The term “olfactory reference syndrome” (ORS), introduced by Pryse-Phillips in 1971, is a persistent false belief and preoccupation with body odor accompanied by significant distress and functional impairment. Nowadays, it is not a distinct syndrome and it is currently classified as a delusional or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Review the history of ORSs classification and discuss why it should be considered as a separate diagnostic in the current health care classification systems.

Description of a clinical case of a 36-year-old man and review the published articles on ORS by using PubMed database with the keywords: “olfactory reference syndrome”, “chronic olfactory paranoid syndrome”, “hallucinations of smell”, “chronic olfactory paranoid syndrome”, “delusions of bromosis” and “taijin kyofusho”.

The published literature on ORS spans more than a century and provides consistent descriptions of its clinical features but nowadays is not explicitly mentioned in current classification systems as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) or International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). ORS is overlap with different diagnostics such as delusional disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and hypochondriasis.

Right now, it is not clear how the ORSs should best be classified so we consider interesting to include it as a separate diagnosis in our set classifications, since we understand that an adjusted diagnosis is important in order to help patients and therapists to work on a treatment and to establish a more accurate prognosis.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

After Emil Kraepelin's division of psychoses into a group of dementia praecox and manic-depressive insanity, the classification of psychoses with atypical symptoms, which could not be assigned in this dichotomy created a debate, that lasts until our days. These “atypical psychoses” had been described under many terms and concepts in different countries.

In 1926, Kleist coined the term “cycloid psychosis” to describe cases which did not meet the typical presentation shown in Kraepelian's dichotomy. Three decades later, Karl Leonhard established the concept of cycloid psychosis as a nosologically independent group of endogenous psychosis.

Make an historical review of the concept of cycloid psychosis. Discuss the clinical features and debate the classification of this clinical entity.

A bibliographical review is made of the cycloid psychosis, based on the data published in Pubmed.

According to Leonhard, cycloid psychosis generally present with bipolar, polymorphous clinical symptomatology, and run a phasic course with complete remissions after each episode. Furthermore, Leonhard delineated three subtypes: anxiety-happiness psychosis, confusion psychosis and motility psychosis presenting with different symptoms. In 1981, Perris and Brockington formulated the first set of operational criteria for cycloid psychoses. In recent years, new data about this entity have been acknowledged due to information displayed by different clinical studies and imaging techniques.

The phenomenology and classification of cycloid psychosis still needs more evidence for a greater use in clinical practice. However, this clinical entity can solve the void for the diagnosis of many of the so-called “atypical psychoses”.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) show impairments in many social cognition domains including facial emotion recognition (FER). The existence of a relationship association between FER and neurcognitive functioning (NF) remains uncertain.

To investigate the association between ToM functioning and neurocognitive functioning in SCZ.

FER was evaluated in 58 patients with stable schizophrenia with a newly validated FER task constructed from photographs of the face of a famous Tunisian actress representing the Ekman's six basic emotions. They also completed a neurocognitive battery comprising the following tests: the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test–Revised (HVLT-R), the Letter Digit Substitution Test (LDST), the Stroop Test (ST), the “Double Barrage” of Zazzo (DBZ), the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), Verbal Fluency (VF), the Trail Making Test-Part A (TMT-A) and the Digit Span (DS).

Patients who performed better in the FER task had better performance in the VF task (P = 0.001) and in the immediate recall of the HVLT-R (P = 0.021). No correlations were found with the other neurocognitive tests.

Our results suggest that FER represents an autonomous cognitive function which does not necessarily require good NF.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

As the population ages, cognitive impairment is prevalent among older adults and this may cause a huge burden to society. In order to take precautions effectively, we need to understand the characteristics of cognitive function of older adults, especially the individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

To explore the characteristics of cognitive function changes in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

A total of 108 individuals with MCI as MCI group and 108 volunteers as control group were recruited in the study. The age, gender and years of schooling were matched between the two groups. The cognitive function was evaluated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

Individuals of MCI group performed poorer than those of control group on executive function, attention, calculation, language and delayed memory. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The cognitive impairment in participants with MCI were delayed memory (100%), language (75%), executive function (66.7%), attention (44%) and calculation (20.4%).

