In general, recent cognitive training has received increasing interest as a solution to age-related cognitive decline. Although the general public's interest in cognitive or brain training is increasing, the generalizing or transfer effect of such training remains unclear. We previously introduced a new cognitive intervention program for senile dementia, named learning therapy. The principle of learning therapy is to activate the prefrontal cortex by solving simple mathematical and language problems. The purpose of this study was to examine the beneficial effects of a new cognitive intervention program designed for normal aged people, the concepts of which are is derived from learning therapy.

We applied a similar daily cognitive training program to community-dwelling seniors to determine the effects of training on cognitive functions, particularly on the function of the prefrontal cortex, by a single-blind randomized controlled trial and a large scale cohort study. In these studies, neuropsychological measures were determined prior to and after six months of the intervention (post-test) by mini-mental state examination (MMSE), frontal assessment battery at bed side (FAB), and a digit-symbol substitution test (DST) of WAIS-R.

The results indicate that the transfer effect of cognitive intervention by reading and solving arithmetic problems on non-targeted cognitive functions was demonstrated in both studies, and are convincing evidence that cognitive training has the beneficial effects of maintaining and improving cognitive functions.

The psychological stimulations made possible by expertise and technology in brain science can improve the higher cognitive functions of seniors.

Positive influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on psychological functions originaly indicated and entered by Golman (1995) in scientific literature. Now it is fast growing use in academic settings organizations and showed that higher levels of it can be important in positive behavior of humans. So the aim of this study was measuring the relationship of emotional intelligence and addiction to internet.

100 university students randomly selected and Schutte's Self- Report E / I Test (SSREIT) and Addiction to Interne Inventory (AII) administered on participants. It was hypothesized that higher levels of emotional intelligence would be associated with lower levels of addiction to internet.

Findings showed that there is negative significant correlation between components of emotional intelligence including appraisal of emotion, utilization of emotion and general score of emotional intelligence. It confirmed that higher levels of emotional intelligence related to lower levels of addiction to internet.

For decreasing of addiction to internet it is advised to apply plans to foster and increase of emotional intelligence components and decrease addiction to internet.

Measuring clinical and functional outcomes in mental health is becoming an increasingly complex and costly endeavour. It is with considerable regularity that tens and hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to develop electronic health records, yet today functional integrated products that can operate across domains of health have yet to be identified. The purpose of this paper is to describe ways and means of measuring functional and clinical outcomes across complicated case mixes and treatment domains in hospital and community treatment settings.

Data from several electronic records and data sources (n = 100,000) are used to illustrate the burden of measurement, data quality and related issues that practitioners face when collecting, analyzing and interpreting data in the age of information and accountability in health care. A practical, flexible, modular, and dynamic tool for measuring functional and clinical outcomes across treatment and education settings is described (TRACT: treatment response application for client tracking).

Relatively simple, modular approaches to clinical and functional outcome measurement that are integrated into medical practice have the lowest burden and highest yield in terms of demonstrating evidence-based practice, treatment effectiveness, and system level accountability.

Simple modular approaches to measuring complex phenomena, such as the effect of multiple treatment interventions in complex environments and against backgrounds of comorbid disorders, are likely to have high quality yields in terms of identifying promising and evidence-based practices through use of the highest standards available to an examination of practice in the field.

Professional risk assessment provides estimates of future risk in terms of nature, frequency and severity as well as may determine treatment services required of an offender under parole or probation supervision. This study examined the predictive validity of the HCR-20 (Webster, Douglas, Eaves, & Hart, 1997) in a Lithuanian forensic context.

This research includes a sample of criminal offenders and a sample of forensic psychiatric patients (a total of 118 participants). The HCR-20 was coded on the basis of file information.

The mean HCR-20 scores were: Total score = 14.96 (SD = 6.56), H-scale = 8.42 (SD = 3.61), C-scale = 2.57 (SD = 2.16), R-scale = 3.89 (SD = 2.55). ROC analyses of the HCR-20 subscales showed AUC's of .72 for the H Scale, .69 for the C Scale and .58 for the R Scale.

