Basic Social Functions Research Articles

Quetiapine – efficacy in different domains

Conventional treatment paradigms for schizophrenia have typically focused on reducing positive symptomatology; however, it is increasingly apparent that negative and cognitive symptoms are also important treatment targets. Cognitive function, in particular, is known to affect multiple outcome domains, including performance of basic daily activities, and social and occupational functioning. While traditional antipsychotics have little, or even a detrimental, effect on neurocognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia, available data suggest that cognitive function may be improved during treatment with atypical antipsychotics. Quetiapine is a novel atypical antipsychotic with proven efficacy in schizophrenia across all domains. Results of well-controlled, double-blind, randomised studies show quetiapine to significantly improve cognitive function compared with treatment with haloperidol. Quetiapine has also been shown to be effective and well tolerated in patients particularly vulnerable to the extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) associated with conventional antipsychotics, making it well suited for use as first-line therapy.

Obsessive–compulsive disorder in hospitalized patients with chronic schizophrenia

Obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms have been observed in a substantial proportion of schizophrenic patients. In this study, we assessed the rate of occurrence of OC symptoms and the interrelationship between OC and schizophrenic symptoms in 68 hospitalized chronic schizophrenic patients. The patients were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis-I DSM-IV Disorders — Patient Edition (SCID-P) and the appropriate rating scales including the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, the Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (Y–BOCS), the Barnes Akathisia Scale, the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale, and the Social Behaviour Schedule (SBS). Sixteen patients (23.5%) met the DSM-IV criteria for OCD. A comparison of schizophrenic patients with and without OCD showed that the schizo–obsessive patients were significantly (1.7-fold) more impaired in basic social functioning, as reflected by the SBS score. No significant between-group differences for any of the other clinical variables were found. There was no significant correlation between OC and schizophrenic symptoms within the schizo–obsessive subgroup. The mean Y–BOCS score for the patients with both schizophrenia and OCD was within the typical range (22.8±1.7) observed in OCD without psychosis. The findings provide further evidence for the importance of the OC dimension in schizophrenia and may have important implications for the application of effective treatment approaches in this difficult-to-treat subgroup of schizophrenic patients.

The production of meaningful communication, and stuttering severity

The present study addresses the relationship between how persons who stutter meet the challenge of meaningful communication, and stuttering severity. Sixty adults who stutter, 12 females and 48 males, aged 20–56, were given various psychological tests and interviewed in order to determine how they dealt with the challenge of meaningful communication as the main objective for their speaking. It was predicted that persons who stutter moderatey tend to avoid more meaningful communication and to shift their attention more from the intended message to preoccupation with their speech performances, than those who stutter mildly. It was also predicted that resignation with respect to preoccupation with their speech performances and production of meaningful communication would be related to severe stuttering. The results support these predictions, and thus the recommendations that speech therapists should attend to how persons who stutter handle the basic social functions of speech.

Theory and method reconsidered: a Marxist analysis of Trespass law

Law governing agents' possession of and separation from land is given as an object of study by struggles over land possession in the conjuncture involving squatting, factory occupations, and public protests and gatherings infringing private property rights. Marx's mature method, incorporating a concrete → abstract → concrete logical trajectory, can be adapted and developed in relation to law so as to enable the successful concrete analysis of this object. The point of departure is the simplest and most irreducible expression of Trespass in concrete social practice: the right to exclude the world from interference with possession of land. The concrete particular is analyzed through abstraction, which further accompanies the movement from simple to ever more complex aspects of the object until the concrete totality of law securing the conditions of land occupation and conrol in the capitalist formation is completely revealed and explained. The basic social function of Trespass law, in its embodiment of exclusive private property right, is to guarantee the conditions of exclusive possession and control under capitalism; this area of law ultimately providing the means by which the legal and socio-economic crisis of the 1970s could be resolved to the advantage of the greater possessors, at the expense of lesser possessory inteests.