Our survey of more than 700 caregivers across Europe and Canada highlights the tremendous and too often hidden value of caregiving. In short informal carers are fundamental to the functioning of any health and social care system; it is critical to therefore to invest in measures to support these caregivers and identify potential risk factors that might lead to a breakdown in caregiving support.

To identify the importance of family care in the context of modern community mental health services.

Survey questionaire and interview of family members. A survey was developed in consultation with EUFAMI.

The average length of the caring week exceeds the length of the working week On average informal carers provide more than 43 hours of care every week, well in excess of the average working week.

Family care needs to be recognised as a significant part of the overall care package in differenct countries. Govenments need to acknowledge the real cost of care. In our report we have highlighted that the average caring week is much longer than the working week, and that this is over 60 hours per week for carers who live with the person that the care for. We have highlighted major detrimental effects on carer quality of life, as well as high levels of loneliness. We have also noted that more than a quarter of all carers have a depression or anxiety disorder. We have seen wider adverse impacts on potential career and education prospects as well as financial worries.

This survey and report were possible thanks to the sponsorship of Ferrer Internacional S.A, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Lundbeck A/S and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd. The sponsors did not have any influence over the content

There is a huge resource gap in mental health service provision & service utilisation in LAMIC including Pakistan. SOUL Programme has been established in the City of Larkana, on charitable donations, which utilises principles of home-based outreach and produces clinical and functional outcomes.

SOUL programme focuses on collaborative working with patients & families. The objectives include recognition, treatment, family education & psychosocial support to maximize clinical, functional & occupational outcomes.

Single cohort intervention (patients recruited on continual basis over time) with innovative service structure and culturally relevant open label intervention design developed with local academic psychiatric unit in Larkano, Pakistan. Training was provided to local mental health professionals on diagnosis, delivering care & use of recognized clinical outcome measures.

We have recruited a cohort of 160 patients on continual basis over time. Our analysis show a higher BPRS and lower GAF ratings for men in comparison to female cohort at the baseline. Our Ten year follow up has demonstrated statistically significant clinical / functional improvement on BPRS, CGI & GAF measures. The mean differences recorded for the individual measures after 12 months were BPRS, CGI-I and GAF and were all statistically significant. Innovative home-based community mental health intervention shows significant improvements in clinical and functional outcomes (with good effect size).

SOUL Programme is a highly effective and cost-efficient intervention model for treatment of schizophrenia in a developing country setting. Our 10 year follow up study confirms the feasibility of this intervention model through close working with families of our patients.

No significant relationships.

Resident physician’s working conditions are linked to poor health outcomes of professionals and patient’s safety. Previous studies suggest that residents in Spain have difficulties enjoying mandatory rest after on-call shifts.

This study aims at describing the working conditions: working hours and the absence of mandatory rest periods after a 24h on-call shift in residents of psychiatry in the region of Madrid.

A descriptive observational cross-sectional study was carried out through an anonymous survey adapted from the available literature.

Up to 24,1% of the surveyed residents could not enjoy mandatory resting periods after a 24 hour on-call shift and the mandatory weekly rest of at least 36 hours was not done in up to 17% of the cases with statistical significance (p <0.05). The average number of 24 hours on call shifts residents had to work per month was 5, which exceeds the maximum weekly hours allowed by law.

The findings reveal a violation of resident physician labor rights in relation to resting times after on-call shifts, weekly breaks and working hours. These phenomena pose a significant threat to resident physician’s health and patient safety.

No significant relationships.

Headucate: University of East Anglia, a university student-led society, was founded almost 10 years ago by medical students to promote mental health education and raise awareness and funds for mental health causes.

Headucate aims to spread mental health awareness and reduce stigma by working with schools, universities, other societies and charities internationally.

Headucate delivers workshops for children aged 4-18 in primary and secondary schools, community and youth groups and university students. These sessions were delivered in-person pre-COVID and online as interactive webinars since 2020, to spark discussion around mental health, and provide information about the variety of supports available for young people.

In the past decade, Headucate UEA has grown to become one of UEA’s largest student-led groups boasting over 175 members in 2020-2021 from all courses. Within the online world, Headucate’s events have reached worldwide. The initiative has received national recognition, won national student awards and has expanded to set up three further Headucate branches nationwide. Outreach has accelerated and the school workshops reached over 1,000 students in the past year.

Headucate has grown from strength to strength and has plans to continue to develop, with passionate student drivers behind the project. Expansion of the project could include a national mental health university directory, bringing together like-minded mental health advocate students around the country and creating new Headucate branches across the country. To further develop, Headucate could expand outreach to the elderly community as discussed by previous committee.