The HCR-20 total score and final risk judgments were significantly more accurate in predicting violent recidivism (p < .05). Results indicate the predictive ability of the instrument may be maximized when judgments of final risk are used rather than an actuarial approach wherein individual risk factors are summed.

To construct and test the validity of a new psychometric questionnaire to assess psychological impact of facial lipoatrophy (ABCD-F), that is the most stigmatizing feature of HIV-related lipodystrophy.

• Construction: The development went through Focus groups and Content Validity, Item reduction and Exploratory Factor Analysis.

• Validation: ABCD-F questionnaire was administered together with ABCD and MOS HIV questionnaires. The Cronbach's Alfa was used to test internal consistency, while convergent validity and divergent validity were analyzed by the correlations with MOS, ABCD items and BMI and CD4 counts respectively.

42 HIV+ people participated to focus groups. In the EFA the 17 Items were aggregated around psychological distress and role functioning domains.

ABCD-F showed high internal consistency (Chronbach's alpha = 0.95). Both convergent and divergent validity were confirmed. ABCD-F scores were highly correlated to Physical Health Summary (B 0.59; 95% [CI] 0.35; 0.84; p< 0.0001), Mental Health Summary (B-1.54; 95% [CI] 1.15; 1.93; p< 0.0001), and weakly correlated to CD4 count (B-0.02; 95% [CI] -0.01; 0.06; p=0.54) and HIV viral load (B-0.004; 95% [CI] -2.69; 2.69; p=1.00).

ABCD-F is a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess psychological impact of facial lipoatrophy (FLA).

ABCD-F may result as a useful tool both in clinical and research settings: it's able to identify people experiencing greater psychological impact due to FLA. It may become an objective instrument to evaluate priority and efficacy of plastic surgery to treat lipodystrophy. In research setting may be used to compare different populations or different treatments of FLA.

Studies have shown police corruption to be a major problem within the police and security forces in the former war-torn Balkan nations, notably Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. Current European Union and USA training programs do not adequately address the issue of mental and character suitability for law enforcement personnel. An existing, and little used, Slavic-language version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-201) is grossly lacking in that it is too short a version and does not lend itself to the rich predictived material that makes the MMPI a viable and strong assessment tool. The MMPI-201 profile also omits critical clinical scales.

We have translated and modernized the first 360 items in the original MMPI into the Slavic language thereby providing a viable personality inventory that can draw on over 60 years of predictive research relevant to professional suitability as well as ruling-out any presenting clinical mental health and/or charaterologic problems. We are currently in the process of validating this instrument by using both the “alternate test” and “test-retest” modes. Here, students, who are competent in both the Slavic and English languages, enrolled in the College of Criminal Sciences and the Law, in both Bosnia and Serbia are administered both the English and Slavic-language instruments at different settings at least a week apart. Both versions are then compared for each subject (N= 50 to 100 for each country) relevant to an estimation of fit for assessing the reliability of the Slavic-Language Personality Inventory.

There is a need for real-time capability to detect inconsistencies in efficacy outcome measures and to predict individual-level or group-level placebo response. Training and calibration to improve reliability is one method; though this can be undermined by the enrollment of placebo responders.

A pattern recognition matrix for placebo-response in schizophrenia was developed based on a Phase II study of schizophrenia conducted in the US. A data monitoring algorithm based on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was retrospectively applied to the unblinded data and score patterns for the placebo responders versus placebo non-responders were analyzed.

A total of 35 placebo responders and 35 randomly selected placebo non-responders were compared. For specific patterns during the first 2 visits, patients were significantly likely to be placebo responders. Within this sample of patients who were randomized to placebo, those who demonstrated the pattern within the initial study visits were approximately three times more likely (OR=2.9, p=0.027) to demonstrate a placebo response.

This initial finding suggests that this method could aid in the detection of placebo response early in a trial. In concert with a data-monitoring process we would expect more robust signal detection. The use of the same system, coupled with ongoing training has demonstrated significant improvements in reliability, increasing the ICC by 19% in a 3-month period. If deployed at startup, this method provides a cost-effective way of managing the data quality in RCTs.

