberian; Ary Gadelha; Cecília C. Villares; Larissa Campagna Martini; Rodrigo Affonseca Bressan
Objetivo Adaptar para o Brasil e investigar a confiabilidade e validade da Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS) em pessoas com esquizofrenia. Metodos Etapa 1 – foi realizada traducao profissional para o portugues, adaptacao e retrotraducao da RAS. Etapa 2 – estudo-piloto em um grupo de 12 pessoas com esquizofrenia para garantir compreensao dos itens da escala. Etapa 3 – As pessoas com esquizofrenia (N = 104) foram submetidas a versao brasileira da RAS e a instrumentos de funcionalidade, qualidade de vida e sintomas para busca de evidencias de validade. Resultados Os resultados revelaram bons indices de consistencia interna e de precisao teste e reteste dos instrumentos. Foram estabelecidas evidencias de validade convergente entre a RAS e medidas de qualidade de vida (r = 0,58; p < 0,001), funcionamento ocupacional (r = 0,40; p < 0,001), habilidades de vida independente (r = 0,24; p < 0,02), gravidade (CGI, r = -0,31; p < 0,003) sintomas da esquizofrenia: PANSS total (r = -0,21; p < 0,05), PANSS negativa (r = -0,28; p < 0.007), PANSS positiva (r = -0.08; p = 0,437)] e depressao [Calgary (r = -0,27; p < 0,01)]. A analise fatorial exploratoria revelou seis fatores, sendo quatro destes similares a estudos previos. Conclusao A partir deste estudo, considerou-se que a palavra “superacao” reflete melhor o conceito de “recovery”. A versao brasileira da escala RAS e um instrumento valido e reprodutivel para aferir a capacidade de “superacao” das pessoas com esquizofrenia.