No significant relationships.

Cortisol, the hormonal endpoint of Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis, coordinates the body response in front of daily stressful situations. Disturbances in cortisol circadian rhythm have been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression and neurodevelopment lasting consequences. Although pregnancy entails a progressively increase in cortisol levels, the consequences of subclinical depression traits during pregnancy in cortisol circadian rhythm remains unclear.

To analyze the impact of prenatal subclinical depressive symptomatology in cortisol circadian rhythm through pregnancy and its relevance for postpartum depression risk.

A cohort of 112 healthy pregnant women (Mean age±SD=32.32±4.37) of the general population was followed throughout their first pregnancy and first two months of postpartum period. Diurnal salivary cortisol curve (four measures) was obtained for every trimester; the Area Under the Curve with respect to the ground (AUCg) and with respect to the increase (AUCi) were used as measures of basal HPA axis functioning. Depressive symptomatology was assessed every pregnancy trimester and postpartum period following EPDS criteria. All the analyses were adjusted for maternal age, weight, ethnicity and socioeconomic status and sample collection’s time.

Prenatal subclinical depressive symptomatology (EPDS>10) was associated with a blunted cortisol rhythm during first trimester (F= 3.913,p=.011) but not during second (F=2.629, p=056) or third trimesters (F=.411,p=.724). Furthermore, a logistic regression model showed a positive association between Prenatal subclinical depressive symptomatology and the risk of postpartum depression (χ2=13.8, p<.001,OR=9.6; 95%CI 2.5–35.5).

Women with subclinical depressive symptomatology in early pregnancy had alterations in cortisol circadian rhythmicity and a higher risk of postpartum depression.

No significant relationships.

The consequences for the COVID-19 pandemic in the newborns of affected mothers remains unknown. Previous clinical experiences with other infections during pregnancy lead to considered pregnant women and their offspring especially vulnerable for SARS-COV-2. That is, the underlying physiopathological changes caused by the infection (e.g. storm of cytokines, micro-coagulation in placenta or vertical transmission) could clearly compromise fetal neurodevelopment.

To analyze the impact of maternal SARS-COV-2 infection during pregnancy in early neurodevelopment of infants gestated during the COVID-19 pandemic period compared to those gestated immediately prior (2017-2021).

212 pregnant women (14% infected) were followed throughout their pregnancy and postpartum, including newborn development. SARS-COV-2 infection was serologically confirmed during pregnancy. The Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale (NBAS) was administered at 6 weeks old by a trained neonatologist to evaluate neurological, social and behavioral aspects of newborn’s functioning. Differences in NBAS scores between cases and controls were tested by ANOVAs. All the analysis were adjusted for maternal age, sociodemographic status, anxious-depressive symptomatology, infant’s sex and gestational age at birth and NBAS, and for the period of gestation (previous or during COVID-19 pandemic).

NBAS social interactive dimension was significantly decreased in those infants exposed to prenatal SARS-COV-2 (F=4.248, p=.043), particularly when the infection occurred before the week 20 of gestation. Gestation during COVID-19 pandemic did not alter NBAS subscales.

SARS-COV-2 infection during pregnancy seems to be associated with lower NBAS scores on social dimension in 6 weeks old exposed newborns.

No significant relationships.

Despite COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacting mental health, few studies evaluated effects on perinatal mental health.

Therefore, we aimed at assessing pregnant and puerperal women during first and second COVID-19 waves.

70 women (41 pregnant and 29 puerperal) consecutively afferent to our outpatient service for Perinatal Mental Health (March 2020-March 2021) were administered Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19-S), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) and Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience questionnaire (WDEQ).

Women who reported last menstruation date (LMD) in 2019 second semester showed higher EPDS scores (p=0.026), those with estimated delivery date (EDD) in 2021 second semester showed higher CAS scores than those with EDD in 2020 first semester (p=0.020) or in 2021 first semester (p<0.001). Women with clinically significant EPDS Scores reported higher FCV-S-19 (p=0.005) and CAS (p=0.003). Subjects with a previous psychiatric hospitalization showed higher FCV-S-19 (p=0.003). A weak positive correlation (r=0,290; R2=0,084; p=0.015) has been observed between FCV-S-19 and EPDS. Furthermore, there was a strong positive correlation (r=0,377; R2=0,142; P=0.001) between CAS and EPDS and between CAS and FCV-S-19 (r=0,641; R2=0.410; p<0.001). All subjects showed high scores for tocophobia after experiencing delivery.

COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted pregnant and/or postpartum women also without a previous psychiatric condition. Early identification and screening tools should be routinely provided to all pregnant and postpartum women.

No significant relationships.

The physical and mental health of women prior to conception can have a significant impact on pregnancy and child outcomes. Given the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, the aim of this analysis was to explore the relationship between mental health, physical health and health behaviour in women planning a pregnancy.

To investigate the association between indices of physical and mental health in a large population of women in the UK planning a pregnancy.

Responses to a preconception health digital education tool provided data on the physical and mental health and health behaviour of 131,182 women planning pregnancy. Logistic regression was used to explore associations between mental health and physical health variables. Multiple imputation by chained equations was implemented to handle missing data.

There was evidence for an association between physical and mental health conditions (OR 2.22; 95% CI 2.14, 2.3). There was also an association between having a mental disorder and physical inactivity (OR 1.14; 95% CI 1.11, 1.18), substance misuse (OR 2.4; 95% CI 2.25, 2.55) and less folic acid use (OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.86,0.92).

There is a need for greater integration of physical and mental healthcare for women in the preconception period, which could support women, including those who wish to conceive, to optimise their health during this time.

No significant relationships.

Depression in pregnancy is common and often requires treatment with antidepressant drugs. Most antidepressants are metabolized by the cytochrome P450 system (CYP), in particular CYP2C19 and -2D6, both of which are genetically polymorphic. Additionally, the activity of these enzymes is altered during pregnancy.

To investigate pharmacogenetic variability regarding CYP2C19 and -2D6 in pregnant users of antidepressants and treatment outcomes.

The study population comprises all women born between 1981-1999, who gave birth to at least one child before December 2015 identified from the large Danish population-based iPSYCH2012 case-cohort study sample linked to information on genetic variants, prescription drug use and outcome data. Pharmacogenetic genotypes and phenotypes of CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 will be categorized into poor, (PM), intermediate, (IM), extensive, (EM), rapid (RM) and ultra-rapid metabolizers (RM) using array-based SNP information. Antidepressant drug use and comedication during pregnancy will be assessed based on prescription data. Outcomes include treatment discontinuation, switching and psychiatric hospitalizations. Cox regression analysis will be performed to estimate the hazard ratios comparing the rates of the different outcomes in people with different phenotypes, compared with EM adjusted for a number of confounding factors.

Based on previous research we will be able to identify approximately 6531 pregnant women with a psychiatric history. Among those, we estimate to find 14 PM, 161 IM, 285 EM, 168 RM and 25 UM of CYP2C19, and 27 PM, 218 IM and 408 EM of CYP2D6. Exposure to antidepressants is estimated at 10%.

We expect to be able to present the results at the conference.

No significant relationships.

The peripartum is a period at high risk for the onset of depressive symptoms. The prevalence of peripartum depression (PD) ranges from 6 to 20% and is burdened with high adverse birth outcomes, poor mother-infant bonding, and a high risk for suicidal ideation and attempts. However, PD is underrecognized and consequently undertreated.

We aimed at screening depressive symptoms in women during pregnancy and postpartum, and evaluating the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics associated with depressive symptoms.

199 women, 55 during pregnancy and 144 in the postpartum period, consecutively admitted to the Perinatal Mental Health Service of Ancona (Italy) were administered a socio-demographic and clinical questionnaire together with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Women scoring ≥ 12 at the EPDS were considered screening positive.

Twenty women (10%) were screening-positive. These women were more often foreigners (R2=0,032; β=0,178; p=0,012), single (R2=0,026; β=0,163; p=0,022), with a positive psychiatric family history (R2=0,114; β=-0,337; p=0,001) and more frequently affected by physical comorbidities unrelated to pregnancy (R2=0,03; β=0-0,174; p=0,014). These women also had more gestational comorbidities such as gestational hypertension (R2=0,02; β=-0,154; p=0,030), shortening of uterus neck (R2=0,05; β=-0,234; p=0,001), and miscarriage threats/placental abruption (R2=0,004; β=-0,067; p=0,001).

Our study highlighted the association between depressive symptoms and potentially dangerous gestational comorbidities. Our results further stress the need to screen all women in the peripartum for the presence of depression, in order to identify those at-risk and eventually put in place strategies to prevent further complications to mothers and children.

No significant relationships.

Hungarian Family Planning Service’s mission is decreasing the negative outcomes of pregnancy, including perinatal depression.

