Childhood trauma is an important variable that can contribute to specific ongoing memory impairments in schizophrenia.

These results support assertive intervention targeted at comorbid substance misuse in individuals with first-episode psychosis.

Particular impairments are common to people with psychosis and may prove useful as endophenotypic markers. Considering the degree of individuals' global cognitive impairment is critical when attempting to understand patterns of selective impairment both within and between these diagnostic groups.

Rapid tryptophan (Trp) depletion (RTD) has been reported to cause deterioration in the quality of decision making and impaired reversal learning, while leaving attentional set shifting relatively unimpaired. These findings have been attributed to a more powerful neuromodulatory effect of reduced 5-HT on ventral prefrontal cortex (PFC) than on dorsolateral PFC. In view of the limited number of reports, the aim of this study was to independently replicate these findings using the same test paradigms. Healthy human subjects without a personal or family history of affective disorder were assessed using a computerized decision making/gambling task and the CANTAB ID/ED attentional set-shifting task under Trp-depleted (n ¼ 17; nine males and eight females) or control (n ¼ 15; seven males and eight females) conditions, in a double-blind, randomized, parallel-group design. There was no significant effect of RTD on set shifting, reversal learning, risk taking, impulsivity, or subjective mood. However, RTD significantly altered decision making such that depleted subjects chose the more likely of two possible outcomes significantly more often than controls. This is in direct contrast to the previous report that subjects chose the more likely outcome significantly less often following RTD. In the terminology of that report, our result may be interpreted as improvement in the quality of decision making following RTD. This contrast between studies highlights the variability in the cognitive effects of RTD between apparently similar groups of healthy subjects, and suggests the need for future RTD studies to control for a range of personality, family history, and genetic factors that may be associated with 5-HT function.

The findings indicate that childhood trauma is associated with neuroanatomical measures in FEP. Future research controlling for childhood traumatic experiences may contribute to explaining brain morphology in people with psychosis.

This study demonstrates problems with the attentional network in mild-moderate AD and VaD. The authors propose that attention should be tested routinely in a memory clinic setting.

This is an original work which has not been published elsewhere or submitted for publication elsewhere. A paper on attention deficits in the same cohort of patients has been accepted to JNNP and is currently in print (McGuinness et al.). There is however no overlap between the neuropsychological tests used and it has been referenced in the discussion.Objective: To compare performance of patients with mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) on tests of executive functioning and working memory. Methods: Patients with AD (n ¼ 76) and VaD (n ¼ 46) were recruited from a memory clinic along with dementia free participants (n ¼ 28). They underwent specific tests of working memory from the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) battery and pen and paper tests of executive function including CLOX 1 & 2, EXIT25 and a test of verbal fluency (COWAT). All patients had a CT brain scan which was independently scored for white matter change/ischaemia. Results: The AD and VaD groups were significantly impaired on all measures of working memory and executive functioning compared to the disease free group. There were no significant differences between the AD and VaD groups on any measure. Z-scores confirmed the pattern of impairment in executive functioning and working memory was largely equivalent in both patient groups. Small to moderate correlations were seen between the MMSE and the neurocognitive scores in both patient groups and the pattern of correlations was also very similar in both patient groups. Conclusions: This study demonstrates sizeable executive functioning and working memory impairments in patients with mild-moderate AD and VaD but no significant differences between the disease groups.

These findings provide evidence that gender can influence the detection of SWM deficits in the euthymic phase of BD, as the sex-related disequilibrium in SWM identified in healthy controls was disrupted in BD.