We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To send content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about sending content to .
To send content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about sending to your Kindle.
Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
The determinants of quality of life (QoL) in schizophrenia are largely debated, mainly due to methodological discrepancies and divergence about the concepts concerned. As most studies have investigated bi- or tri-variate models, a multivariate model accounting for simultaneous potential mediations is necessary to have a comprehensive view of the determinants of QOL. We sought to estimate the associations between cognitive reserve, cognition, functioning, insight, depression, schizophrenic symptoms, and QoL in schizophrenia and their potential mediation relationships.
Methods
We used structural equation modeling with mediation analyses to test a model based on existing literature in a sample of 776 patients with schizophrenia from the FondaMental Foundation FACE-SZ cohort.
Results
Our model showed a good fit to the data. We found better functioning to be positively associated with a better QoL, whereas better cognition, better insight, higher levels of depression, and schizophrenic symptoms were associated with a lower QoL in our sample. Cognitive reserve is not directly linked to QoL, but indirectly in a negative manner via cognition. We confirm the negative relationship between cognition and subjective QoL which was previously evidenced by other studies; moreover, this relationship seems to be robust as it survived in our multivariate model. It was not explained by insight as some suggested, thus the mechanism at stake remains to be explained.
Conclusion
The pathways to subjective QoL in schizophrenia are complex and the determinants largely influence each other. Longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm these cross-sectional findings.
Longitudinal studies of the relationship between cognition and functioning in bipolar disorder are scarce, although cognition is thought to be a key determinant of functioning. The causal structure between cognition and psychosocial functioning in bipolar disorder is unknown.
Aims
We sought to examine the direction of causality between cognitive performance and functional outcome over 2 years in a large cohort of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder.
Method
The sample consisted of 272 adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder who were euthymic at baseline, 12 and 24 months. All participants were recruited via the FondaMental Advanced Centers of Expertise in Bipolar Disorders. We used a battery of tests, assessing six domains of cognition at baseline and 24 months. Residual depressive symptoms and psychosocial functioning were measured at baseline and 12 and 24 months. The possible causal structure between cognition and psychosocial functioning was investigated with cross-lagged panel models with residual depressive symptoms as a covariate.
Results
The analyses support a causal model in which cognition moderately predicts and is causally primary to functional outcome 1 year later, whereas psychosocial functioning does not predict later cognitive performance. Subthreshold depressive symptoms concurrently affected functioning at each time of measure.
Conclusions
Our results are compatible with an upward causal effect of cognition on functional outcome in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. Neuropsychological assessment may help specify individual prognoses. Further studies are warranted to confirm this causal link and evaluate cognitive remediation, before or simultaneously with functional remediation, as an intervention to improve functional outcome.
Cognitive deficits are a well-established feature of bipolar disorders (BD), even during periods of euthymia, but risk factors associated with cognitive deficits in euthymic BD are still poorly understood. We aimed to validate classification criteria for the identification of clinically significant cognitive impairment, based on psychometric properties, to estimate the prevalence of neuropsychological deficits in euthymic BD, and identify risk factors for cognitive deficits using a multivariate approach.
Methods
We investigated neuropsychological performance in 476 euthymic patients with BD recruited via the French network of BD expert centres. We used a battery of tests, assessing five domains of cognition. Five criteria for the identification of neuropsychological impairment were tested based on their convergent and concurrent validity. Uni- and multivariate logistic regressions between cognitive impairment and several clinical and demographic variables were performed to identify risk factors for neuropsychological impairment in BD.
Results
One cut-off had satisfactory psychometric properties and yielded a prevalence of 12.4% for cognitive deficits in euthymic BD. Antipsychotics use were associated with the presence of a cognitive deficit.
Conclusions
This is the first study to validate a criterion for clinically significant cognitive impairment in BD. We report a lower prevalence of cognitive impairment than previous studies, which may have overestimated its prevalence. Patients with euthymic BD and cognitive impairment may benefit from cognitive remediation.
The relationship between residual depressive symptoms, cognition and functioning in patients with euthymic bipolar disorder is a subject of debate.
