Browsing by Author "Cubukcuoglu Z."
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Item Impact of family involvement on social cognition training in clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia - A randomized pilot study(2012) Tas C.; Danaci A.E.; Cubukcuoglu Z.; Brüne M.Recovery of social functioning is a largely unattained goal in schizophrenia rehabilitation. In the recent past, new neurocognitive and social cognitive training approaches have been introduced to improve functioning in various domains of patients' social life. These programs have neglected, to some degree, the social environment in which the training takes place. Accordingly, the present study sought to examine if family-assisted social cognitive training could improve quality of life, social functioning and social cognition in schizophrenia patients as compared to a social stimulation approach. In a randomized, controlled, parallel group trial design with two groups, one receiving family-assisted social cognitive training once a week (F-SCIT) and the other, social stimulation once every three weeks (SS), both for 14-weeks period, patients were assessed at baseline, before randomization and 16. weeks after randomization. Participants were recruited from Celal Bayar University Psychosis Unit and were in a clinically stable condition. Patients who received F-SCIT significantly improved in quality of life, social functioning and social cognition, whereas the SS group worsened in nearly all outcome variables. Family-assisted SCIT is effective in improving quality of life, social functioning and social cognition. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.Item Neuropsychological testing of cognitive impairment in euthymic bipolar disorder: An individual patient data meta-analysis(2013) Bourne C.; Aydemir O.; Balanzá-Martínez V.; Bora E.; Brissos S.; Cavanagh J.T.O.; Clark L.; Cubukcuoglu Z.; Dias V.V.; Dittmann S.; Ferrier I.N.; Fleck D.E.; Frangou S.; Gallagher P.; Jones L.; Kieseppä T.; Martínez-Aran A.; Melle I.; Moore P.B.; Mur M.; Pfennig A.; Raust A.; Senturk V.; Simonsen C.; Smith D.J.; Bio D.S.; Soeiro-de-Souza M.G.; Stoddart S.D.R.; Sundet K.; Szöke A.; Thompson J.M.; Torrent C.; Zalla T.; Craddock N.; Andreassen O.A.; Leboyer M.; Vieta E.; Bauer M.; Worhunsky P.D.; Tzagarakis C.; Rogers R.D.; Geddes J.R.; Goodwin G.M.Objective: An association between bipolar disorder and cognitive impairment has repeatedly been described, even for euthymic patients. Findings are inconsistent both across primary studies and previous meta-analyses. This study reanalysed 31 primary data sets as a single large sample (N = 2876) to provide a more definitive view. Method: Individual patient and control data were obtained from original authors for 11 measures from four common neuropsychological tests: California or Rey Verbal Learning Task (VLT), Trail Making Test (TMT), Digit Span and/or Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. Results: Impairments were found for all 11 test-measures in the bipolar group after controlling for age, IQ and gender (Ps ≤ 0.001, E.S. = 0.26-0.63). Residual mood symptoms confound this result but cannot account for the effect sizes found. Impairments also seem unrelated to drug treatment. Some test-measures were weakly correlated with illness severity measures suggesting that some impairments may track illness progression. Conclusion: This reanalysis supports VLT, Digit Span and TMT as robust measures of cognitive impairments in bipolar disorder patients. The heterogeneity of some test results explains previous differences in meta-analyses. Better controlling for confounds suggests deficits may be smaller than previously reported but should be tracked longitudinally across illness progression and treatment. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Item Towards an integrative approach to understanding quality of life in schizophrenia: The role of neurocognition, social cognition, and psychopathology(2013) Tas C.; Brown E.; Cubukcuoglu Z.; Aydemir O.; Danaci A.E.; Brüne M.The term "schizophrenia" refers to a debilitating group of disorders that usually results in a severely impaired quality of life (QoL). Symptomatology appears to have a substantial role in determining QoL, although the relationship between QoL and specific psychotic symptoms is still unclear and has demonstrated mixed results. Due to the intrinsic importance of social functioning in QoL, and the mediating effect of social cognition on social functioning, the aim of this study was to try to investigate QoL in schizophrenia, not only in terms of symptomatology, but also in consideration of potential neurocognitive and social cognitive contributing factors. Methods: Twenty-eight clinically stable patients with schizophrenia performed a broad range of neurocognitive and social cognitive assessments, and also participated in a semi-structured interview of QoL, assessing four partially independent subdomains of QoL. A stepwise regression model was used to determine the best predictors of QoL, and additionally a mediator analysis was performed to test for the mediating power of social cognition on QoL. Results: Negative symptoms, intelligence, executive functioning and social cognition all had some power in predicting QoL in schizophrenia. Though most interestingly, mental state reasoning was specifically found to be most strongly related with the Intrapsychic Foundation subdomain of QoL, whereas neurocognition and symptom severity were associated with other subdomains of QoL. Conclusions: The association between mental state reasoning and the more "internal" aspects of QoL in schizophrenia may reflect a specific role for social cognition in introspective and subjective judgments of one's own QoL, whereas neurocognition and negative symptomatology may be more predictive of the external or extrinsic aspects of QoL. In conclusion, social cognitive skills appear to play a crucial role in the experience of one's own subjective well-being, which could help to explain previous inconsistencies in the literature investigating QoL in schizophrenia. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.