Anxiety Disorder (Panic Disorder or GAD), Bipolar Disorder, MDD, PTSD, Schizophrenia Disorder
Conditions
Brief summary
Learning includes the ability to generalize to new situations and respond to similar, yet not identical stimuli. In previous work, focused on stimulus generalization in healthy volunteers, tones that were negatively reinforced induce wider generalization curves than tones that were positively reinforced, and these in turn induce wider curves than neutral memory (Schechtman et al, 2010). The current study aimed to evaluate those patterns in different clinical disorders (including Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder, MDD, Anxiety disorders (Panic and GAD) and PTSD, and healthy subjects that would be used as a control), with consideration whether those patterns are unique to any specific disorder or state. The generalization patterns evaluation would conduct twice though enable to compare the stability of those patterns during the course of the illness (i.e during remission compared to acute state). The basic paradigm based on conditioning of a tone (sound) with unpleasant noise, and extinction of that conditioning afterword. During the 60 minutes of evaluation, the capability to discriminate between the original tone and similar but not identical tones, and the tendency to categorize similar tones as identical to the original tone. A neutral tone without conditioning will be used as reference. The clinical diagnosis will conduct by a senior psychiatrist, and the state would be evaluated using standard questionnaires
Interventions
BEHAVIORALGeneralization pattern
During evaluation a conditioning of a tone (conditioning stimulus) and aversive sound (metal scratch) will conduct (another tone which will be un-conditioning stimulus for control). Generalization patterns will be evaluated, by measuring the differentiation capability between different tones (neutral and aversive) before and after the conditioning, and after extinction phase. The generalization will also be measured by the generalization curve that plotted from displaying tones, different from the original tones, and asked the subject whether the current tone is original or new
Sponsors
Weizmann Institute of Science
Shalvata Mental Health Center
Study design
Observational model
CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
20 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Men and women 20-65 years of age. * Primary DSM-IV diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective, Bipolar (1 or 2) , Major depressive Disorder , Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder based on SCID and confirmed by a senior psychiatrist, Or subjects without axis I or II diagnosis (control group). * Capable and willing to provide informed consent. In any case when there is doubt about the patients' capacity to sign an informed consent, an independent doctor will assess the patient capacities to make treatment decisions with the clinical tool MacCAT-T. * Able to adhere to the evaluation schedule. * Able to read, hear, write and speak Hebrew. * Has signed a written informed consent to participate in the study.
Exclusion criteria
* Patients with acute, unstable, significant, or untreated medical illness besides schizophrenia, anxiety disorder or affective disorder, including alcohol and drug dependence. * Subjects with significant cognitive impairment including dementia, history of head injury, mental retardation, or any other cause to organic cognitive impairment. * Current suicidal ideation or history of a suicide attempt in the past six month * Subjects who were under compulsory hospitalization. * Subjects with any other dominant axis I or II diagnosis mainly anxiety disorders, which might interfere with the evaluation of the above disorders.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Generalization pattern differentiation | 60 minutes | Compare the generalization curve and the differentiation between positive, negative and neutral valency bias |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| State or trait differentiation | 4-24 weeks | to find the stability of the outcome between the two visits, and whether there is correlation with clinical state and the generalization patterns |
Countries
Israel
Contacts
Primary ContactShahak Yariv, MD
Outcome results
None listed