Aims
To assess whether cognition mediates the association between residual depressive symptoms and functioning in patients with bipolar disorder who were euthymic.
Method
We included 241 adults with euthymic bipolar disorder in a multicentre cross-sectional study. We used a battery of tests to assess six cognition domains. A path analysis was then used to perform a mediation analysis of the relationship between residual depressive symptoms, cognitive components and functioning.
Results
Only verbal and working memory were significantly associated with better functioning. Residual depressive symptoms were associated with poorer functioning. No significant relationship was found between residual depressive symptoms and any cognitive component.
Conclusions
Cognition and residual depressive symptoms appear to be two independent sources of variation in the functioning of people with euthymic bipolar disorder.
Needs and service performance assessment are key components in improving
recovery among individuals with mental disorders.
Aims
To test the role of service performance as a mediating factor between
severity of patients' needs and outcomes.
Method
A total of 339 adults with mental disorders were interviewed. A mediation
analysis between severity of needs, service performance (adequacy of
help, continuity of care and recovery orientation of services) and
outcomes (personal recovery and quality of life) was carried out using
structural equation modelling.
Results
The structural equation model provided a good fit with the data. An
increase in needs was associated with lower service performance and worse
outcomes, whereas higher service performance was associated with better
outcomes. Service performance partially mediated the effect of patient
needs on outcomes.
Conclusions
Poorer service performance has a negative impact on outcomes for patients
with the highest needs. Ensuring more efficient services for patients
with high needs may help improve their recovery and quality of life.
We investigated temporal trends in BMI, and assessed hypothesized predictors of trends including socio-economic position (SEP) and province-level economic development, in Argentina.
Design
Using multivariable linear regression, we evaluated cross-sectional patterning and temporal trends in BMI and examined heterogeneity in these associations by SEP and province-level economic development with nationally representative samples from Argentina in 2005 and 2009. We calculated mean annual changes in BMI for men and women to assess secular trends.
Results
Women, but not men, exhibited a strong cross-sectional inverse association between SEP and BMI, with the lowest-SEP women having an average BMI 2·55 kg/m2 greater than the highest-SEP women. Analysis of trends revealed a mean annual increase in BMI of 0·19 kg/m2 and 0·15 kg/m2 for women and men, respectively, with slightly greater increases occurring in provinces with greater economic growth. No significant heterogeneity in trends existed by individual SEP.
Conclusions
BMI is increasing rapidly over time in Argentina irrespective of various sociodemographic characteristics. Higher BMI remains more common in women of lower SEP compared with those of higher SEP.
Small pelagic fish are termed “wasp-waist” species as they dominate mid trophic levels and comprise relatively few species but attain large abundances that can vary drastically in size. They have been found to exert top-down control on their prey species and bottom-up control on their predators and, in this way, appear to induce unsuspected ecosystem dynamics. Largely based on model results, this chapter explores these effects and associated dynamics, not only illustrating the importance of small pelagic fish in structuring marine ecosystems, but also revealing the consistency of the role of small pelagic fish across various upwelling systems in which they play key roles. The Northern and Southern Benguela, Southern Humboldt, South Catalan Sea and North and Central Adriatic Sea ecosystems are compared in terms of the importance and role of small pelagic fish using information gained from landings and ecological models. Trophic level of the catch, the Fishing-in-Balance (FiB) index and the ratio of pelagic:demersal fish are calculated from reported landings. Sums of all flows to detritus are compared across modelled ecosystems. Models of the Southern Benguela, Southern Humboldt and South Catalan Sea are used to perform two simulations: (1) closure of fisheries on small pelagic fish and (2) collapse of small pelagic fish stocks, to further explore the roles of small pelagic fish in the dynamics of these ecosystems.
Tracking pelagic:demersal fish catch and biomass ratios over time is a means of detecting collapses in the small pelagic fish stocks, and comparing these ratios across ecosystems highlights the greater importance of small pelagic fish in the Humboldt compared to other ecosystems.