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Objective: Recent research illuminates a wide range of outcomes associated with COVID-19 illness, including neurological and cognitive dysfunction. While these associations have most often been examined among hospitalized patients, emerging research suggests that cognitive impairments following COVID-19 illness may not be exclusive to hospitalized or severely ill populations. The current study investigates the impact of COVID-19 infection on objective and subjective cognitive functioning among a sample of community-dwelling adults. Method: Cross-sectional data were collected online from a community sample of adults aged 19–67 years (N = 114; Mage = 41.91 years) to examine the associations between those with and without COVID-19 illness history on objective and subjective measures of cognitive functioning. Results: There were no significant differences between those with a history of COVID-19 infection (n = 57) and those without a history of COVID-19 infection (n = 57) in performance on digit span, digit symbol, choice reaction time, Stroop, and the N-back cognitive tasks. Within the COVID-19 positive group, individuals with long-haul (i.e., persisting four or more weeks) COVID-19 symptoms reported significantly greater impairments in subjective cognition compared to those with short-term COVID-19 symptoms. Conclusions: The current findings provide important insight into the impact of COVID-19 on cognitive outcomes among adults drawn from the community. These results highlight the necessity to continue investigating potential factors that impact the course of COVID-19 illness in diverse populations with varying degrees of viral symptomatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To test whether race moderates the relationship between negative emotions and neurocognition by applying the reserve capacity model within a large sample that spans adulthood. Method The study sample (N  = 1,020) consisted of community-dwelling adults between 18 and 84 years of age who were drawn from the Virginia Cognitive Aging Project. Demographic variables were used to match a sample of Black participants to a sample of White participants. Race was examined as a moderator of the relationship between negative emotions (i.e. depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and the negative affect subscale from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) and neurocognitive variables (episodic memory, reasoning, spatial visualization, and processing speed) with multiple-group structural equation modeling. Results After accounting for sociodemographic variables, depressive symptoms were negatively associated with processing speed in both groups, and with worse reasoning in the White subsample. Negative affect was associated with lower reasoning performance in both groups and with lower spatial visualization in the White subsample. Trait anxiety was not significantly associated with the neurocognitive constructs in either group. Multigroup structural equation models showed that the magnitudes of the associations were not different between the Black and White subsamples. Thus, race did not moderate the relationships between depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and negative affect with neurocognition. Conclusions Negative emotions are associated with lower performance on different neurocognitive tasks, but race does not moderate these relationships. Future research should examine perceived discrimination or other psychosocial variables when examining the relationships among negative emotions and neurocognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the effects of adaptive and tailored computerized cognitive training on cognition and disease self-management in older adults with diabetes.Methods: This was a single-blind trial. Eighty-four community-dwelling older adults with diabetes were randomized into a tailored and adaptive computerized cognitive training or a generic, non-tailored or adaptive computerized cognitive training condition. Both groups trained for 8 weeks on the commercially available CogniFit program and were supported by a range of behavior change techniques. Participants in each condition were further randomized into a global or cognition-specific self-efficacy intervention, or to a no self-efficacy condition. The primary outcome was global cognition immediately following the intervention. Secondary outcomes included diabetes self-management, meta-memory, mood, and self-efficacy. Assessments were conducted at baseline, immediately after the training, and at a 6-month follow-up.Results: Adherence and retention were lower in the generic computerized cognitive training condition, but the self-efficacy intervention was not associated with adherence. Moderate improvements in performance on a global cognitive composite at the posttreatment assessments were observed in both cognitive training conditions, with further small improvement observed at the 6-month follow-up. Results for diabetes self-management showed a modest improvement on self-rated diabetes care for both intervention conditions following the treatment, which was maintained at the 6-month follow-up.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that older adults at higher dementia risk due to diabetes can show improvements in both cognition and disease self-management following home-based multidomain computerized cognitive training. These findings also suggest that adaptive difficulty and individual task tailoring may not be critical components of such interventions.Trial Registration: NCT02709629. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with schizophrenia spectrum disorder face a major challenge in the ability to reflect on their own and others' mental activities and about specific psychological problems in their lives. These deficits are associated with increased symptoms and lower functioning. Specific interventions have been designed to enhance these abilities, one of which is metacognitive reflection and insight therapy (MERIT). Several case studies and a recent pilot study have shown increased metacognitive abilities and a decrease in symptoms among clients after MERIT. This article presents two case studies of clients diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder whose psychotherapy, conducted in Israel, incorporated the MERIT protocol. Outcome measures were taken before and after treatment, and metacognitive abilities were assessed at five time points throughout treatment. Clinical implications and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increased interest in studying the nature of communication in health care and the use of interpreters has revealed the need for more collaboration and understanding of multilingual health-care practices. Theory and practice concerning cross-cultural health-care communication can benefit from examining the intersections between translingual literacy and transnational programs through hybrid interpretive strategies. In this study, I argue that these strategies move across, between, and among different languages, dialects, and nonverbal gestures to develop mutual understanding. To account for literacy practices that might engage this hybridity in health care, I use grounded practical theory to analyze a case study of participants who ran temporary medical and dental clinics in the Dominican Republic. This analysis finds that hybrid strategies with English–Spanish and Spanish–Spanish interpretation are used to overcome problems with balancing efficiency and rapport-building. By integrating ethnographic methods and grounded practical theory, this study's practical implications emerge in the negotiations of language employed by participants to connect translingual theory and practice in health-care communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied 15 nondepressed patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who were nonresponders to serotonin reuptake inhibitors with an additive trial of risperidone. Positron emission tomography with 18F-deoxyglucose and magnetic resonance imaging was obtained at baseline and following 8 weeks of either risperidone or placebo in a double-blind parallel group design. Risperidone treatment was associated with significant increases in relative metabolic rate in the striatum, cingulate gyrus, the prefrontal cortex, especially in the orbital region, and the thalamus. Four of 9 patients who received risperidone showed clinical improvement (CGI score of 1 or 2 at 8 weeks) while none of the 6 patients who received placebo showed improvement. Patients with low relative metabolic rates in the striatum and high relative metabolic rates in the anterior cingulate gyrus were more likely to show a clinical response. These metabolic predictors of clinical response are consistent with earlier PET studies showing similar prediction when either neuroleptics or serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatments are administered individually. Our results are consistent with a frontostriatal circuit change related to both dopaminergic and serotonergic systems and with the presence of psychopharmacological subtypes within OCD. Copyright © 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this report is to highlight a rare cause of congenital proptosis. Methods: This is a case report. Results: We present a case of a baby girl born with a large myofibroma in the right retrobulbar space. This case is unusual because it presented from birth and was in a critical location. A prenatal ultrasound performed two days prior to birth did not reveal this mass to the technician or obstetrician. At birth, the tumor induced severe proptosis, with the eyelids unable to close around the globe. Deterioration of the ocular surface secondary to exposure was evident immediately after birth. One week after birth, the mass was excised by the Oculoplastics service in conjunction with a Neurosurgical team using a transcranial approach. The tumor was diagnosed by histopathology and immunologic staining as a myofibroma, a rare condition. Conclusions: Orbital myofibroma is a rare cause of congenital proptosis presenting at birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]