Article
Clinical Neurology
Meritxell Tost, Alex Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Raquel Aguayo, Aida Alvarez, Itziar Montalvo, Juan David Barbero, Rosa Gabernet, Eduard Izquierdo, Igor Merodio, Jose Antonio Monreal, Diego Palao, Javier Labad
Summary: Switching from risperidone to paliperidone palmitate may be associated with improved social functioning and cognitive abilities in patients with schizophrenia.
PROGRESS IN NEURO-PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Kah Kheng Goh, Chun-Hsin Chen, Hsien-Yuan Lane
Summary: Schizophrenia is characterized by abnormal behavior, and dysregulation of oxytocin may play a role in its expression. Studies have shown potential clinical benefits of oxytocin in improving the psychopathology of patients with schizophrenia. Oxytocin has the potential to be a therapeutic agent for schizophrenia and may have implications for future treatment.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Kathleen Miley, Piper Meyer-Kalos, Sisi Ma, David J. Bond, Erich Kummerfeld, Sophia Vinogradov
Summary: Baseline socio-affective capacity and motivation are identified as the most direct causes of occupational and social functioning 6 months after treatment in early schizophrenia. Addressing these specific high-impact treatment needs is essential for promoting optimal social and occupational recovery.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Cecilia Riccardi, Cristiana Montemagni, Elisa Del Favero, Silvio Bellino, Claudio Brasso, Paola Rocca
Summary: Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia, and current treatment mainly involves antipsychotics, but their effectiveness in addressing social cognition impairment is still unclear. Therefore, different medications are being studied to improve social cognition in patients with schizophrenia.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Tim B. Ziermans, Frederike Schirmbeck, Floor Oosterwijk, Hilde M. Geurts, Lieuwe de Haan
Summary: The study found significantly elevated levels of autistic traits in individuals with psychotic disorders, which are closely related to social functioning. Individuals with a familial risk for psychosis did not show high levels of autistic traits, indicating the need for specific clinical guidelines for psychotic patients with comorbid autism to address their social needs.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Review
Psychiatry
Megan Cowman, Laurena Holleran, Edgar Lonergan, Karen O'Connor, Max Birchwood, Gary Donohoe
Summary: Research has shown that in individuals with early psychosis, cognitive ability and social cognition are strongly related to psychosocial function, even after accounting for the effects of symptom severity, duration of untreated psychosis, and length of illness. Overall, general cognitive ability and social cognition are most strongly associated with both concurrent and long-term function, with associations demonstrating medium effect sizes.
SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN
(2021)
Review
Psychiatry
Takeshi Shimada, Shoko Ito, Aya Makabe, Ayumi Yamanushi, Ami Takenaka, Kojiro Kawano, Masayoshi Kobayashi
Summary: This study serves as an update to a recent systematic review and meta-analysis on the effect of aerobic exercise on cognition in schizophrenia. The findings suggest that aerobic exercise can significantly improve global cognition, attention/vigilance, working memory, and verbal learning in individuals with schizophrenia. Group exercise, exercise supervised by professionals, as well as longer duration and higher frequency of exercise are associated with greater improvements in global cognition.
PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Renliang Cai, Chengbing Huang, Longyan Ni, Zihan Liu, Sijie Zhang, Yufeng Qiu, Jianing Hu, Ju Gao, Miao Yu, Xiaowei Tang, Chao Zhou, Xiaobin Zhang, Xiangrong Zhang, Xinyu Fang
Summary: This study compared cognitive function and social functioning between male schizophrenia patients with deficit syndrome (DS) and non-DS, and examined the associations among negative symptoms (motivation and pleasure (MAP) deficits and expressivity (EXP) deficits), cognitive function, and social functioning using a Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results showed that DS patients performed worse in cognitive function and social functioning compared to non-DS patients. The SEM model demonstrated that MAP had a significant impact on social functioning through direct influence and mediation of cognitive function. However, EXP had little influence on cognitive function and social function.
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Takashi Uchino, Ryo Okubo, Youji Takubo, Akiko Aoki, Izumi Wada, Naoki Hashimoto, Satoru Ikezawa, Takahiro Nemoto
Summary: This study suggests that patients with schizophrenia experience subjective difficulties in social cognition, which they perceive as being related to social functioning. However, their knowledge of social cognition is limited, and the assessment and treatment of social cognition may not be widespread in clinical practice.
PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Vijaya Lakshmi Valaparla, Ritu Nehra, Urvakhsh Meherwan Mehta, Sandeep Grover
Summary: The study found that in patients with schizophrenia, all domains of social cognition and neurocognition show significant improvement during the remission phase, except for the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) in neurocognition and the social perception index in social cognition.
ASIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Psychiatry
Wolfgang Woelwer, Nicole Frommann, Agnes Lowe, Daniel Kamp, Karolin Weide, Andreas Bechdolf, Anke Brockhaus-Dumke, Rene Hurlemann, Ana Muthesius, Stefan Klingberg, Martin Hellmich, Sabine Schmied, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
Summary: This article describes a randomized controlled trial comparing Integrated Social Cognitive and Behavioral Skill Therapy (ISST) with Neurocognitive Remediation Therapy (NCRT) in Germany. The study aims to assess the efficacy of ISST in improving functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia. As part of the German Enhancing Schizophrenia Prevention and Recovery through Innovative Treatments (ESPRIT) research network, this trial will help identify optimal treatment options and understand factors influencing cognitive remediation effects.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Review
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Alvaro Cavieres, Pablo Lopez-Silva
Summary: Disturbances in social cognition are a core feature of schizophrenia. This paper discusses the lack of attention given to the domain of social perception and proposes a more precise definition for the concept. Drawing on resources from ecological psychology and phenomenology, the authors suggest that social perception refers to low-level pre-reflective processes involved in the awareness of interpersonal interactions. They argue that people with schizophrenia have difficulties perceiving social situations as opportunities for engagement, and therefore, the term should be used to capture this neglected domain in social cognition.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Sarah Correa de Sales, Marieli Philippsen, Leticia Stephane de Jesus, Marcelo Alves Carriello, Pedro Henrique Pereira Alvim, Diogo Fernando Bornancin Costa, Laura Canani da Rosa, Mathias Hasse-Sousa, Leticia Sanguinetti Czepielewski, Raffael Massuda
Summary: Functional impairment is a common symptom in schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). Social cognition, specifically theory of mind (ToM), has been found to be associated with functioning in SZ. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between ToM and functioning in SZ, BD, and healthy controls (HC). The findings revealed that ToM was only associated with psychosocial functioning in SZ, with low-functioning SZ participants showing poorer ToM performance than high-functioning SZ participants.
EUROPEAN NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Matteo Cella, Ottilie Sedgwick, Megan Lawrence, Nina Grant, Dimosthenis Tsapekos, Lauren Harrison, Til Wykes
Summary: This study evaluates the impact of a social cognition intervention on social cognition and social functioning outcomes in people with schizophrenia, and explores the mechanisms of affect and physiological arousal driving these changes. The results show that the intervention can improve social quality by reducing negative affect, but an increase in social behavior may take longer to manifest.
PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Michal Hajduk, Samuel J. Abplanalp, Amy M. Jimenez, Melissa Fisher, Kristen M. Haut, Christine I. Hooker, Hyunkyu Lee, Joseph Ventura, Mor Nahum, Michael F. Green
Summary: Motivation, especially social motivation, plays a significant role in interpersonal functioning for individuals with schizophrenia. After considering social cognition, passive social withdrawal, active social avoidance, and social withdrawal/engagement were identified as the most important factors. Three distinct communities were found: social cognition, social motivation, and interpersonal functioning. Interestingly, general motivation measures were not part of any community, and BAS showed stronger links to functioning than BIS. Passive social withdrawal was more strongly linked to interpersonal functioning than social cognitive abilities. These findings highlight the importance of understanding different motivations in relation to interpersonal difficulties in schizophrenia.
EUROPEAN ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
D. A. Moser, S. Mueller, E. M. Hummel, A. S. Limberg, L. Dieckmann, L. Frach, J. Pakusch, V Flasbeck, M. Bruene, J. Beygo, L. Klein-Hitpass, R. Kumsta
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Martin Bruene, Sarah Maria von Hein, Christian Claassen, Rainer Hoffmann, Carsten Saft
Summary: Patients with Huntington's disease (HD) show some understanding of fairness rules in a neuroeconomic game, but they do not punish observed unfairness from a third-party perspective. This lack of altruistic punishment is linked to deficits in executive functioning and theory of mind.
BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Vera Flasbeck, Martin Bruene
Summary: The methylation of FKBP5 gene region is associated with anxiety and psychopathological symptom load index, as well as lower empathic abilities. Psychopathology and empathy impairments are related to the level of childhood maltreatment, but there is no difference in methylation of FKBP5 gene region between clinical and non-clinical groups. Methylation of NR3C1 is lower in BPD patients compared to healthy controls, with small differences.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Christoph Bamberg, Vera Flasbeck, Georg Juckel, Martin Bruene
Summary: The study demonstrated that the indicator of central serotonergic activity, LDAEP, increases after food consumption and is related to mood improvement. Furthermore, LDAEP is selectively modulated by the type of nutrition consumed. Additionally, the study showed a high intraindividual stability of LDAEP.
