C. La Cascia

Cognitive Assessment of OCD Patients: NeuroVR vs Neuropsychological Test.

This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Neuro-Virtual Reality as tool for the neuropsychological assessment in OCD patients. We used the neuropsychological battery and a virtual version of the Multiple Errand Test (V-MET), developed using the NeuroVR software, in order to evaluate the executive functions, the ability to plan ahead on complex problem solving tasks in daily life in 30 obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and 30 healthy controls. The results showed the presence of difficulties of OCD patients: lower levels of divided attention and higher levels of errors; higher mean rank of inefficiencies, interpretation failures and rule breaks and longer time of execution of the whole task. By contrast, controls have higher level of efficiency and better performance. In addition, a significant correlation was found between the V-MET and the neuropsychological battery which confirms and supports the ecological validity of neurocognitive assessment through NeuroVirtual Reality.

Cumulative social disadvantage and psychosis: findings from a southern Italy case-control study

IEPA 10th International Conference on Early Intervention in Mental Health – “Looking Back, Moving Forward” Milan, Italy, 20th – 22nd October 2016

Working Memory, Jumping to Conclusions and Emotion Recognition: a Possible Link in First Episode Psychosis (Fep)

Introduction A large body of literature has demonstrated that people affected by psychotic disorders show deficits in working memory, in Emotion Recognition (ER) and in data-gathering to reach a decision (Jumping To Conclusions – JTC). Aims To investigate a possible correlation between working memory, JTC and ER in FEP. Methods 41 patients and 89 healthy controls completed assessments of working memory using WAIS shortened version, JTC using the 60:40 Beads Task and ER using Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task. Results According to the literature, cases had poorer performance in working memory tasks (Digit Span: μ7,72 [ds=2,98] vs μ10,14 [ds=3,10], U=865,00, p=0,00; Digit Symbol: μ5,36 [ds=2,43] vs μ10,05 [ds=3,10], U=455,50, p=0,00; Arithmetic: μ5,46 [ds=2,76] vs μ8,74 [ds=3,24], U=865,50, p=0,00; Block Design: μ4,82 [ds=2,72] vs μ7,60 [ds=3,18], U=912,00, p=0,00), in Beads Task (81,6% vs 51,1%, χ 2 =10,27, p=0,001, μ2,53 [ds=3,57] vs μ4,23 [ds=4,77], U=1171,00, p=0,006) and in DFAR (total errors: μ21,62 [ds=7,43] vs μ16,58 [ds=8,69], U=554,50, p=0,002). Furthermore working memory tasks in cases group correlated significantly with JTC (Digit Span: r rho =0,276, p=0,003; Digit Symbol: r rho =0,275, p=0,002; Arithmetic: r rho =0,265, p=0,003; Block Design: r rho =0,292, p=0,001), but only Digit Span with ER (r rho =-0,239; p=0,021). In addition, we found that JTC and ER were significantly associated (r rho =-0,281; p=0,004). Conclusions Data show that working memory impairments, JTC style and dysfunctions in the facial emotions recognition are phenomena strongly correlated in the group of patients. Preliminary results suggest the importance of early rehabilitation as the impairments detected may lead to difficulties in social and relational adaptation in psychotic patients.

EPA-0874 – Social disadvantage and psychosis: a case control study on italian first-episodes of psychosis

Introduction A growing body of literature suggests that people affected by psychotic disorders are more likely to be unemployed, tend to live alone, have a poor social network, and are not able to establish long-term relationships (Morgan et al., 2008). Aims To investigate social disadvantage in a sample of first-episode of psychosis patients and geographically matched controls. Methods The study sample consists of 52 healthy controls and 37 FEP who were assessed using the MRC Sociodemographic Schedules. Results Preliminary results suggest that, consistently with the literature, cases are more exposed than controls to social disadvantage. They tend to reach a lower education degree (OR 6.66; CI 95%, 1.67–26.50, p 0.005) and to have an underpaid job 5 years before the onset (OR 2.84; CI 95%, 1.08–7.45, p 0.03). Furthermore, cases are more likely to live longer with their parents rather than independently (OR 3.33; CI 95%, 1.25–8.86, p 0.01) and are more exposed to house overcrowding (OR 3.92; CI 95%, 1.03–14.93, p 0.05). It was also found that an higher percentage of cases have never been in a stable relationship in the previous 5 years (OR 2.61; CI 95%, 1.08–6.27, p 0.03). Conclusions In line with the previous literature, we found that lower educational and occupational status and poor relationship status are associated to risk for psychosis. However, in contrast with North European cases, Italian FEP are more likely to live with their family rather than alone and, therefore, to be exposed to house overcrowding.