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Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the lebanese arabic version of the BACS scale (the brief assessment of cognition in schizophrenia) among stable schizophrenic inpatients

Introduction The assessment of cognitive disorders in schizophrenia is becoming a part of clinical and research practice by using batteries that differ widely in their content. The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) was developed to cover the main cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. Objectives The objective of this study was to assess concurrent validity of the Arabic version of the BACS with a standard neurocognitive battery of tests in Lebanese patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Methods A sample of 120 stable inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 60 healthy controls received the Arabic version of the BACS in a first session, and a standard battery in a second session. Results The mean duration of completion for the BACS was 31.2 ± 5.4 min in patients with schizophrenia. All tests demonstrated significant differences between controls and patients (p<0.01). A principal components analysis demonstrated that a one-factor solution best fits our dataset (64.8% of the variance). A high Cronbach alpha was found (0.85). The BACS composite scores were significantly correlated with the standard battery composite scores in patients (r=0.78, p < 0.001) and healthy controls (r=0.77, p < 0.001). Also, the correlation analysis between the BACS sub-scores and the standard battery sub-scores showed significant results (p < 0.05). The Arabic-BACS demonstrated high ability to discriminate patients with schizophrenia from healthy controls. Conclusions The results showed that the Arabic version of the BACS is a useful tool for assessing cognition in patients with schizophrenia and could be used in clinical practice in Lebanon.


Introduction:
The planning impairment is one of the basic aspect of cognitive dysfunction, but its mechanisms in schizophrenia remain unclear. Objectives: To assess the links between planning and cognitive functioning in schizophrenic patients and in norm. Methods: 50 patients with schizophrenia (age 34.92AE8.54; illness duration 8.34AE5.87) and 50 healthy volunteers (age 32.42AE7.26) were examined. Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, Benton's test for short-term memory assessment; sub-test Similarity (from WAIS) to assess abstract thinking were used. Results: Patients showed significantly worse results in all parameters (Tab.1). Table 1: Differences of planning between groups.
In healthy subjects, significant relationship was found between planning and abstract thinking, and there was no relationship between planning and short-term memory (Tab.2). The effectiveness of planning in patients was significantly associated with short-term memory, but not with abstract thinking. Conclusions: Study results indicate a possible role of basic aspects of mental activity such as short-term memory in planning impairment in patients with schizophrenia. Problem solving and reasoning disorders represent two relatively independent forms of thought disorders in schizophrenia.

EPP1194
Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the lebanese arabic version of the BACS scale (the brief assessment of cognition in schizophrenia) among stable schizophrenic inpatients  (-0,398, p<0,001) and 'tolerance to ambiguity' (0,412, p<0,001). The overal level of tolerance of ambiguity was higher in control group (52.2 and 61.0, p<0.002).
Conclusions: Tolerance of ambiguity, being more characteristic for normal population, underlies the understanding of social causality. In contrast, the intolerance to interpersonal ambiguity is related to increment of anxiety, failures in cognitive elaboration of interpersonal relationships and leads to superstition and illogical beliefs. This relationship has a heuristic value for understanding what is happening to vulnerable individuals in the context of current COVID pandemic. Introduction: The formation of thinking in ontogenesis follows the line of progressive differentiation and integration of the representations of objects, events, and relationships. The same is true for the development of mentalization ability, conceived as a thought process in the area of social interactions.
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to compare the particularities of thought processes when dealing with different types of material: physical objects (operational thinking) and social situations (mentalization). Methods: 40 inpatients with schizotypal personality disorder, 40 inpatients with paranoid schizophrenia and 40 controls took part in the study. The Objects Sorting Test was used to assess operational thinking. The mentalization ability was assessed using two SCOR-S scales for Thematic Apperception Test: Complexity of representations of people and Understanding of social causality.

Results:
The results of correlation analysis support the existence of the reverse links between the impairments of operational thinking and both the complexity of representations of people (r=-.36, р<.001) and the understanding of social causality (r=-.38, р<.001). It is supported by the qualitative analysis, where inpatients with thought distortions, characterized by arbitrary generalizations, are inclined to make similar errors in the reasoning about the mental states, ignoring the conventional explanations and relying on their own emotional impression and etc.
Conclusions: The limitations of the operational thinking as reflected in the inability to form adequate generalizations on the basis of socially predefined attributes of meaning are closely related to the ability of differentiation, integration and causal explanation of meaningful aspects or social situations.