Neurovegetative symptoms in multiple sclerosis: relationship to depressed mood, fatigue, and physical disability

Some authors have suggested that when evaluating depression in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, neurovegetative symptoms should be discounted and/or not considered, given the ostensibly high overlap between symptoms of MS (e.g., sleep disturbance, fatigue) and neurovegetative symptoms of depression. A further assertion is that inclusion of items assessing neurovegetative symptoms may artificially inflate overall depression scores and that mood scales may provide more accurate indices of depression in MS patients. The current study investigated the possibility that some neurovegetative symptoms may be specifically related to MS patients' depressed mood and are not simply indicators of physical disability and/or fatigue. Seventy-six clinically definite MS patients in the northwestern United States were administered two depression inventories and measures of physical disability and fatigue as part of a larger study. Results revealed that one neurovegetative symptom--disinterest in sex--was uniquely associated with depressed mood, and other neurovegetative symptoms were associated with both depression and fatigue but not physical disability. The present findings suggest that certain neurovegetative symptoms are differentially associated with depression, fatigue, and physical disability in MS. Routinely discounting all neurovegetative symptoms when assessing depression in MS patients may thus be unwarranted.

The ecological validity of clinical tests of memory and attention in multiple sclerosis

Ecological validity--the degree to which clinical tests of cognitive functioning predict functional impairment--has recently become an area of interest in neuropsychology. The current study used a sample of 31 cognitively and functionally impaired multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to determine if tests commonly used to assess memory and attentional functioning in MS are ecologically valid. Two methods of improving the ecological validity of cognitive testing were employed. Stepwise multiple regression analyses suggested that tests of memory and attention more analogous to everyday tasks are better predictors of functional impairment in MS than both standard clinical tests of memory and attention, and memory questionnaires completed by the patient or a significant other. Nonetheless, both standard clinical tests and more ecologically valid tests significantly predicted functional impairment. Importantly, they were not significantly correlated with one another, suggesting that the inclusion of both types of tests in evaluating MS patients is warranted.

Management of negative symptoms among patients with schizophrenia attending multiple-family groups

OBJECTIVE

Outcomes for negative symptoms over a one-year period were examined in two groups of patients, one receiving psychoeducational multiple-family group treatment and one receiving standard care.

METHODS

A total of 63 outpatients, ages 18 to 45 years, with DSM-IV diagnoses of schizophrenic disorders were randomly assigned to standard care or multiple-family group psychoeducation treatment at a large mental health center in Spokane, Washington. Treatment assignment was stratified by whether patients were taking typical or atypical antipsychotic medications. Negative symptom status was monitored monthly for one year by raters blind to group assignment and measured as a composite of five symptoms using the Modified Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms.

RESULTS

When the analysis controlled for baseline negative symptoms, participants in the multiple-family group experienced significantly reduced negative symptoms compared with those receiving standard care. Taking atypical antipsychotic medication or having a diagnosis of substance abuse was not associated with the severity of negative symptoms. An additional analysis of the five individual negative symptoms indicated small but consistent group differences on all dimensions except inattention. Negative symptoms were significantly correlated with relapse to acute illness but not with outpatient or inpatient service use.

CONCLUSIONS

The study demonstrated that a psychoeducational multiple-family group intervention was more effective than standard care in managing negative symptoms over a 12-month period. The results are particularly relevant because negative symptoms are associated with relapse, poor social and occupational functioning, cognitive impairment, and lower subjective quality of life.

Depression in multiple sclerosis: relationship to working memory capacity

Recent research has shown that depression in multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with deficits on cognitively demanding tasks. One explanation for this relationship is that depressed MS patients may have reduced working memory capacity. The present study was designed to test this hypothesis. Depressed MS patients were compared with nondepressed MS patients and nondepressed healthy controls on a task of working memory capacity (reading span) and a short-term memory task not taxing working memory capacity (word span). In support of the capacity-reduction model, compared with the nondepressed groups, depressed MS patients performed significantly worse on reading span (p<.001) but not on word span. Additionally, reading span was significantly correlated with capacity-demanding tasks shown to be impaired in depressed MS patients in previous reports. Results suggest that depressed MS patients are characterized by limited working memory capacity and that the central executive component of the working memory system may be most affected.

Depressed mood in multiple sclerosis: relationship to capacity-demanding memory and attentional functioning

Because it is theorized that depression results in reduced available attentional capacity that, in turn, can explain the impaired performance on capacity-demanding tasks in depressed individuals, the authors predicted that multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with depressed mood would have difficulty with these types of tasks. Twenty depressed mood MS participants were compared with 41 nondepressed mood MS participants and 8 nondepressed mood controls on 5 attentional capacity-demanding clinical memory and attentional tasks and 3 tasks with minimal capacity demands. Depressed mood MS patients performed significantly worse than both nondepressed mood groups on the 3 speeded capacity-demanding attentional measures but not on any of the tasks requiring few capacity demands, supporting the authors' predictions. The possibility that the impaired performance of depressed mood MS patients on speeded attentional tasks was mediated by reduced verbal working memory capacity, impaired deployment of executive strategies that access working memory capacity, or psychomotor slowing is explored.

The impact of motivationally neutral cues on psychopathic individuals: assessing the generality of the response modulation hypothesis

Psychopathic individuals' lack of responsiveness to punishment cues and poor self-regulation have been attributed to fearlessness (D. T. Lykken, 1957, 1982, 1995). Alternatively, deficient response modulation (RM) may hinder the psychopathic individual's processing of peripheral information and self-regulation when they are engaged in goal-directed behavior (C. M. Patterson & J. P. Newman, 1993). Although more specific than the fearlessness hypothesis in some respects, the RM hypothesis makes the more general prediction that psychopathic individuals will have difficulty processing motivationally neutral as well as fear-related stimuli. The authors assessed this prediction by using psychopathic and nonpsychopathic male inmates subdivided by level of anxiety/negative affectivity (NA). As predicted by the RM hypothesis, peripheral presentation of motivationally neutral cues produced significantly less interference in low-NA psychopathic individuals than in low-NA controls.

The impact of motivationally neutral cues on psychopathic individuals: assessing the generality of the response modulation hypothesis

Psychopathic individuals' lack of responsiveness to punishment cues and poor self-regulation have been attributed to fearlessness (D. T. Lykken, 1957, 1982, 1995). Alternatively, deficient response modulation (RM) may hinder the psychopathic individual's processing of peripheral information and self-regulation when they are engaged in goal-directed behavior (C. M. Patterson & J. P. Newman, 1993). Although more specific than the fearlessness hypothesis in some respects, the RM hypothesis makes the more general prediction that psychopathic individuals will have difficulty processing motivationally neutral as well as fear-related stimuli. The authors assessed this prediction by using psychopathic and nonpsychopathic male inmates subdivided by level of anxiety/negative affectivity (NA). As predicted by the RM hypothesis, peripheral presentation of motivationally neutral cues produced significantly less interference in low-NA psychopathic individuals than in low-NA controls.