To examine cold (based on logical reasoning) versus hot (having emotional components) executive function processes in groups with high individual schizotypal traits.

Two-hundred and forty-seven participants were administered the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and were allocated into schizotypal (cognitive-perceptual, paranoid, negative, disorganized) or control groups according to pre-specified criteria. Participants were also administered a battery of tasks examining working memory, complex selective attention, response inhibition, decision-making and fluid intelligence and their affective counterparts. The outcome measures of each task were reduced to one composite variable thus formulating five cold and five hot cognitive domains. Between-group differences in the cognitive domains were examined with repeated measures analyses of covariance.

For working memory, the control and the cognitive-perceptual groups outperformed negative schizotypes, while for affective working memory controls outperformed the disorganized group. Controls also scored higher compared with the disorganized group in complex selective attention, while both the control and the cognitive-perceptual groups outperformed negative schizotypes in complex affective selective attention. Negative schizotypes also had striking difficulties in response inhibition, as they scored lower compared with all other groups. Despite the lack of differences in fluid intelligence, controls scored higher compared with all schizotypal groups (except from cognitive-perceptual schizotypes) in emotional intelligence; the latter group reported higher emotional intelligence compared with negative schizotypes.

Results indicate that there is no categorical association between the different schizotypal dimensions with solely cold or hot executive function processes and support impoverished emotional intelligence as a core feature of schizotypy.

To identify and describe dietary patterns in a cohort of pregnant women, and investigate whether dietary patterns during pregnancy are related to postpartum depression (PPD).

The study uses data from the prospective mother–child cohort ‘Rhea’ study. Pregnant women completed an FFQ in mid-pregnancy and the Edinburg Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) at 8–10 weeks postpartum. Dietary patterns during pregnancy (‘health conscious’, ‘Western’) were identified using principal component analysis. Associations between dietary patterns categorized in tertiles and PPD symptoms were investigated by multivariable regression models after adjusting for confounders.

Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 2007–2010.

A total of 529 women, participating in the ‘Rhea’ cohort.

High adherence to a ‘health conscious’ diet, characterized by vegetables, fruit, pulses, nuts, dairy products, fish and olive oil, was associated with lower EPDS scores (highest v. lowest tertile: β-coefficient = −1·75, P = 0·02). Women in the second (relative risk (RR) = 0·52, 95 % CI 0·30, 0·92) or third tertile (RR = 0·51, 95 % CI 0·25, 1·05) of the ‘health conscious’ dietary pattern were about 50 % less likely to have high levels of PPD symptoms (EPDS ≥ 13) compared with those in the lowest tertile.

This is the first prospective study showing that a healthy diet during pregnancy is associated with reduced risk for PPD. Additional longitudinal studies and trials are needed to confirm these findings.