Childbirth as a great irreversible life event is a normative crisis of the life, thus pregnancy and post-partum period are times of high risk for psychiatric symptoms. Stress in pre- and post-natal period has short and long-term effect on offspring. Women participating in family planning program should be evaluated for the high risk and specific preventive program are provided for them.

Between 2015-2018, 446 women were participating in family planning service. They were screened for premenstrual syndrome by using the shortened form of PAF questionnaire. We compared healthy and PMS affected patients’ data in according to the prevalence of PPD, spontaneous abortion and period needed for conception.

Prevalence of PMS in our sample was 51.4%. Overage duration between wished and realized conception was 6.1 months in healthy group vs 9.2 months in PMS group. Post-natal depression was screened by Edinburgh Post-natal Scale and it showed about 4-times higher prevalence between affected women by PMS. Surprising the rate of spontaneous abortion was 2-times higher, although the absolute number is rather low for statistical validation.

Women affected by PMS can be considered as high risk for perinatal mood disorders and negative outcomes of pregnancy. PMS can be useful as a presymptomatic marker of perinatal depression and may be increased risk for spontaneous abortion. Psychological aspect should be included into the periconceptional care. Family planning may be an optimal solution to prevent perinatal depression and its complication.

No significant relationships.

Pregnancy is a time of profound physical and emotional change as well as an increased risk of mental health problems. Providing social support is vital to reduce such risk.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at examining the relationship between social support and depression, anxiety and self-harm during pregnancy.

We searched observational studies from PubMed, Psych Info, MIDIRS, SCOPUS, and CINAHL databases. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale tool was used for quality appraisal. The Q and the I² statistics were used to evaluate heterogeneity. A random-effects model was used to pool estimates. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot and Egger’s regression test and adjusted using trim and Fill analysis. All the analysis was conducted using STATA.

Sixty-seven studies with 64,449 pregnant women were part of the current review. Of the total 67 studies, 22 and 45 studies were included in the narrative analysis and meta-analysis, respectively. From the studies included in the narrative analysis, 20(91%) of them reported a significant association between social support and the risk of mental health problems (i.e. depression, anxiety, and self-harm). After adjusting for publication bias, the results of the random-effect model revealed low social support was significantly associated with antenatal depression (AOR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.41) and antenatal anxiety (AOR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.34, 2.92).

Low social support was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, and self-harm during pregnancy. Policy-makers and those working on maternity care should consider the development of targeted social support programs to help reduce mental health problems amongst pregnant women.

No significant relationships.

The question of the involvement of inflammatory and autoimmune processes in schizophrenia pathogenesis has become the most relevant in the last decade and yet is not fully understood.

The study included 60 patients with paranoid schizophrenia (age 18 - 55 y.o.) and 30 healthy control group participants. Patients were in a stabilization state without a history of organic brain disorder or another verified somatic disease in the exacerbation phase.

Research methods included follow-up method, neuropsychological (PANSS, BAC-S), laboratory (enzyme immunoassay, flow cytometry), and statistical.

Patients with schizophrenia had significant structural disorders of thinking, passive, apathetic withdrawal, negativism, impaired attention, psychomotor speed, volitional impulses. Cognitive impairment was detected in all study participants. Severe impairments are noted in the executive functioning, hand-eye coordination, attention, psychomotor speed. The severity of cognitive impairments correlated with the severity of clinical symptoms. Patients with schizophrenia had a significant decrease in central memory T-regulators levels, and an increase in Th1 and Th2 subsets, «double-positive» and «сlassic» Th17, Tfh2, «classic» Tfh17, and in Tfh17.1 (Pic.1).

Picture. 1. T-helper subsets in patients with schizophrenia. They also had high levels of CCL20, IL-10, IL-12, IL-1β, IL-27, IL-31, IL-4, IL-13, IL-6, IL-9, TNFα in comparison with a control group. A significantly decreased levels of IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-2, IL-22, and TNFβ were also described in this group of patients.

Patients with schizophrenia may be characterized by the presence of an inflammatory process and a high chance of autoimmunity. Aknowledgement. This work was supported by the grant of the Russian Federation Government, contract 14.W03.31.0009

No significant relationships.

Inflammation and immune dysregulation could contribute to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Osteopontin (OPN) is a key cytokine-like molecule in cellular immune response and it can directly modulate the cytokine expression and survival of microglia. Furthermore, its mRNA expression is elevated in first episode psychosis. Imbalance of T-helper subtypes could also represent a vulnerability factor for schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relevance of T-helper subtype associated cytokines, OPN and NLR in the assessment of the severity of schizophrenia.

