Social Function and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children and Adults with Neurofibromatosis Type 1: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In light of the proliferation of recent research into social function in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a systematic review and meta-analysis is required to synthesise data and place findings within the context of a theoretical framework. This paper reviews findings from research into social function and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children and adults with NF1 and integrates these findings with the Socio-Cognitive Integration Abilities Model (SOCIAL). It also critically appraises links between social outcomes, internal and external factors moderating social functioning, cognitive domains implicated in social functioning, and underlying neural pathology in NF1. A systematic literature search conducted in MedLine (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), and PubMed electronic databases yielded 35 papers that met inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Out of these papers, 22 papers provided sufficient data for meta-analysis. Findings from this review and meta-analysis provide evidence that children and adults with NF1 exhibit significantly higher prevalence and severity of social dysfunction and ASD symptomatology. To date, very few studies have examined social cognition in NF1 but results indicate the presence of both perceptual and higher-level impairments in this population. The results of this review also provide support for age, gender, and comorbid ADHD as moderating factors for social outcomes in NF1. Suggestions for future research are offered to further our understanding of the social phenotype in NF1 and to facilitate the development of targeted interventions.     

Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes

Our aim was to evaluate how human beliefs affect working dog outcomes in an applied environment. We asked whether beliefs of scent detection dog handlers affect team performance and evaluated relative importance of human versus dog influences on handlers’ beliefs. Eighteen drug and/or explosive detection dog/handler teams each completed two sets of four brief search scenarios (conditions). Handlers were falsely told that two conditions contained a paper marking scent location (human influence). Two conditions contained decoy scents (food/toy) to encourage dog interest in a false location (dog influence). Conditions were (1) control; (2) paper marker; (3) decoy scent; and (4) paper marker at decoy scent. No conditions contained drug or explosive scent; any alerting response was incorrect. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used with search condition as the independent variable and number of alerts as the dependent variable. Additional nonparametric tests compared human and dog influence. There were 225 incorrect responses, with no differences in mean responses across conditions. Response patterns differed by condition. There were more correct (no alert responses) searches in conditions without markers. Within marked conditions, handlers reported that dogs alerted more at marked locations than other locations. Handlers’ beliefs that scent was present potentiated handler identification of detection dog alerts. Human more than dog influences affected alert locations. This confirms that handler beliefs affect outcomes of scent detection dog deployments.     

A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Say Yes to Life (SYTL) Positive Psychology Group Psychotherapy Program for Depression: An Interim Report

An RCT was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the Say Yes to Life (SYTL) positive psychology group psychotherapy program compared with treatment as usual (TAU). The current interim report is based on data from the first 82 cases recruited into the trial. There were 57 trial completers at post-treatment. At pretreatment on demographic and clinical variables, there were no significant differences between trial completers and dropouts in SYTL and TAU groups. There were two main significant (p < .01) findings. Compared with TAU treatment-completers, more than twice as many SYTL treatment-completers (28 vs. 72 %) were recovered 3 months after therapy using stringent recovery criteria (no longer meeting DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder and scoring below clinical cut-off scores on the Beck Depression Inventory II, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale and showing reliable change on these three measures of depressive symptom severity). Second, the overall average service use cost per case in the SYTL group was significantly lower than that of the TAU group (€726 vs.€1187). This was largely due to the lower cost of the SYTL group therapy program compared with TAU which involved individual therapy. The pattern of results in an intention-to-treat analysis was similar to that in the completer analysis, though group difference did not reach significance due to inadequate statistical power and conservative missing data imputation procedures. It is planned to collect data on 100 trial completers, based on a power analysis.