The underpinnings of poor decision-making in schizophrenia could reflect excessively risky or inhibited behaviors. This study employed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) to compare decision-making in schizophrenia cases to that of healthy controls. Individuals with schizophrenia performed significantly differently across three trials, failing to improve their performance as shown by the control group. In the control group, cognitive ability, measured with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) showed that Perceptual Organization scores predicted Average Inflations per Trial, Total Balloon Pops, and Total Earnings. Although the schizophrenia cases failed to learn, group performance on the BART was not associated with cognitive ability, but regression analyses showed 41.4% of average inflations per trial were explained by Excitement, Delusions, Emotional Withdrawal, and Poor Rapport; total balloon pops were only explained by emotional withdrawal and Total Earnings were reduced by Delusions, Excitement and Poor Rapport. Only healthy participants demonstrated a relation between cognitive ability performance improvement across trials. Schizophrenia cases showed less risk-taking, and earned significantly less money overall. Identifying the determinants of poor decision-making could inform interventions and possible treatments to improve their function and perhaps be of relevance to public safety if decisions are overly risky.Adults with diagnosis of childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience impairments in self-regulation (SR). This study examined whether subgroups of these impairments can be established based on differentiable patterns. The relationships between these subgroups and a group without ADHD were then analyzed, focusing on functional outcomes. Executive functions, effortful control, and emotional lability, in addition to self-concept, quality of life, and different comorbidities, were evaluated in 61 adults with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD and 54 adults without ADHD. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed three ADHD classes based on different self-regulation indicators "Normalized" (49.18%), "Moderate impairments" (27.86%), and "Severe generalized impairments" (22.96%), who were compared with a Non-ADHD group on different functional measures. The "Normalized" profile showed significantly less dysfunctionality than the other two profiles, and it only exhibited significant differences with respect to the Non-ADHD group on the Hyperactivity index. By contrast, the "Severe generalized impairments" group, with the lowest self-regulatory skills, was impaired on all the functional outcomes. Self-regulatory skills could be a key target in interventions for adults with ADHD.Starting from China, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contagion spread unexpectedly and quickly all over the world, particularly affecting Italy. In the early stages of the epidemic, healthcare professionals have been in the front-line to manage the infection. The current study aimed to analyse the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on healthcare professionals and to detect some risk and protective factors of their distress levels, with regard to socio-demographic variables, direct exposure to COVID-19 and the coping strategies used to deal with stress. The data were collected during the peak of the infection. A total of 595 healthcare professionals enrolled in the study and completed the measures of socio-demographical and professional data, perceived stress (PSS) and coping strategies (COPE- NVI-25). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/triparanol-mer-29.html Overall, we found that a positive attitude towards the stressful situation was the main protective factor, while female gender, seeking social support, avoidance strategies and working with COVID-19 patients were risk factors. Economic status, problem solving ability and turning to religion were not associated with stress levels. This study, one of the first on this topic, highlighted the main coping strategies used by healthcare professionals in facing the highly stressful situation caused by the pandemic.
To investigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic and related home confinement on symptom profile, symptom severity and exacerbation of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and related factors among young subjects with OCD.
Young subjects who have been followed up with a primary diagnosis of OCD in a university hospital were reached by telephone or online programs to assess symptom profile, symptom severity and exacerbation during pandemic. Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive (CY-BOCS) and Clinical Global Impression- Severity (CGI-S) Scales were used to rate symptom profile and severity before pandemic and during pandemic periods.
There was a significant increase in the frequency of contamination obsessions (p=0.008) and cleaning/washing compulsions (p=0.039) during pandemic period. CY-BOCS obsessions (p<0.001), compulsions subscales (p<0.001) and total scores (p<0.001), and CGI-S scores (p<0.001) during pandemic period were statistically higher than before pandemic period. There was a significant relationship between the change in CY-BOCS scores with talking/searching in the social environment about COVID-19, daily preoccupation about COVID-19, duration of OCD diagnosis and diagnosis of COVID-19 in someone familiar.
Young subjects with OCD may develop additional symptoms and worsen already existing symptoms of OCD during COVID-19 pandemic.
Young subjects with OCD may develop additional symptoms and worsen already existing symptoms of OCD during COVID-19 pandemic.Low body mass index (BMI less then 18/18.5) is utilized as a mandated cutoff for professional fashion model employment, based on assumptions that low BMI indicates eating disorder pathology. No previous studies have examined the association between experimenter-measured BMI and eating disorder symptomatology in professional fashion models. We measured BMI and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) responses in United Kingdom (UK) professional fashion models, and nonmodels. Characteristics were compared using robust standardized mean difference (rSMD) obtained via probability of superiority. Associations between BMI and eating disorder symptomatology were examined using robust regression, controlling for age. Models exhibited lower BMI but higher fat-percentage and muscle mass. On the EDE-Q, models had higher Restraint, Global, Eating, and Weight Concerns, and similar Shape Concern scores compared to nonmodels. BMI was positively associated with eating disorder symptoms in both groups, and all but one of the eight models with clinically significant EDE-Q level had ≥18.