To study sexual problems of our patients and standardizing it for patients with or without religious and cultural restrains we developed a questionnaire with 240 phrases that were extracted from a pool of 1400 sentences addressing sexual problems. Sixty four scales under four headings (sexual general characteristics, deviations, dysfunctions and psychodynamic syndromes) (16 items each) were evaluated based on criteria of DSM-IV and ICD 10. Five validity scales (honesty, desirability, debasement, guilt feeling and overall validity) were also used for better assessment.

A total of 1300 patients in the four variants of the test were evaluated during a time span of 7 years. The questions were presented to examinees at 8th. Grade and higher in a calm environment and the results were evaluated by a computer software specifically developed for this purpose.

The last version of the test was completed by 734 patients with excellent compliance. It was of nice politeness and comprehensiveness. For almost all scales the sensitivity and specificity were around 85 and 92% respectively.

We conclude that QSAF 2009 is an excellent tool both in clinics (diagnosis and follow up) and epidemiology with high sensitivity and specificity. It has also application in cross cultural studies, medico - legal issues and medical documentation. It prevents face to face interviews, breaks patients’ resistance and is less time consuming than scheduled interviews.

In this study we assess the sensitivity of REF scale to detect the disorganization of patient's mental state longitudinally.

Participants: It's a 35-year-old man diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder. He had a psychotic breakdown and he is being treated with haloperidol. The psychological intervention is cognitive type.

Design, materials and procedure: We used an experimental adaptation of the REF-scale. This self-applied scale consists of 34 items that evaluate the referential thinking in Likert format. We employed a longitudinal design (brief time-series). C Young (p < 0.01) was used for the statistical analysis of the data and the method of least squares to obtain the trend line. We included 103 measures registered at an interval of 3 days.

It's observed a significant declining trend in the whole of the measures both intensity and frequency from the beginning of therapy. However, we observed a significant declining trend in intensity but not in frequency when we analyzed the data from the 50th measurement, which was the period during which the patient got worse.

It's confirmed again that the REF-scale is a stable and reliable measure. It's able to detect changes in the patient's evolution of the referential thinking from the beginning of therapy. In addition, the REF-scale is sensitive detecting decompensations in patients. Therefore, we conclude REF scale is a useful measure for the subsequent decision-making therapeutic.

In previous works we demonstrated the utility of the REF scale for the assessment referential thinking (Rodríguez-Testal et al., 2001) although it wasn't specific for patients with psychotic disorder (Rodríguez-Testal et al., 2008).

We analyzed the psychometric properties of reliability and validity of the REF scale. We compared the differences in referential thinking between subjects with and without psychopathology. In the patient group we will not obtain differences in referential-thinking between diagnosis types of Axis I, Axis II, or patients with diagnoses on both axes.

Participants: 120 subjects, 70 patients attending a private center of clinic psychology, 64.3 % women, mean age = 35.21 (SD = 10.5) and 50 controls selected from the normal population, 54 % women, mean age = 33.48 (SD = 10.83).

It was applied a cross design for a correlation method of comparison between groups. All the analysis were accepted at p< .05.

We reached adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha= .90, split-half reliability= .83 and .82). The test-restest reliability was significant (mean interval of 44 days). There are significant differences in referential thinking between subjects with and without psychopathology (t=3.8; p=.001). There are significant differences in referential thinking between types of diagnoses (F=3.99; p=.001).

The REF scale has adequate psychometric properties (reliability and validity). It discriminated between patients and no-patients, and between the different types of diagnoses, especially for those who suffer psychotic disorders.

In previous works we used the REF scale of referential thinking as criterion of therapeutic evolution (Benítez-Hernández et al., 2006; Rodríguez-Testal et al., 2009).

We designed a group therapy of social skills for monitoring and modification of the referential thinking. We predict a decrease of referential thinking (frequency and intensity) both in pretest and posttest measures for each session, as in the progress of the all sessions as a whole.

