RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that BD patients exhibited impairment when performing a verbal fluency task (VFT) and abnormal prefrontal cortex activation during this task. However, no study has specifically examined whether patients with type II BD demonstrate difficulty in performing VFT and impairments in relevant neural correlates or whether these are related to psychotic symptoms, the present study aimed to examine these issues. METHODS: Forty-nine patients with type II BD (21 patients with psychotic symptoms [BDIIp] and 28 patients without psychotic symptoms [BDIIn]) and 45 matched healthy controls (HCs) participated the study and completed the VFTs, while their brain activity was recorded with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). RESULTS: Both BDIIp and BDIIn patients showed poorer performance on VFTs than HCs. In addition, BDII patients showed lower brain activation than HCs in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right frontal pole, these results were mainly driven by BDIIn patients. Moreover, subjective psychotic symptoms were positively significantly correlated with left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation in BDII patients. CONCLUSIONS: Type II BD patients showed significant impairment when performing VFTs and reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex, and subjective psychotic symptoms were associated with brain activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in BDII patients.
Asunto(s)
Trastorno Bipolar , Espectroscopía Infrarroja Corta , Trastorno Bipolar/diagnóstico por imagen , Humanos , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Corteza Prefrontal/diagnóstico por imagen , Conducta VerbalRESUMEN
Mental Time Travel (MTT) is the ability of individuals to project themselves to the past or to the future. Studies have shown that schizophrenia (SZ) patients are impaired in MTT. The present study aimed to examine whether MTT in patients with SZ can be improved through Life Review Therapy. Fifty patients with SZ were randomly assigned to the training (SZ-training) or control (SZ-control) group. Whereas the SZ-training group received four-week Life Review Therapy in addition to conventional treatment, the SZ-control group only received conventional treatment. MTT, emotional status, life satisfaction and cognitive functions were assessed before and after the training. We also recruited 25 matched healthy controls to complete all the assessments at baseline. After training, the SZ-training group showed higher specificity and more field perspective than the SZ-control group. No significant difference was found between the SZ-training group post-training assessment and the healthy controls. The SZ-training group also showed significant improvements in emotional expression, semantic memory and verbal fluency, but the SZ-control group did not show such improvements. These results indicated that Life Review Therapy is effective in improving MTT of SZ patients.