22 patients with schizophrenia were assessed for the intensity of their symptoms by PANSS and CGI scores. Serum OPN, IFNy, IL-10 and IL-8 concentrations were measured by ELISA kits and NLR was calculated from blood count. Statistical evaluation was performed using Mann-Whitney U test, Student’s t test and Spearman correlation.

We found significant correlation between the level of OPN and PANSS-total, PANSS-general scores. IFNy level and NLR showed significant correlation with PANSS-total, PANSS-positive, PANSS-general and CGI score. Antipsychotic therapy only had significant effects on NLR and OPN levels, both of which were significantly reduced after long-term antipsychotic treatment.

Our results indicate that elevated OPN and IFNy concentrations, and increased NLR are associated with severe symptoms in schizophrenia and suggest the importance of Th1 subtype in patients with high PANSS-positive and PANSS-general score. Antipsychotic treatment had significant effects on the level of OPN and NLR, but not on the level of IFNy. Overall our results strengthen the inflammation hypothesis of schizophrenia.

No significant relationships.

23% of people experiencing a first episode of psychosis (FEP) develop treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS). At present, there are no established methods to accurately identify who will develop TRS from baseline.

In this study we used patient data from three UK early intervention services (EIS) to investigate the predictive potential of routinely recorded sociodemographic, lifestyle and biological data at FEP baseline for the risk of TRS up to six years later.

We developed two risk prediction algorithms to predict the risk of TRS at 2-8 years from FEP onset using commonly recorded information at baseline. Using the forced-entry method, we created a model including age, sex, ethnicity, triglycerides, alkaline phosphatase levels and lymphocyte counts. We also produced a machine-learning-based model, including an additional four variables. The models were developed using data from two and externally validated in another UK psychosis EIS.

The development samples included 785 patients, and 1,110 were included in the validation sample. The models discriminated TRS well at internal validation (forced-entry: C 0.70, 95%CI 0.63-0.76; LASSO: C 0.69, 95%CI 0.63-0.77). At external validation, discrimination performance attenuated (forced-entry: C 0.63, 0.58-0.69; LASSO: C 0.64, 0.58-0.69) but recovered for the forced entry model after recalibration and revision of the lymphocyte predictor (C: 0.67, 0.62-0.73).

The use of commonly recorded clinical information including biomarkers taken at FEP onset could help to predict TRS. These measures should be considered in future studies modelling psychiatric outcomes.

No significant relationships.

In addition to the psychosis onset, patients at clinical high-risk (CHR) show a decrease of functioning. This may not be related to the degree and persistence of the attenuated positive symptom (APS). Other clinical factors also predict the level of remission.

Revealing the predictors of the functioning in the 5-year follow-up in patients at CHR.

124 young depressive patients at CHR were examined. Depression symptoms were assessed on the HDRS scale, and the CHR symptoms were assessed on the SOPS scale. The follow-up examination was conducted after 5 years with the determination of functioning on the PSP scale. A correlative analysis of the predictors of the level of remission was conducted.

The functioning level was inversely related to the length of a depressive episode with the CHR symptoms (r=-0,432, p˂0.05), to the negative sub-scale SOPS score (r=0.312, p˂0.05) and to the symptoms of disorganization sub-scale SOPS score (r=0.246, p˂0.05) in the primary assessment. Insufficient reduction of the positive, negative symptoms and symptoms of disorganization on the SOPS during in-patient treatment was also a predictor of the worst outcome at the 5-year follow-up (r=-0,206, p˂0,05; r=-0,309, p˂0,05; r=-0,355, p˂0,05, and r=-0,349, p˂0,05, respectively).

There are some factors, except the severity of APS, that may be considered as the predictors of functioning level in patients at CHR.

No significant relationships.

Current research suggests emotion recognition to be significantly impaired in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), whereby negative symptoms are theorised to play a crucial role. Emotion recognition deficits are assumed to be predictors of transition from clinical high risk to schizophrenia. So far, little attention has been given hereby to the subdomains of negative symptoms and recognizing the individual basic emotions.

Our study aimed to explore the relationship between the recognition of the basic emotions and each negative symptom domain.

66 patients with a SSD diagnosis were recruited at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Correlational and regression analyses to control for the covariates (age, education, sex) were conducted between the recognition of the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) using the Emotion Recognition Task of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) and the seven different subdomains of negative symptoms of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).

revealed significantly negative correlations of blunted affect with the recognition of happiness, fear, and disgust. Difficulties in abstract thinking, also correlated positively with the recognition of fear. Additionally, we found a significant positive correlation between stereotyped thinking and difficulties in abstract thinking with the response latency in emotion recognition.