CLINICAL EEG AND NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Clara Maiss, Luisa Engemann, Katharina Kern, Vera Flasbeck, Andreas Muegge, Thomas Luecke, Martin Bruene
Summary: The study found that BPD patients had lower HRV, which was associated with reduced approach to angry faces. Following social exclusion, the BPD group showed the highest approach to happy faces and the lowest approach to angry faces.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Udo Bonnet, BenediktBernd Claus, Martin Schaefer, Jens Kuhn, Peter Nyhuis, Norbert Scherbaum, Martin Brune, Velat Wakili, Georg Juckel
Summary: This study examined the influence of psychiatric medications on COVID-19 and found no significant association with the duration and severity of the virus. Some promising relationships with antidepressants, anticoagulants, and RAAS-inhibitors were noted before p-value adjustment, warranting larger prospective studies to reevaluate the impact of routine medications on COVID-19-related health outcomes.
PHARMACOPSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Vera Flasbeck, Christoph Bamberg, Martin Brune
Summary: This study investigated the effects of fasting and consumption of standardized carbohydrate and protein shakes on interoception. Results showed that fasting and intake of shakes can influence cardiac measures of autonomic nervous system functioning and neural correlates of cardiac interoception. These findings may have relevance for diets and psychosomatic disorders, including eating disorders.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Benjamin Otto, Lisa Kokkelink, Martin Brune
Summary: The study found that BPD patients had higher scores on the fast Pace-of-Life Syndrome (PoLS), were more aggressive, experienced more chronic stress, and had more severe childhood adversity. Childhood trauma predicted PoLS, which in turn predicted allostatic load (AL).
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2021)
Correction
Clinical Neurology
Elisabeth Petrasch-Parwez, Andreas Schoebel, Alia Benali, Zahra Moinfar, Eckart Foerster, Martin Bruene, Georg Juckel
EUROPEAN ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Education, Scientific Disciplines
Morris Gellisch, Oliver T. Wolf, Nina Minkley, Wolfgang H. Kirchner, Martin Brune, Beate Brand-Saberi
Summary: This study examines the implications of transitioning from face-to-face to online learning from a psychobiological perspective. The results suggest that face-to-face learning elicits stronger stress responses compared to online learning, as evidenced by decreased Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and higher cortisol concentrations in medical students.
ANATOMICAL SCIENCES EDUCATION
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Olivia Plett, Vera Flasbeck, Martin Bruene
Summary: This study examined the effects of animal-assisted and human-guided skills training on neurobiological correlates of affiliation and stress regulation. The results showed that both interventions had significant short-term effects on affiliative and stress hormones, with no difference between the two approaches in this regard.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Marius Markmann, Melanie Lenz, Oliver Hoeffken, Agne Steponaviciute, Martin Bruene, Martin Tegenthoff, Hubert R. Dinse, Albert Newen
Summary: Through hypnosis suggestions, semantic content can instantly and systematically alter spatial discrimination of tactile perception, indicating that this change is a result of modified perceptual processes, rather than simply altered judgment based on perception.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Vera Flasbeck, Annegret Matthiessen, Anne Alabowitz, Adina Carmen Rusu, Martin Bruene
Summary: Research has shown that empathy for both somatic and psychological pain is influenced by the subjective evaluation of somatic pain and general pain sensitivity. In a study involving 55 healthy participants, individuals who were more sensitive to somatic pain exhibited higher levels of empathy for both somatic and psychological pain.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Katharina Kern, Kathrin Sinningen, Luisa Engemann, Clara Maiss, Beatrice Hanusch, Andreas Muegge, Thomas Luecke, Martin Bruene
Summary: This study found that plasma Hcy levels were significantly higher in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) compared to healthy controls, and were significantly correlated with the severity of childhood trauma, chronic stress, and subjective sleep disturbances. These findings support the association between BPD and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and suggest Hcy as a potential marker for evaluating midlife CVD risk in BPD patients.
BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER AND EMOTION DYSREGULATION
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
C. Kossmann, J. Heller, M. Bruene, C. Schulz, M. Heinze, J. Cordes, B. Muehlbauer, E. Ruether, J. Timm, G. Gruender, G. Juckel
Summary: The study found that psychosocial functioning of patients with schizophrenia is related to disease severity and skill level, as well as quality of life, well-being under treatment, and sexual activities.
PSYCHIATRIC QUARTERLY
(2021)