The impairment of memory, language and executive function is the primary characteristics in individuals with MCI. Individuals with MCI have similar characteristics with early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). We should take preventive measures to improve or delay AD.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease especially sporadic. About 30–40% have positive family history, with an identifiable genetic mutation in a percentage of cases increasing. Although the FTD psychosis has been recognized for many years, it is not included in the clinical criteria.

To assess the prevalence and characteristics of psychotic symptoms in FTD, compare the presence of psychosis in FTD C9+ versus C9− and analyze the occurrence of wrong diagnoses in FTD with psychosis.

Literature review, using computerized databases (Pubmed®). Articles were selected based on the content of their abstract and their relevance.

It is frequently the presence of psychotic symptoms in FTD associated with C9+ versus C9−. These may arise as initial symptom often leading to a psychiatric diagnosis years before obtaining diagnosis of FTD. There is no conclusive evidence about the anatomical correlation of psychotic features in the FTD, although there is the possible association with the right brain degeneration.

The existence of psychotic symptoms do not argues against the diagnosis of FTD verifying a high frequency of psychosis in FTD – C9+. As can be the first symptom in FTD is critical to differentiate psychiatric disorders. Further studies are needed in order to obtain a better characterization of psychotic symptoms in FTD – C9+.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The severe mental disorders are the subject of growing research in the area of emotional intelligence because of his relationship with psychosocial functionality loss. Despite treatment advances, patients continue to experience high levels of social, professional and personal disabilities, related to the presence of deficits in cognition. These changes are manifested in two areas: the neurocognitive and social cognition.

To better understand the relationship between neuro- and sociocognition in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The aim of this research is to study the factors related to emotional intelligence, with particular interest in neurocognitive deficits.

A total of 75 adult patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder type I were evaluated. The assessment protocol consisted of a questionnaire on socio-demographic and clinical-care data, and a battery of clinical and cognitive scales, including MSCEIT, WAIS-IV, TMT and Rey Figure.

MSCEIT was negatively correlated with age, the severity of the clinical symptoms (BPRS, CGI-S), the TMT-A and the Test of Complex Figure, and positively with the intelligence quotient.

The deficits in emotional intelligence are part of a set of cognitive, social and non-social skills, which are altered in these severe mental disorders. Emotional intelligence worsens with the deterioration of cognitive functioning, executive dysfunction and severity of psychiatric disorder.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic neurologic disease affecting young people. Cognitive dysfunction is an important part of disability, interfering with quality of life (QoL). Disease modifying therapies (DMT) are gold standard of long-term treatment in MS.

Assessment of DMT impact on evolution of cognitive dysfunction.

To analyze the cognitive status in a lot of 74 patients with MS, with a mean age of 40.4 years, treated with different DMT in the National Health Program.

Testing patients during 2014–2015 for cognitive dysfunction, by applying MMSE, Sunderland Clock Test, Beck Depression Inventory, Fatigue Impact Scale and QoL Short form-36 scores every 6 months; analyzing demographic, clinical and magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) data.

Thirty-six percent of lot showed memory and concentration changes (12 patients with secondary progressive MS, 15 with relapsing-remitting MS); mean age of these patients was 46.29 years, with a mean period of evolution of the disease of 9.8 years before starting DMT; cortical atrophy was present on MRI in 37% of these patients. Mean age of those who didn’t present cognitive disturbances was 37.01 years, with a mean period of evolution of 6.2 years before starting DMT. Disturbances appeared independently of the presence of cortical atrophy, as this marker appeared in 5% of patients with no cognitive dysfunction.

When starting DMT, age and time of evolution of the disease are essential for further developing of cognitive dysfunction. Mood and anxiety disturbances can be a prodromal marker of neurocognitive troubles. DMT have neuroprotective outcome in MS.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to predict behaviors of others in terms of their underlying mental states. It is carried out in order to make sense of and predict behavior. Impairments in ToM have been found in many psychiatric/neurological disorders including schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. Previous research has indicated sex difference in ToM development. Previous research has also found some differences in the neural basis of ToM.

