Clinical psychology

Background. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness, which occurs with increasing frequency as people age. While progressive memory impairment is the upfront element associated with the disease, other neurocognitive troubles are also associated with it, such as language impairment which can degenerate into aphasia. Language disorders interfere and worsen the functioning of memory. 

Aim of the study. To evaluate semantic and textual impairment in AD patients. 

Methods. The current study involved 151 AD patients undergong consultation at Brest University Hospital. Certain socio-demographic data (sex, age, cultural levels) were collected, as well as results from the following neuropsychological tests: Folstein (MMSE); Dubois’s 5-word test; Dubois’s frontal assessment test battery (fluencies); Cornell’s scale for depression; and Barbizet’s test ( “The Lion’s tale”). All were subject to textual analysis. Our sample of demented patients included 102 females and 49 males of average age 80.3 ± 6.91. 

Results. All the tests, including the number of items recalled much later in the Barbizet’s test, showed impairment, all the more by Folstein’s test being altered. The demented patients’ formal fluency was less impaired than their semantical lexical fluency (scored respectively 5.74 ± 1.09 versus 4.41 ± 2.19; t = 5.60, p < 0.01). The demented cohort exhibited more intrusions (n = 36) than inversions in the delayed recollection of the Lion’s Tale, both for items and the episodes in which they occurred (n = 19). The regressive PLS analysis showed that, to explain the overall scores relating to “ e Lion’s Tale”, calculated later, only attainment of lexical fluency had any notable influence (Regression coefficient CR=0.224) or, more accessorily, the cultural level (CR = 0.12). 

Conclusion. AD patients’ proficiency in tests of category fluency and their cultural levels have effects on narrativity.

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), also known as domestic violence, spousal abuse, and relationship violence, among other names, is becoming a widely recognized social and public health problem. Theory and practice suggest it is vital that the issue be addressed comprehensively in both the healthcare and socio-legal contexts. The theoretical perspectives underlying inquiries into the nature and etiology of the IPV phenomenon are of fundamental importance in promoting our understanding of how to prevent, reduce, or eliminate the problem. In order to integrate various aspects of knowledge about the phenomenon, it is important to consider and evaluate the approaches to IPV currently prevalent in the field. 

Objectives: The present article aims to provide a critical overview of the existing theories, methodological frameworks, typologies, and definitions of Intimate Partner Violence. 

Design: The present paper reviews the international literature on the conceptual frameworks and definitions of IPV. First, it draws on the conceptual frameworks of violence; it then reviews relevant theories and definitions of IPV considered from sociocultural, individual, and integrative perspectives. The disparities, limitations, and explanatory powers of these theories, as well as their clinical and research applications, are discussed in an attempt to bring more clarity into the current state of understanding in the field. 

Results and Conclusions: Our review suggests that there is no universally accepted definition of IPV, nor a conceptual framework that would encompass the complexity of the phenomenon. Some of the theoretical frameworks for studying IPV appear to provide potential advantages over others, but their empirical viability has yet to be determined. We argue that, due to the complex multifaceted nature of IPV, a narrow theoretical stance might exclude a variety of exploratory factors and limit understanding of the phenomenon. 

Background. Special features of communicative development in children with Down Syndrome are reported to correlate with intellectual disability, while their mothers’ communication with them is considered to be a reaction to difficulties in building rapport with the child. The cultural-historical approach to human psychological and mental development (Vygotsky, 1982) supports research into the contribution of maternal behavior to the development of communication in children with Down Syndrome. 

Objective. To analyze the relationship between the development of responsive and initiative communicative actions in children with Down Syndrome and features of maternal communicative behavior. 

Design. The subjects were 15 pairs of mothers and their children diagnosed with “trisomy 21, Down Syndrome, full (or complete) type of trisomy” and 18 pairs of mothers and their typically developing children. The children in the experimental group are from 18 to 36 months old, the age of mothers is from 24 to 41 years. e children in the control group are from 18 to 36 months old; the mothers’ age is from 20 to 44 years. The research included collection of video data and expert video recording analysis. Communication was recorded of mothers and their children without a toy, and then with a toy. Videos were made three times, every 1.5 or 2 weeks, and each session lasted 20 minutes; two videos were analyzed, excluding the first one. The analysis was performed by three experts — researchers at the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution “Institute of Special Education of the Russian Academy of Education” — calculating the frequency of the children’s responsive and initiative communicative actions. A qualitative analysis of the mothers’ communicative behavior was conducted: Repeated patterns of the mothers’ communicative behavior in both groups were identified, and the number of mothers with these communicative actions was calculated. 

Results. Mothers’ actions that correlated with the development of responsive and initiative communicative actions in typically developing children were identified, including: the adult caregiver addresses her child directly and personally; she pays attention to the child’s actions and supports them; she plays with the child as with an equal. The communicative behavior of mothers of children with Down Syndrome did not differ from that of the mothers of typically developing children in terms of the behavioral characteristics listed above. Thedevelopment of responsive and initiative communicative actions in children with Down Syndrome correlates with a greater number of characteristics of maternal communicative behavior, such as: continuing the communication despite approximate, uncertain, or contradictory signals from the child; creating vivid and positive emotional support for interactions; and keeping in mind the child’s language and motor limitations. 

Conclusion. Our research suggests that for the development of communication in children with Down Syndrome, maternal communicative actions that correlate with the development of communication in typically developing children are not sufficient. 

Background. Contemporary rehabilitation of memory impairments relies on the use of external compensatory strategies. In Russian neuropsychological tradition, rehabilitation is understood as a transformation of a higher mental function, based on intact elements of that function and on use of external and internal means. Such a restructuration approach may be applied to memory. 

Objective. This article describes the basic principles underlying memory rehabilitation and gives an example of their successful implementation in a clinical case. 

Design. A 62-year-old patient was admitted 6 months after severe traumatic brain injury with primary damage to his le frontal and temporal lobes. He faced difficulties in social living and activities of daily life, mainly due to memory impairment. Neuropsychological assessment revealed moderate impairment of different memory types: modal nonspecific impairment with mild but persistent impairments in autobiographic and semantic memories. During a 3-week rehabilitation program, an algorithm involving the use of text was developed in consideration of the structure of memory impairment (impaired selectiveness, excessive inhibition and pathologic inertness of memory traces). 

Results. After multiple trials and modifications, the resulting algorithm (written retelling with the use of keywords, self-correction with writing correct variants instead of errors), allowed reproduction of the presented text with 100% recall of significant information and no false memories. The use of the developed memorization technique in everyday life allowed the patient to effectively memorize relevant information.

Conclusion. The described approach—restructuration of memory on the basis of preserved chains—is a feasible strategy of memory rehabilitation.