Current Psychiatry Reviews - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2017

The term Theory of Mind (ToM) has been used to refer to the ability of an individual to make inferences about what others may be thinking or feeling and to predict what they may do in a given situation based on those inferences—in other words, the ability to take another person’s perspective. Unfortunately, most researchers talk about ToM as if it were a cognitive process, which, if true, means that it can never be Read More

Although aggressive behaviours, and especially bullying, are regarded as socially undesirable, there is controversy as to whether they are also evidence of deficits on measures of social skills or social competence. Many measures of emotional intelligence and social competence include aspects of social desirability. However, theory of mind skills are neutral as regards social desirability and can be used for prosocial or ant Read More

Empathy is one of the essential attributes underlying social interactions. Empathic skills have been associated with an ability to accurately recognise facial emotions. Importantly, both lack and excess of empathy have been related to suboptimal mental health. Empathy deficits have been found to underlie social interaction difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Personality disorder. On the other hand, it has been shown that th Read More

Theory of mind deficit is a core feature of schizophrenia and is considered a vulnerability marker of the disorder. The majority of studies measuring theory of mind in schizophrenia involve multiple-episode or chronic schizophrenia patients, and therefore it is important to delineate whether these deficits occur before or following illness-onset by assessing high-risk subjects (clinical high risk and ultra-high risk), early-onset psychosis, Read More

This paper describes an animal (rat) model for the study of Bipolar Disorder (BD) in humans. The paper presents research, previously unpublished, conducted over more than 25 years. The model is derived from a natural genetic variant discovered in the rat population; these rats having been all brothers and sisters (littermates) from a single litter that was observed to be hyperactive in the home cage. The original animals wer Read More