Individuals with SSD and domains of negative symptoms showed specific impairments in recognizing the representation of basic emotions. A longitudinal design to make causality statements would be useful for future research. Moreover, emotion recognition should be considered for early detection and individualized treatment.

No significant relationships.

The SCHEMA consortium has identified ten genes in which severely damaging variants substantially increase schizophrenia risk.

To characterise the clinical features of carriers of variants causing complete loss of function (LOF) of these genes.

This research was conducted using the UK Biobank Resource and 200,000 exome-sequenced volunteers were screened to identify carriers of LOF variants in these genes. For these subjects, data fields were extracted which reflected educational and occupational functioning as well as clinical features including diagnoses and medication.

LOF variants in CACNA1G were commoner than in SCHEMA cases, suggesting this was not a real schizophrenia susceptibility gene. 159 subjects carried LOF variants in one of the other nine genes and overall they did not have poorer educational or occupational functioning or increased mental or physical health problems. Detailed examination revealed that one had schizophrenia, one had psychotic depression and two had a developmental disorder. Otherwise, a number of subjects had features of minor mental illness such as depression or anxiety and these rates were somewhat increased in subjects carrying LOF variants in HERC1, of whom more than half reported having consulted their GP for such problems. However the majority appeared to be entirely normal from a neuropsychiatric point of view.

Although particular genetic variants can substantially increase the risk of schizophrenia, most people carrying them are entirely normal. This further supports the concept of schizophrenia as a distinct illness rather than representing the extreme of a trait which is present in the population.

No significant relationships.

The study demonstrates potential of the modified completion test (MCT) (text by H. Ebbinghaus) for diagnostics of patients with schizophrenia. MCT includes four stages: 1) filling the gaps in the story; 2) reading and retelling; 3) making up a continuation and a title; 4) retelling the story and its continuation after half an hour (Burlakova,2020).

The objective was to research diagnostical potential of the first stage of MCT for patients suffering from paranoid schizophrenia with hallucinatory syndrome.

The study included 42 patients (28 female, 14 male) with schizophrenia (disease onset at least 5–7 years ago), aged from 19 to 51 (average age 35±8), receiving treatment. Control group consisted of 44 people (average age 37±6), never sought psychiatric help, never diagnosed with any mental disorders. Groups were organized to be equal in gender proportions, age, and educational level.

The psychiatric patients in comparison to the control group: 1) accomplished the task slower; 2) although instructed to fill the gaps in succession, often violated the instruction and demonstrated orientation on specific fragments rather than on the whole; 3) had lower efficiency: ˜5% of the clinical group did the task without mistakes; 4) chose strategies of interacting with the text not detected in the control group: a) did not fill several gaps, b) added words outside the gaps, and c) crossed out fragments of the text; 5) filled the gaps with words inadequate emotionally, semantically and/or logically.

Comparative analysis demonstrated that already on the first stage, the method proves informative in pathopsychological assessment.

No significant relationships.

Family studies provide the opportunity to investigate endophenotypes as a powerful neurobiological platform to better understand the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Shared features between the patients and their first-degree relatives may shed some light on the path to identify potential causes of psychosis, and to implement preventive and therapeutic interventions.

This study aimed to explore and compare neuropsychological measures in first episodes of psychosis (FEP) patients, their first-degree relatives and healthy controls (HC), participants on the PAFIP-FAMILIES project.

Statistical analyses were performed using one-way ANOVA, followed by multiple comparisons test where appropriate. Age, sex and years of education were introduced as covariates.

From 387 eligible FEP patients enrolled in a previous cohort, 133 were included. In addition, 244 of their first-degree relatives (146 parents and 98 siblings) and 202 HC participated in this study (see Figure 1). In general, relatives showed an intermediate neuropsychological performance between the HC and the FEP patients (see Figure 2). Specifically, siblings performed similar to HC in the domains verbal memory, visual memory, working memory, motor dexterity and theory of mind, since their values practically overlap those of HC. The parents presented significant deficits, similar to that of the affected individuals, in executive functions and attention domains.

These findings suggest that executive and attention dysfunction might have a greater family aggregation and could be a relevant cognitive endophenotype for psychotic disorders. The study shows the potential of exploring intra-family neuropsychological performance supporting neurobiological and genetic research in schizophrenia.

No significant relationships.