Episodic memory bias and the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Much of the research on episodic memory in schizophrenia spectrum disorders has focused on memory deficits and how they relate to clinical measures such as outcome. Memory bias refers to the modulatory influence that state or trait psychopathology may exert on memory performance for specific categories of stimuli, often emotional in nature. For example, subjects suffering from depression frequently have better memory for negative stimuli than for neutral or positive ones. This dimension of memory function has received only scant attention in schizophrenia research but could provide fresh new insights into the relation between symptoms and neurocognition. This paper reviews the studies that have explored memory biases in individuals with schizophrenia. With respect to positive symptoms, we examine studies that have explored the link between persecutory delusions and memory bias for threatening information and between psychosis and a memory bias toward external source memory. Although relatively few studies have examined negative symptoms, we also review preliminary evidence indicating that flat affect and anhedonia may lead to some specific emotional memory biases. Finally, we present recent findings from our group delineating the relation between emotional valence for faces and memory bias toward novelty and familiarity, both in schizophrenia patients and in healthy control subjects. A better understanding of the biasing effects of psychopathology on memory in schizophrenia (but also on other cognitive functions, such as attention, attribution, and so forth) may provide a stronger association between positive and negative symptoms and memory function. Memory measures sensitive to such biases may turn out to be stronger predictors of clinical and functional outcome.     

Psychodramatische Supervision in der Sozialen Arbeit

Anliegen dieses Artikels ist, die besondere Qualit?t und Chance von Psychodramatischer Supervision zu beschreiben, und gleichzeitig die Kompatibilit?t und fruchtbare Erg?nzung des Moreno’schen Ansatzes innerhalb des Formats Supervision innerhalb der Sozialen Arbeit auf zuzeigen. Dies wird anhand von 2 ausgew?hlten Praxisbeispielen dargestellt. Die Handlungskompetenz von Supervisandinnen und Supervisanden kann durch einfache psychodramatische Interventionen erweitert werden. Handlungshemmung wird überwunden, Spontaneit?t und Kreativit?t kommen ins Laufen und er?ffnen Perspektiven.     

The expression of emotion through nonverbal behavior in medical visits

Relationship-centered care reflects both knowing and feeling: the knowledge that physician and patient bring from their respective domains of expertise, and the physician’s and patient’s experience, expression, and perception of emotions during the medical encounter. These processes are conveyed and reciprocated in the care process through verbal and nonverbal communication. We suggest that the emotional context of care is especially related to nonverbal communication and that emotion-related communication skills, including sending and receiving nonverbal messages and emotional self-awareness, are critical elements of high-quality care. Although nonverbal behavior has received far less study than other care processes, the current review argues that it holds significance for the therapeutic relationship and influences important outcomes including satisfaction, adherence, and clinical outcomes of care.     

Non-invasive Assessment of Coronary Flow Velocity Reserve: A New Method Using Transthoracic Doppler Echocardiography

Coronary flow reserve (CFR) has been used toassess coronary microcirculation and epicardial coro-nary stenoses[1— 3 ] . CFR is defined as the ratio ofcoronary flow under maximal coronary vasodilatationto coronary flow under resting conditions[4 ] .Whenthe cross- sectional area of epicardial coronary arteriesis constant,coronary flow velocity (CFV) ratios areequal to volume flow ratios.The most common method used clinically formeasuring CFVR is intracoronary Doppler flow(ICD) analysis re…