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Executive Impairment (executive + impairment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	100%

Selected Abstracts

To what extent does frontal type executive impairment affect coping strategies in Parkinson's disease?

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 10 2008
S. Montel
Background and purpose:, Given the frequency of executive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD), we wonder to what extent this fact might influence the coping strategies which are used. Methods:, A total of 135 PD patients with no dementia were divided into two groups according to their cognitive status (,with frontal type executive impairment' or ,without frontal type executive executive impairment'). All patients were seen for a semi-structured interview to collect sociodemographic and clinical information and to assess their cognitive and mental states (DSM-IV-TR, frontal assessment battery and Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale). Then, all patients completed two self-report questionnaires concerning their coping strategies (Ways of Coping Checklist and Coping with Health, Injuries and Problems Scale). Results:, After controlling the depression, we noticed a significant effect of cognitive status on positive re-evaluation (P = 0.02). Interestingly, except for instrumental strategies, patients with frontal type executive impairment used significantly more coping strategies than did patients without frontal type executive impairment. Conclusion:, Our results suggest that neither executive impairment nor depression prevents patients from using coping strategies extensively. [source]

Prevalence and patterns of executive impairment in community dwelling Mexican Americans: results from the Hispanic EPESE Study

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 10 2004
Donald R. Royall
Abstract Introduction Little is known about the prevalence of impaired executive control function (ECF) in community dwelling elderly or minority populations. We have determined the prevalence of cognitive impairment and impaired ECF in a community dwelling Mexican American elderly population, and their associations with functional status. Subjects Subjects were 1165 Mexican Americans age 65 and over who were administered CLOX as part of the third wave of the Hispanic Established Population for Epidemiological Study (HEPESE) conducted from 1998 to 1999. Methods ECF was measured by an executive clock-drawing task (CDT) (i.e. CLOX1). Non-executive cognitive function was assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and a non-executive CDT (CLOX2). CLOX scores were combined to estimate the prevalence of global CLOX failure (i.e. ,Type 1' cognitive impairment) vs isolated CLOX1 failure (i.e. Type 2 cognitive impairment). Results 59.3% of subjects failed CLOX1. 31.1% failed both CLOX1 and CLOX2 (Type 1 cognitive impairment). 33.3% failed CLOX1 only (Type 2 cognitive impairment). 35.6% passed both measures [no cognitive impairment (NCI)]. Many subjects with CLOX1 impairment at Wave 3 had normal MMSE scores. This was more likely to occur in the context of Type 2 cognitive impairment. Both CLOX defined cognitive impairment groups were associated with functional impairment. Conclusions A large percentage of community dwelling Mexican American elderly suffer cognitive impairment that can be demonstrated through a CDT. Isolated executive impairments appear to be most common. The ability of a CDT to demonstrate ECF impairments potentially offers a rapid, culturally unbiased and cost-effective means of assessing this domain. In contrast, the MMSE is relatively insensitive to ECF assessed by CLOX1. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

REM behavior disorder, hallucinations and cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease: A two-year follow up

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 10 2008
Elena Sinforiani MD
Abstract In Parkinson's disease (PD) the presence of REM parasonnias as REM Behaviour Disorder (RBD) or vivid dreams/nightmares, is recognized as largely associated with hallucinations, even if the risk of the development of hallucinations seem not to depend on how long the REM parasomnias had been occurring. The aim of this study was to establish if RBDs occurring earlier than hallucinations in PD are predictive of cognitive impairment development. Three groups of PD patients: i) group 1, without RBD and without hallucinations; ii) group 2, with RBD but without hallucinations; iii) group 3, with RBD and hallucinations have been prospectively investigated at baseline and after two years throughout a clinical and neuropsychological evaluation. After two years, the group 1 continued to present normal neuropsychological tests and did not present either RBDs or hallucinations. In the group 2, the frontal impairment evidenced at baseline was confirmed; the onset of newly hallucinations was reported in a subgroup of 12 patients, who proved to be older, with a more severe executive impairment at baseline and with a more severe motor symptoms progression than those RBD patients who had not manifested hallucinations. The group 3, characterized at baseline by a more severe cognitive impairment presented, after two years, a cognitive worsening and a higher mortality rate. The longitudinal but at preliminary step investigation identified a PD subgroup of patients, in whom a common background disease profile, including the presence of RBD, could represent a "red flag" in developing further cognitive impairment. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society [source]