Participants: 5 women from 24 to 38 years old with the diagnoses: Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia and history of Sexual Abuse; generalized Social Phobia; Avoidance Personality Disorder; Bipolar I Disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Avoidance Personality Disorder. It's employed a longitudinal design (brief time-series) of REF measurement (frequency and intensity) at a weekly interval. C Young (p < 0.01) was used for the statistical analysis of the data, t (paired samples) and the method of least squares to obtain the trend line.

• #1: frequency-posttest (p=.01).

• #2: intensity-pretest (p =.01); intensity-posttest, C =.663 (p< .01).

• #3: intensity-pretest, C =.772 (p< .01), intensity-posttest, C =.681 (p< .01).

• #4: frequency-pretest, C =.695 (p< .01), frequency- posttest, C =.74 (p< .01).

• #5: frequency-pretest and frequency-posttest (p>.01).

Preliminary analysis indicates an improvement of referential thinking in the frequency and intensity both intra and inter-sessions. More therapy sessions are needed to reflect a change statistically significant.

In this study we intended to analyse if the REF Scale is a good indicator to differentiate the two subtypes of paranoia “Bad Me” and “Poor Me” (Trower & Chadwick, 1995).

Participants: We analyzed data from a different sample of previous studies with 326 participants (64.11% women, mean age 30.8, SD = 10.84), of whom 212 were patients.

Design, materials and procedure: We used the REF-scale (Lenzenweger et al., 1997) adapted to Spanish language, of which we deleted two items because of psychometric criteria, resulting 32 dichotomic items. We used SPSS 15.0 to conduct a principal-components factor analysis with a varimax and oblimin rotation, retaining two factors.

Two factors explained 31.32% of the variance (rotated solution). We interpreted factor through factor loadings higher than .42. Factor 1 accounted for 18.28% of the variance and it's associated with referential laughter, commentaries and guilt. Factor 2 accounted for 13.05% of the variance and it's associated with referential concerns related to the media.

Since the inter-factor correlation is moderate (.44) and there are no relevant clinical differences about the content between the two factors, the REF scale is a one-dimensional measure. Therefore, two big factors don’t emerge from the REF scale related to referential concerns about laughter-commentaries and guilt that correspond to “Poor Me” and “Bad Me”, respectively.

This instrumental work aims to replicate the exploratory factor analysis about the Referential Thinking Scale (REF scale) already developed by Lenzenweger et al. (1997) to examine its multidimensionality.

Participants: The analyzed sample consisted of 193 participants (67.36% women, mean 28.36 years old, SD = 10.35), of whom 131 were patients.

Design, materials and procedure: We used the REF-scale (Lenzenweger et al., 1997) adapted to Spanish language. This questionnaire consists of 34 items that assess the frequency of referential thinking on a dichotomic scale (true/false). We used SPSS 15.0 to conduct a principal-components factor analysis with a varimax and oblimin rotation.

The principal-components factor analysis method led to 5 factors that explain 37.35% of variance for the rotated solution. Because of inter-factors correlations are small, we considered these factors as being independent. The five factors were labeled as: Laughter, Commentaries (it accounted for 8.92% of variance); Guilt (it accounted for 8.77% of variance); Causal Explanations (it accounted for 7.17% of variance); Songs, Newspapers, Books (it accounted for 6.44% of variance); and Attention, Appearance (it accounted for 6.04% of variance).

It's obtained the five factors isolated in previous studies (Lenzenweger et al., 1997; Rodríguez-Testal et al., 2001). However, the multidimensionality of the REF scale must be viewed with caution because of a small percentage of explained variance.

Affective temperaments (measured by the TEMPS-A) have been proved to be associated with major mood disorders, implying that these temperament types represent the subclinical manifestations of affective disorders and an increased vulnerability to pathological mood regulation. However, less attention was paid to the association of affective temperaments with trait impulsivity, which is commonly associated with clinical picture of bipolar mood disorder. The aim of our study was to assess the associations between affective temperaments and impulsivity among healthy volunteers and remitted bipolar outpatients.