An objective/aim of the present study was to examine possible sex differences in the neural mechanism associated with ToM development. Another objective was to examine the neural basis of ToM that is shared by both sexes throughout development.

Thirty-two adults (16 women) and 24 children (12 girls) were assessed with fMRI while performing a false belief (FB) task.

During the ToM relative to non-ToM condition, adults and children of both sexes showed increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). Both boys and girls recruited more brain regions than adults. Moreover, children employed structures involved in the human mirror neuron system (hMNS) more than adults. More specifically, boys recruited the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) more than men, while girls recruited the precentral gyrus more than women.

These results suggest that boys/men and girls/women employ different brain regions for ToM during development.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Humans learn how to behave both through rules and instructions (explicit learning) as well as through environmental experiences (implicit learning). It has been shown that instructions can powerfully control people's choices, often leading to a confirmation bias.

To explore confirmation bias with respect to cognitive functioning in healthy adult participants.

We recruited 25 healthy adult control subjects (9 males, 16 females, age 31.40 ± 6.08 years). Participants completed Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Status (RBANSS) as well as Instructed Version of Probabilistic Selection Task (IPST) (Doll et al., 2009).

Based on the performance on IPST into two groups: a group with higher and lower susceptibility to confirmation bias. We found no difference between these groups with respect to any of the cognitive domains measured with RBANSS (immediate memory, visuospatial abilities, language, attention and delayed memory) (U Mann-Whitney test, P > 0.05).

In healthy adults, susceptibility to confirmation bias is independent of cognitive functioning (immediate and delayed memory, visuospatial abilities, language and attention).

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

HIV-related damage of the central nervous system is manifested in varying severity of neurocognitive disturbances. Research on measures of executive functioning has confirmed that HIV infection is associated with progressive difficulties in these abilities. Moreover, several studies in recent years have shown that an impaired cognitive function confers a higher risk of poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between executive functions and ART compliance.

We designed a cross-sectional case-control survey. Cases were defined as HIV-infected patients who missing at least 10% intakes in the last year (reported by hospital pharmacy) and self-reported non-adherence by Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire (SMAQ). Controls were defined as HIV-infected patients who accomplishing at least last 95% intakes in the last year (reported by hospital pharmacy), and self-reported adherence by SMAQ. Patients with adherences between 90–95% were not included. Executive functions were evaluated with Wisconsin Sorting Card Test. Linear regression was employed as statistical analysis. Results were adjusted for follow-up years. Wisconsin score was already adjusted for gender, age and education level when data were corrected.

Our sample was compound by 63 patients: 37 controls and 26 cases. A statistical signification (P < 0.05) was found for total correct, total errors, perseverative responses, perseverative errors, conceptual level responses and trials to complete first category score between adherence and non-adherence treatment patients.

In our sample worse executive function score, measured by Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, was linked to poor adherence to antiretroviral treatment in HIV patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Research in psycholinguistics focusing on cognitive processing in bilinguals and the role played by working memory about cognitive processing indicated that Working Memory (WM) was instrumental in cognitive processing in bilinguals, but that its role was different and generally more complex than it was in monolinguals. However, the specific manner in which the use of WM differed between monolinguals and bilinguals was not always clear.

This research explored the verbal and visual-spatial WM performance in an Arabic monolingual group and a bilingual English/Arabic group.

The participants were 396 Kuwaiti (198 monolingual aged 7.99 ± 1.97 years and 198 bilingual aged 8.03 ± 1.92) with no significant age differences (t = 0.23, P > 0.05). The two groups were compared on how they performed in the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA), to measure a verbal and visual-spatial WM tasks. The tasks were Listening Recall, Counting Recall, Mr. X, Backward Digit Recall, Odd-one-out and Spatial Span. All tasks were internally consistent (Alpha = 0.91, 0.93, 0.87, 0.88, 0.87, and 0.91 respectively). The data was analyzed using Independent Sample t Test.

The findings showed that there was significant group difference as the monolingual Arabic group (L1) performed better than bilingual English/Arabic group (L2) on both of verbal WM (t = 3.25, P < 0.002) and visuospatial WM (t = 3.04, P < 0.002).

