This line of research aims to study the symptoms of depersonalization and derealization in patients with anxiety disorders and community controls, to determine possible predictors of depersonalization in the anxious population, and to evaluate the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and depersonalization.

La entrada Depersonalization and anxiety se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

Affective symptoms are a common occurrence in patients with epilepsy, both in the form of comorbidity with depressive and bipolar syndromes, as well as symptoms associated with the neurological picture itself. The concept of affective temperaments constitutes an element of interest to understand the predisposition of certain patients whose personality characteristics confer a higher risk of developing comorbid affective pathology. Consequently, this line of research aims to reveal the presence of temperamental affective traits in patients with epilepsy and establish the association between these traits and the presence of affective comorbidity, affective symptomatology, quality of life, perception of disease, pharmacological adherence, and satisfaction with antiepileptic treatment.

La entrada Affective symptoms constitute an occurrence se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

The way in which bipolar patients perceive their illness (perception of illness) is a fundamental theoretical element of adherence to long-term medication treatment. It is also one of the core objectives of psychoeducational treatment, which has been shown to be effective in preventing new affective episodes in bipolar patients, as an adjunct to stabilizing drug treatment. Despite its theoretical and practical importance, there are few studies on how bipolar patients naturally perceive their disease, and how this perception of the disease is related to other factors. In this line, the objectives of this study are: 1) to explore the natural perception of the disease of bipolar patients; 2) to empirically test the theoretical relationship between perception of the disease and pharmacological adherence; and 3) explore the relationship between the perception of the disease and the emotional temperament.

La entrada Disease perception, pharmacological adherence and affective temperament in bipolar disorder se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

Attention deficit disorder is the most commonly diagnosed problem in childhood, and reliable studies show that more than half of people diagnosed in childhood continue to have this problem in adulthood. The presence of ADHD in adolescence and adulthood is associated with enormous functional consequences on the academic and work performance of those who suffer from it. Historically, ADHD has been defined by three types of symptoms: cognitive deficits (difficulties in attention and executive function), impulsivity and hyperactivity. However, its clinical characterization is currently incomplete, as well as its delimitation from other psychopathological entities is imprecise. This project seeks to: a) explore new symptomatic-etiological dimensions, such as motivational, affective-emotional and cognitive-behavioral changes; b) study their comorbidities in both axis I and axis II of the DSM-IV classification; c) establish indicators that favor the differential diagnosis of other psychiatric pathologies that present symptomatic overlap, in particular, of bipolar disorder and personality disorders.

La entrada Psychopathological characterization and clinical delimitation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

Building a bridge between neurosciences and mental health implies overcoming enormous challenges due to the complexity of the studied organ, the brain, and the overwhelming psychological and social universe where it interacts. As Huys et al. (2016) state, dealing with such complexities requires powerful techniques. Computational psychiatry combines multiple levels and types of analysis with multiple types of data in an effort to improve the understanding, prediction, and treatment of mental illness. Using two complementary approaches, data-based and theory-based, this project seeks to (i) increase the effectiveness of diagnostic systems from multiple clinical questionnaires, (ii) understand the transdiagnostic psychopathological dimensions from different levels of analysis (behavior, genetics, electrophysiology, brain imaging) and (iii) testing specific treatments and techniques for large populations through the use of big data.

La entrada Computational psychiatry: using data science to improve the understanding, prediction, and treatment of mental illness se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

A priority problem in mental health today is the high comorbidity among pathologies of negative affect, as anxiety disorders and depression are currently called. This complexity is immeasurable for most psychological treatments, designed for exclusive diagnostic categories. Robust evidence confirms the existence of factors and mechanisms at different levels (behavioral, cognitive, neuropsychological and neurophysiological) common to these disorders, highlighting their similarities. A transdiagnostic characterization of these mechanisms and factors would allow the limitations of the current diagnostic categories to be overcome and would lead to a dimensional description of these pathologies, impacting both the way in which the diagnoses are produced, as well as the planning of therapeutic interventions. If this is achieved, one of the critical dilemmas in the area of ​​psychopathology would be advanced: the existence of factors common to psychiatric diseases. This will favor the reaching of a new level of understanding of its mechanisms and therefore of the treatments. In this sense, the present project seeks to describe and characterize, from a multilevel approach, three transdiagnostic dimensions affected in the pathologies of negative affect: (i) interoception, as a determining mechanism in visceral processing of emotions; (ii) emotional regulation, such as the ability to perceive and influence our emotions; and (iii) cognitive control, a psychopathological dimension associated with failed and frustrating attempts to control emotions and the events that trigger them.

La entrada Study of normal and pathological human behavior from dimensional models of psychopathology: interoception, emotional regulation, and negative repetitive thinking se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

The objective of this line of research is to conduct a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the psychiatric symptoms present in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia, which may serve as a basis for differential diagnosis of this condition with respect to other psychiatric disorders that, in the case of older adults, may confuse or simulate the appearance of a neurodegenerative disorder.

La entrada Psychopathological characterization of the behavioral variant in Frontotemporal Dementia se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.

Ongoing collaborative study with the Computing Department of the Faculty of Exact Sciences, CONICET.

La entrada The use of mathematical models for the analysis of speech in patients with psychosis and bipolar disorders. se publicó primero en Fundación INECO.