1096 students, 31 euthymic bipolar outpatients and 31 healthy controls were self assessed with Barratt Impulsivity Scale and Slovenian version of TEMPS-A questionnaire.

Our data revealed positive correlation between impulsivity and cyclothymic and irritable temperament and negative correlation between impulsive behaviour and hyperthymic temperament. Depressive and anxious temperament proved to be positively linked with attentional and negatively with motor and nonplanning impulsivity. Furthermore, mean scores on depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperament subscales as well as on attentional and motor impulsiveness and general impulsive score were significantly higher in the group of bipolar outpatients.

Our results are in agreement with several studies where authors emphasized that elevated depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperamental scores as well as impulsive behaviour could indicate a vulnerability to pathological mood regulation during the remission phase of bipolar disorder. The results also brought to light some important connections between temperamental traits and impulsivity, indicating that both domains could be relevant in early diagnostic picture for affective disorders.

To evaluate the subjective well-being of a group of patients who were hospitalized at the Institute of Psychiatry (Novara), compared to the severity of illness.

Patients are evaluated at admission and discharge through self-administration of the SWN (Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptics) scale, which contains five subscales (emotional regulation; self-control; mental functioning; social integration and physical functioning) assessing patients’ psychophysical and emotional well-being, calculating a value for each subscale and a total score. The clinician fills in the CGI (Clinical Global Impression) for each patient, which provides a global judgement in three areas: severity of illness, global improvement and therapeutic effectiveness.

From June 2009, 51 patients were evaluated at admission and discharge: 26 diagnosed with psychosis and 25 diagnosed with personality disorders. Preliminary data suggest a meaningful improvement of the physical functioning in the psychotic group, a tendency to improvement of the social integration area in the personality disorders group. Among the psychotic group, the schizophrenic patients (n°=14) have shown an improvement in the self-control subscale.

Literature suggests that a high SWN score is associated with a better compliance and an early improvement of subjective well-being is a major predictor of the chance of remission. This study will allow to compare the subjective well-being evaluated by SWN with the clinical judgment of the CGI and above all if this can represent a predictor index for the compliance and the chance of remission.

The extent of working memory (WM) impairment has rarely been studied in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cortical activation in these patients compared to healthy controls while performing a visuo-spatial WM task.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a 3-Tesla head scanner (Allegra, Siemens) was used to investigate the neural correlates of WM in 25 aMCI subjects and 12 matched controls while performing a visual-spatial n-back task (2-back). Both groups were pretested to ensure that all participants were able to understand and perform the task.

In comparison to the healthy subjects, a random-effects analysis revealed that patients with aMCI showed less cortical activation especially in the left superior parietal cortex and left inferior frontal cortex. These areas are known to be involved in the control of attention and visuo-spatial WM.

Our findings suggest that attenuated cortical activation during working memory tasks may provide an early marker for aMCI.

Following consensus on a fronto-striato-thalamo-frontal dysfunction as the neuronal basis of the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, neurobiological psychotherapy research is concentrating increasingly on recording the neuronal modification mechanisms induced by psychotherapeutic intervention.

A systematic literature search was used to identify original papers that studied the effects of psychotherapy on the neuronal activation patterns correlating with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

As a consistent result in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a reduction in activity in the caudate nucleus was measured after a successful response to behavioural therapy in those studies that did not use any psychological simulation test. Moreover there is evidence of an altered correlation between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the caudate nucleus and the thalamus after a symptom improvement induced by psychotherapy, and also an improved recruitment capability by those cortex areas that play an important role in cognitive processes, such as the cerebellum and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

It can be shown that neuronal activation patterns in the brain are modifiable by psychotherapeutic interventions. It is unclear why these changes in the case of obsessive-compulsive disorder are similar to those produced by pharmacological treatment whereas in the case of depression, for example, heterogeneous results are observed in this respect. Furthermore, the methodological background of the neuro-imaging methods is critically analysed and future research strategies for neuroscientifically oriented psychotherapy research are indicated.