Vasilios Bozikas

Comorbidity of obsessive-compulsive disorder with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: Does it imply a specific subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder?

The present study examined whether the comorbidity of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) constitute a specific subtype of OCD. The study sample consisted of 146 consecutive outpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD. Diagnoses were established using MINI, IPDE, YBOCS and YBOCS-SC. OCD patients with comorbid OCPD were compared with OCD patients without OCPD on various sociodemographic and clinical variables. Almost one third of the OCD subjects met criteria for comorbid OCPD. OCD+OCPD patients had a significantly earlier age at onset of initial OC symptoms, earlier age at onset of OCD and more obsessions and compulsions than pure obsessions compared to the patients with OCDOCPD. OCD+OCPD patients also had a higher rate of comorbidity with avoidant personality disorder and showed more impairment in global functioning. There were not differences between the two sub-groups on severity of OCD symptoms and also on type of OCD onset. Our results indicate that the comorbidity of OCD with OCPD is associated with a number of specific clinical characteristics of OCD. These findings in conjunction with of current clinical, family and genetic studies provide some initial evidence that OCD comorbid with OCPD constitute a specific subtype of OCD.

Emotional perception and theory of mind in first episode psychosis: The role of obsessive–compulsive symptomatology

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of comorbid obsessive-compulsive symptoms on emotional perception and theory of mind (ToM) in patients with first-episode psychosis. Participants were 65 patients with non-affective first episode psychosis (FEP) and 47 healthy controls. The patient group was divided into two subgroups, those with (FEP+; n=38) and those without obsessive-compulsive symptomatology (FEP-; n=27). Emotion perception and ToM were assessed with the Perception of Social Inference Test. Severity of psychotic and obsessive-compulsive symptoms was assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), respectively. Deficits in emotion recognition and theory of mind were confirmed in patients with non-affective first-episode psychosis compared to healthy controls. In patients, comorbidity with obsessive-compulsive symptoms was associated with worse performance on certain aspects of social cognition (ToM 2nd order) compared to FEP- patients. Our findings of impaired emotion perception and ToM in patients with first-episode psychosis support the hypothesis that deficits are already present at illness onset. Presence of OCS appears to have further deleterious effects on social cognition, suggesting that these patients may belong to a schizo-obsessive subtype of schizophrenia characterized by more extensive neurobiological impairment.

Evaluation of Cognitive-Analytic Therapy (CAT) outcome in patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Background Psychotherapy, in general, is the main therapeutic approach for patients with personality disorders. CAT is a brief psychotherapeutic technique, which has been proven efficacious for patients with various psychiatric disorders. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the outcome of CAT in patients with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) with and without an additional axis-I DSM-IV diagnosis.

Koro-like symptoms in two Greek men.

Koro syndrome is a psychiatric disorder characterised, in its typical form, by acute and intense anxiety, with complaints in men of a shrinking penis or fear of its retraction into the abdomen and resultant death. Initially, this syndrome was described as a culture specific disorder. Sporadic cases referred to as the koro-like syndrome have been observed in western countries recently. They are more likely to appear in the context of a psychiatric or neurological disorder. The clinical course of culture bound koro syndrome is usually self limited, but in some cases it can be transient or take on a chronic or recurrent form, lasting from days to weeks, months or even years. We present two cases, one of a middle aged man whose koro-like symptoms have persisted for over 18 years in a relapse mode that is rarely observed, and one of a young schizophrenic, who also exhibits koro-like symptoms.

Evaluation of Cognitive-Analytic Therapy (CAT) outcome in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Background CAT is a type of brief psychotherapy, which integrates in theory and practice concepts and methods from cognitive, psychoanalytic, behavioral and other approaches. There are studies showing the effectiveness of CAT in various psychiatric disorders. The present study aims to investigate the outcome of CAT in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) with and without an additional axis-I diagnosis according to DSM-IV criteria.

Improved facial affect recognition in patients with first-episode psychosis

The present study aimed at assessing whether impaired facial affect recognition (FAR) in patients with first‐episode psychosis (FEP) would improve after a brief intervention targeting FAR specifically.

Social cognition in the course of psychosis and its correlation with biomarkers in a male cohort

ABSTRACT Introduction: Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia display deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) and Emotion Perception (EP) even before the appearance of full-blown symptomatology. Methods: We evaluated ToM and EP in a male cohort consisting of 25 First Episode Psychosis (FEP) and 16 relapsed schizophrenic patients (CHRON) compared to 12 subjects in Ultra-high Risk (UHR) and 23 healthy controls (CTR). Furthermore, we measured the levels of Cortisol, Insulin like Growth Factor (IGF-1), TNF-a, TNF-b and several interleukins as potential biomarkers. Results: Deficits in EP and ToM were found in FEP, CHRON patients and UHR subjects compared to CTR. The impairments in these two domains seem to follow different patterns in the course of psychosis. EP was more impaired in subjects with a longer history of symptomatology whereas there was no statistically significant difference regarding ToM. On the other hand IL-4 was the only biomarker correlated to ToM and EP scores in two different samples of our study. Conclusion: Social Cognition (SC) domains are impaired in patients with psychosis as well as in UHR subjects compared to healthy controls. There are differences in the progress of ToM and EP deficits in the course of psychosis. Interleukins as IL-4 could correlate to SC.

The efficacy of Cognitive-Analytic Therapy (CAT) on anhedonia in patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Background Anhedonia is recognized as one of the key symptoms of depression but it is also seen in other mental disorders. Cognitive-Analytic Therapy (CAT) is a type of brief psychotherapy which has been proven efficacious for patients with various psychiatric diagnoses. The present study aims to: 1) Investigate the presence of anhedonia in patients with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) 2) Evaluate the CAT outcome on anhedonia, depression and anxiety of these patients.

Anhedonia in patients with borderline personality disorder: the efficacy of cognitive-analytic therapy (CAT)

Background Anhedonia is recognized as one of the core symptoms of depression but it is also seen in other mental disorders. Cognitive-Analytic Therapy (CAT) is a type of brief psychotherapy which has been proven efficacious for patients with various psychiatric diagnoses. The present study aims to: 1) Investigate the presence of anhedonia in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) 2) Evaluate the CAT outcome on anhedonia, depression and anxiety of these patients.