Impairments on "open-ended" executive function tests in autism

AUTISM RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009
Sarah J. White
Abstract The executive function (EF) theory of autism has received much support recently from a growing number of studies. However, executive impairments have not always been easy to identify consistently and so novel "ecologically valid" tests have been designed which tap into real-life scenarios that are relevant to and representative of everyday behavior. One characteristic of many of these tasks is that they present the participant with an "ill-structured" or "open-ended" situation. Here, we investigated the possibility that tasks with greater degrees of open-endedness might prove more sensitive to detecting executive impairment in autism. Forty-five children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were compared to 27 age- and IQ-matched control children on a range of cognitive tests of EF. Group differences were found on half of the tasks, with the greatest degree of impairment detected on the more open-ended tasks. The ASD group also performed more poorly on a simple control condition of a task. Detailed consideration of task performance suggested that the ASD group tended to create fewer spontaneous strategies and exhibit more idiosyncratic behavior, which particularly disadvantaged them on the more open-ended tasks. These kinds of behaviors have been reported in studies of neurological patients with frontal lobe involvement, prima facie suggesting a link between the scientific fields. However, we suggest that this behavior might equally result from a poor understanding of the implicit demands made by the experimenter in open-ended test situations, due to the socio-communicative difficulties of these children. [source]

To what extent does frontal type executive impairment affect coping strategies in Parkinson's disease?

Prevalence and patterns of executive impairment in community dwelling Mexican Americans: results from the Hispanic EPESE Study

Genuine Episodic Memory Deficits and Executive Dysfunctions in Alcoholic Subjects Early in Abstinence

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 7 2007
Anne Lise Pitel
Background: Chronic alcoholism is known to impair episodic memory function, but the specific nature of this impairment is still unclear. Moreover, it has never been established whether episodic memory deficit in alcoholism is an intrinsic memory deficit or whether it has an executive origin. Thus, the objectives are to specify which episodic memory processes are impaired early in abstinence from alcohol and to determine whether they should be regarded as genuine memory deficits or rather as the indirect consequences of executive impairments. Methods: Forty recently detoxified alcoholic inpatients at alcohol entry treatment and 55 group-matched controls underwent a neuropsychological assessment of episodic memory and executive functions. The episodic memory evaluation consisted of 3 tasks complementing each other designed to measure the different episodic memory components (learning, storage, encoding and retrieval, contextual memory, and autonoetic consciousness) and 5 executive tasks testing capacities of organization, inhibition, flexibility, updating, and integration. Results: Compared with control subjects, alcoholic patients presented impaired learning abilities, encoding processes, retrieval processes, contextual memory and autonoetic consciousness. However, there was no difference between the 2 groups regarding the storage capacities assessed by the rate of forgetting. Concerning executive functions, alcoholic subjects displayed deficits in each executive task used. Nevertheless, stepwise regression analyses showed that only performances on fluency tasks were significantly predictive of some of the episodic memory disorders (learning abilities for 40%, encoding processes for 20%, temporal memory for 21%, and state of consciousness associated with memories for 26%) in the alcoholic group. Discussion: At alcohol treatment entry, alcoholic patients present genuine episodic memory deficits that cannot be regarded solely as the consequences of executive dysfunctions. These results are in accordance with neuroimaging findings showing hippocampal atrophy. Moreover, given the involvement of episodic memory and executive functions in alcohol treatment, these data could have clinical implications. [source]