The British journal of clinical psychology / the British Psychological Society
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Comparative Study
Optional thinking ability among hospital-treated deliberate self-harm patients: a 1-year follow-up study.
To investigate the association between optional thinking (the ability to generate alternative solutions to interpersonal problems) in deliberate self-harm (DSH) patients and repeated self-harm. ⋯ Poor optional thinking is associated with increased risk of repeated deliberate self-harm in those who present with a first self-harm episode. Interventions to improve optional thinking skills, delivered soon after a first DSH presentation, may be useful in preventing repetition.
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Recent research suggests that preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) in people with Down syndrome (DS) is characterized by changes in personality/behaviour and executive dysfunction that are more prominent than deterioration in episodic memory. This study examines the relationship between executive dysfunction and the clinical and preclinical features of AD in DS. To determine the specificity of this relationship, performance on executive function (EF) measures is contrasted with performance on memory measures. ⋯ These findings provide further evidence for a specific impairment in frontal-lobe functioning in the preclinical stages of AD in DS. Implications for the assessment, diagnosis, and management of dementia in DS are discussed.