The monolingual children obtained higher scores on both verbal and visuospatial WM. These findings were explained in terms of the complexity of the Arabic language and cultural context in which the second language is being practiced. This warrants further investigation.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Today cognitive impairment study epilepsy in children and in people taking anticonvulsants. Unfortunately, we do not know enough about neuropsychological features of mild cognitive impairment in epilepsy, clinical and pathogenetic patterns of their development, role in the development of social exclusion.

To study the mild cognitive impairment and their relationship with clinical features of epileptic disease forms, socio-psychological characteristics of patients.

Clinical-psychopathological, psychodiagnostic.

We first used Addenbrooke's cognitive examination (ACE-R) in patients with epilepsy to quantify cognitive disorders in this group. The specified scale detects violations of cognitive function to mild dementia and allows us to differentiate the prevalence of certain disorders of mental processes. We revealed that the reducing the effectiveness of stress overcoming behavior through cognitive disorders in thinking and attention are one of the pathognomonic psychogenic mechanisms of affective disorders in patients with epilepsy. The complex of individual therapeutic measures for patients with epilepsy and MCI is based on the study features of cognitive disorders results. Psychotherapy and psychological correction measures for patients with epilepsy and MCI have to improve the social functioning and quality of life. We also created recommendations for the prevention of cognitive disorders in patients with epilepsy.

The features of cognitive disorders in patients with epilepsy, depending on the clinical form of epilepsy (symptomatic, idiopathic, cryptogenic). It should be used as additional differential diagnostic criteria forms of epilepsy (symptomatic, idiopathic, cryptogenic).

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The method of “rehabilitation training”, developed in the Soviet psychology, based on the idea that the human HMF are realized in complex functional systems, developed during cultural- and ontogenesis.

To show the importance of the development of approaches to the rehabilitation of HMF in Luria's neuropsychology.

The disturbances in brain activity leads to the neuropsychological syndrome appearance that could be called self-developing system. According to the systemic principles, each neuropsychological syndrome HMF disorders in accordance with brain injury localisation has the common “cause” – destroyed neuropsychological factor. In the case of patients with dementia several neuropsychological factors are usually included. So the rehabilitation processes should be aimed at the maximum preserved and strengthened stereotypes and behavior strategies in past experiences.

The binary syndrome structure (set of symptoms of destroyed neuropsychological HMF and abnormal neuropsychological factor itself) allows us to define two strategies of neuropsychological rehabilitation programs. The first strategy involves choice as a “target” of the most destroyed mental function. The second strategy could be directed to the rehabilitation of abnormal neuropsychological factor that should be accompanied by the rehabilitation of several systemic interrelated mental functions. Recourse to past knowledge, interests and emotionally important topics is assisting and supporting the rehabilitation processes.

Use of both strategies ensures targeted restoration of cognitive functions within Vygotsky-Luria approach.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Comprehensive language testing shows a strong relationship between overall severity of cognitive decline and language deficit. Moreover, the language performance can be affected also by neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia.

To detect the language deficits in sentence comprehension in patients with MCI and dementia and to determine the relationship between them, the severity and the structure of cognitive impairment and independently between them and BPSD.

In the sample of 46 cognitively declined patients (MCI and dementia, majority of them with Alzheimer's disease), we evaluated the severity and the structure of cognitive impairment by means of MoCA instrument, language deficits by our own sentence comprehension test and BPSD by means of NPI-Q.

The average performance in the sentence comprehension test was about 90% of normal in the group of MCI patients, about 75% in mild, about 60% in moderate and only about 20% in the group of severe dementias. According to individual cognitive domains, their impact on language performance was different. We found a strong correlation between the overall severity of BPSD and the language performance, too.

At earlier stages of cognitive disorders/dementias, the language specific test should be used to discover comprehension deficits, because at the simple level of word the language skills are preserved. BPSD are also associated with language deficits even when the severity of dementia is controlled for. Identification of these communication disturbances can help to detect cognitive decline earlier and to start preserving treatment in time.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The majority of HIV infected patients exhibit central nervous system disorders. The most severe is dementia, which is the most common cause of non-traumatic dementia in young patients. It may affect the progression of the disease, compromising the adherence of treatment and increasing the mortality rate.

