Awards for 2016-2017:
Ahmet Nalbant, M.D., Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Mental Health, Bakirkoy/Istanbul, Türkiye; K. Fatih Yavuz, M.D., Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Mental Health, Bakirkoy/Istanbul, Türkiye; Louise McHugh, Ph.D., University Of Dublin, Ireland:
Do Antipsychotics Have Any Effect on Perspective Taking in Schizophrenia?
Lay Summary
Schizophrenia is a highly debilitating disorder and managing negative symptoms is challenging even today. Atypical antipsychotics were expected to reduce burdens which arise from negative symptoms such as avolution and anhedonia. Although their well-known efficacy in terms of positive symptoms, benefits about negative symptoms and their related disabling outcomes are beyond expected.
Also, it seems that there are other aspects which might be important in social functioning in people with schizophrenia. Theory of Mind (ToM) impairments are one of them and is widely studied by cognitive psychologists in schizophrenia. There are very limited data about changes in ToM with antipsychotics. Moreover, whereas ToM impairments in schizophrenia are found to be related with social functioning and linked to anhedonia or disorganized thought, the impact of symptoms on different aspects of cognitive perspective taking is still not well known.
Since ToM research is cognitive developmental in nature and this brings that these skills develop or not, it tells us little about how one can improve social skills in this regard. A more recent contextual behavioural account to cognitive perspective taking was provided by relational frame theory (RFT). RFT suggests that the deictic relational frames of I–you, here–there, and now–then are critical in the development of perspective taking behavior and this is especially important while perspective taking skills can be taught.
This study aims to research whether different antipsychotics have any effect on perspective taking in people with schizophrenia and to investigate its processes along with psychotic symptoms. Understanding the processes of the change between deictic framing and the symptomatology of schizophrenia might lead us developing better interventional models to improve social functioning in schizophrenia.
Thomas G. Szabo, Ph.D., BCBA-D , Commit & Act, LLC, Florida Institute of Technology; Corinna Stewart; Ross White; Timothy Gordon; Brooks Witter; Jonathan Tarbox
DARE to Connect: A Pilot Study Using ACT to Foster New Intra-Familial Relationship Skills in Men
Lay summary
Commit & Act (C&A) is an NGO that has been working in Sierra Leone since 2010. Currently, the organization is coordinating a project called DARE to Connect (Defuse, Accept, Recenter, and Engage) that aims to teach partners in intimate relationships to relate to each other with both flexibility and resilience. DARE trains men and women to build relationships with mutual respect and emotional intimacy. We emphasize nurturing partnership in parenting, friendship-building, and sexually intimate relationships. Our aim is to curb domestic violence (DV) by supporting men at risk of committing or adjudicated after partner violence offences new ways to relate to themselves, their thoughts, desires, and emotions.
A. Exploratory research on a) prevalence, b) incidence, and c) recidivism of partner violence.
B. Multiple baseline design study across three dyads to evaluate the DARE to Connect intervention. In session, we will measure micro-aggressions. Between sessions, we will collect self-reports from each dyad. Also, we will collect private individual reports via an accessible online portal on incidences of partner violence. As DV in Sierra Leone is typically treated as a private family matter, we will compare data from these venues to assess whether the intervention serves to transform the functions of intra-family secrets from “acceptable” to “unacceptable”. We will use repeated measures data to assess changes in explicit attitudes voiced by men and women partners.
Data from this pilot investigation will be used to inform workshops and mentor Sierra Leonean therapists, law enforcement/corrections agents, teachers, medical professionals, and counsellors. These professionals will then be empowered to carry the work forward in their communities. We will mobilize partnerships with specific agencies in the region and strive to achieve larger levels of societal adoption. We aim to begin in Bo and replicate these efforts in other districts across Sierra Leone.