Browsing by Author "Candida, Maristela"
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- Association between depression severity and executive functioning in late-life depression: a systematic reviewPublication . Monteiro, Suzana; Monteiro, Bárbara; Candida, Maristela; Adler, Nathalia; Campos, Carlos; Rocha, Nuno; Paes, Flávia; Nardi, Antônio Egidio; Machado, SérgioOBJECTIVE: Late-life depression is an under-diagnosed and under-treated disease that reduces the well-being of older adults. Executive dysfunction is another critical impairment in elderly depressed individuals which further disrupts their everyday functioning. This systematic review aims to analyze the association between executive function and depression severity in elderly individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder. METHOD: The studies were retrieved from MEDLINE/PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and PsychInfo, after a search strategy combining the terms "depression", "executive function", "neuropsychological assessment", "elderly" and "late life". Study selection, data collection and quality ratings was performed by two independent raters. RESULTS: A total of 1,130 articles were found but only 8 studies met the defined eligibility criteria and evaluated the association between depression severity and executive functioning. Six out of 8 studies found an association between depression severity and executive function, with correlations ranging from small to large (r= -0.15 to -0.53). The included reports had several methodological limitations such as selective data reporting, non-comprehensive executive function assessment and not controlling potential biases. CONCLUSION: Depression severity may be more strongly correlated with a specific set of executive abilities although it also seems to be a broad-based association with executive functioning as a whole. Future high-quality prospective studies are recommended in order to understand the causal relationship between depression severity and executive functioning taking into account possible mediators such as age-related or neurodegenerative cognitive impairment, educational level and other clinic characteristics (e.g. age of onset, medication).
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy for schizophrenia: an overview on efficacy, recent trends and neurobiological findingsPublication . Candida, Maristela; Campos, Carlos; Monteiro, Bárbara; Rocha, Nuno; Paes, Flávia; Nardi, António Egídio; Machado, SérgioCognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been recommended by several international guidelines as the gold-standard treatment to address the needs of patients with schizophrenia. This review provides an overview on recent advances regarding CBT for schizophrenia. An electronic search was performed on PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science and Cochrane Database, using the key-words: "schizophrenia"; "psychosis"; "cognitive-behavioral therapy", "CBT"and "psychotherapy". Numerous systematic reviews support the immediate and long-term efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to reduce positive and negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. In the last decade, CBT for schizophrenia has been applied to clinical high-risk subjects and delivered using innovative approaches (low intensity, web-based and self-guided). Brain regions and networks which support high-level cognitive functions have been associated with CBT responsiveness. There is preliminary evidence indicating that CBT induces a prefrontal dependent increase in the top-down modulation of social threat activation. In the last decade, CBT for schizophrenia has explored new treatment outcomes, targeted acute and pre-clinical populations and provided alternative methods to reach more patients and reduce intervention costs. The patients' neurocognitive profile seems to play a critical role in treatment response and combining CBT with cognitive remediation may allow to enhance therapeutic effects. Although CBT for schizophrenia is widely established as a gold-standard practice, future studies using innovative CBT protocols, exploring brain-related predictors and treatment outcomes may allow this intervention to be more effective, personalized and to reach a wider number of patients.
- Relationship Between Brain-Derived Neurotrofic Factor (Bdnf) and Sleep on Depression: A Critical ReviewPublication . Monteiro, Bárbara C.; Monteiro, Suzana; Candida, Maristela; Adler, Nathalia; Paes, Flavia; Rocha, Nuno; Nardi, Antonio Egidio; Murillo-Rodriguez, Eric; Machado, SergioThe Brain-Derived Neurotrofic Factor (BDNF) is one of the most important neurotrophins in the brain and it is suggested influences the activity of the serotonergic, noradrenergic and dopaminergic pathways. In the last few years, it has been hypothesized that BDNF level is related with depression and sleep. Several studies show that depressive subjects present low levels of BDNF in the brain. Poor sleep quality is also related with alterations in the BDNF concentration. Some authors argue that most of the cases show that impaired sleep quality increases the stress and, consequently, the vulnerability to depressive disorders, suggesting that there is a relationship between sleep, depression and BDNF levels.
- Working memory dysfunction in insomniac adults: a systematic metanalytical reviewPublication . Monteiro, Bárbara; Candida, Maristela; Monteiro, Suzana; Paes, Flávia; Yuan, Ti-Fei; Ang, Li; Xin, Sun; Rocha, Nuno; Campos, Carlos; Nardi, António Egidio; Machado, SérgioInsomnia is the most common sleep disorder: recent reports estimate that 25-30% of adults in the general population experience occasional instances of insomnia, while 10% suffer from sleep disturbance severe enough to meet diagnostic criteria for insomnia.