Report of a clinical case of dementia due to HIV infection in a 33-year-old male patient, admitted in the Acute Inpatient Unit of the Psychiatry and Mental Health Department in Baixo Vouga Hospital Centre.

The results were gathered based on the clinical history of the patient, his objective exam, diagnostic exams and family information and from medical research included on PubMed and Google Scholar platforms.

The patient presented evident cognitive deterioration with memory loss, attention and concentration deficits, apathy, indifference, psychomotor retardation and behavioral changes in the past few weeks, with a significant impact in his life. The patient did supplementary diagnostic tests, which showed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy and global and diffuse cortical atrophy involving the fronto-temporal regions and a neuropsychological assessment whose results confirmed a moderate cognitive deficit. During the hospitalization there was a positive stabilization of behavior with antiretroviral therapy and antipsychotics.

The lack of knowledge about the factors that predispose dementia in HIV patients is a relevant limitation nowadays. The clinical effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy has improved in recent years with a reduction in the prevalence of HIV dementia, which now is estimated at 10%.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Alexithymia is a multifactorial personality trait observed in several mental disorders, especially those with poor social functioning. Although it has been proposed that difficulties in interpersonal interactions in highly alexithymic individuals may stem from their reduced ability to express and recognize facial expressions, this still remains controversial.

In everyday life, faces displaying emotions are dynamic, although most studies have relied on static stimuli. The aim of this study was to investigate whether individuals with high levels of alexithymia differed from a control group in the categorization of emotional faces presented in a dynamic way. Given the highly dynamic nature of facial displays in real life, we used morphed videos depicting faces varying 1% from neutral to angry, disgust or happy faces, with a video presentation of 35 seconds.

Sixty participants (27 males and 33 females) were divided into high (HA) and low levels of alexithymia (LA) by using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Participants were instructed to watch the face change from neutral to an emotion and to press a keyboard as soon as they could categorize an emotion expressed in the face.

The results revealed an interaction between alexithymia and emotion showing that HA, compared to LA, were more inaccurate at categorizing angry faces.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by executive dysfunctions like problems with planning, accuracy, inhibition and impulsivity. During the course of the disease executive function worsens with ongoing pathological changes in the basal ganglia. However, it is not clear whether cognitive dysfunction develops gradually or not during the course of the disease.

We assessed the development of executive dysfunction in 23 patients with early HD and 29 patients with late HD on the Tower of London (ToL) for the number of solved problems, planning time and number of breaks.

HD patients showed a linear decrease of accuracy (as assessed by number of solved problems) during the course of the disease. Controls scored significantly higher than early stage HD patients and early stage HD patients scored significantly higher than late stage HD patients. In planning time and number of breaks a non-linear decrease was found.

Executive dysfunctions in HD are not alone connected to degenerative changes in the striatum as they do not develop gradually and linear during the course of the disease. Obviously, executive function could not be seen as a single component, but as a combination of different abilities, which show a non-linear and non-parallel decline.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The prevalence of vitamin B12 and folate deficiency is significant in the psychiatric population. These deficiencies may be associated with varied neuropsychiatric signs and symptoms, caused by different pathophysiological mechanisms.

Characterize the main neuropsychiatric signs and symptoms associated with vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies. Evaluate the prevalence of these vitamins deficiencies in an acute inpatient psychiatric department, dedicated to Affective Disorders.

To review the clinical significance of vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies in psychiatric disorders and reflect on the importance of routine screening in mental health care.

Observational, retrospective and descriptive study, with analysis of clinical and blood tests data concerning the total number of inpatient episodes in 2015. Non-systematic review of the scientific literature.

A small case series of the patients that had folate or B12 deficiency detected is presented. The prevalence of vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies found in our study is in accordance with the data found in the literature.

Vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies should be considered in the approach to the psychiatric patient as its neuropsychiatric manifestations are varied, can be severe, and may constitute a potentially treatable cause of mental disorder. Our data shows that folate and B12 deficiencies are significant in inpatients and we believe it justifies routine screening at admission.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.