Comparing Bender-Gestalt Test and Quantitative Electroencephalography for Brain Trauma Diagnosis in Depressive and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders

Background: Some experts assert there is an association between traumatic brain injury and cognitive impairments such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depressive disorder. Furthermore, children and adults with ADHD struggle with focusing, organizing tasks, and feeling restless. They might experience sadness, guilt, irritability, low self-confidence and helplessness. In this regard, ADHD and depressive disorder occasionally occur together. We aimed to compare the clinical application of the Bender-Gestalt test (BGT) and electroencephalography in screening brain damage in the patients with the mentioned disorders. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study to assess diagnostic accuracy. Eighty patients with depression (n=35) and ADHD (n=45) resulting from brain damage aged 10-35 years who had been referred by the psychologist or psychiatrist to Imam Hossein Clinic in Yazd. Both the BGT and quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) results existed in their files. Patients with any serious medical, other psychiatric disorders or history of drug dependency were excluded. Paired t test was used to analyze the differences. Results: The brain damage score was different in the two tests. Based on the paired t test, the BGT was a more valid screening test. Also, the score of the two tests were different in the depression and ADHD mean scores (P<0.05). Conclusion: BGT was a more reliable tool compared to QEEG for diagnosing brain damage within the patients with the mentioned disorders.

Projective Psychodiagnostics: Inkblots, Stories, and Drawings as Clinical Measures

Projective psychodiagnostics refers to the use of psychological instruments through which the subject is asked to respond to a set of ambiguous (though often suggestive) stimuli, thereby “projecting” aspects of their personality into these responses. The most prominent of these instruments includes the Rorschach Inkblot Technique, in which the subject is confronted with ten inkblots and is asked what these stimuli look like, and then what perceptual features make them look that way. Another common projective technique is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a storytelling exercise in which the subject responds with a narrative to a series of ambiguous but sometimes highly charged black and white pictures depicting human interactions. Over time, new pictures have been developed for similar storytelling instruments targeted to children (the Children’s Apperception Test) or different ethnic populations. Both of these tests emerged under the influence of psychodynamic theories, and of the work of Carl Jung, whose Word Association Test served as a projective measure of psychological conflicts. Finally, there is a series of drawing tests which, while less commonly used, have had a projective history, including human figure drawings, the Bender–Gestalt Test, and the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test. Projective instruments have been used in a variety of psychiatric settings and have been criticized for being insufficiently grounded in either quantitative measures or scientific validity. The Rorschach has emerged with increasingly statistically based scoring systems addressing perceptual features, language, and content in the assessment of risk and diagnosis. The TAT is essentially a structured interview (since most scoring systems are not used by clinicians), but it nonetheless appears to be useful in gleaning information about a subject’s relationships with other people. Drawing tasks and sentence completion tests (derived from word association tests) are less commonly used, though more prevalent with children whose verbal abilities may be more limited. In general, projective tests appear to have some limited ability to define diagnosis and risk (and can be especially helpful in defining thought disorder and prognosis), but they may be most useful in helping clinicians obtain a deeper picture of conflicts and resources within the person tested.

The Development of School Readiness of Kindergarten Students Through Storytelling

Complete–playtime is an early concept of kindergarten idea. However, recently, children no longer obtain many opportunities to explore themselves through contextual learning activities such as playing drama or listening to tale. Children are focused on academic-centered activities, so they experience learning boredom at an early age. Moreover, students have not owned a school readiness when entering elementary school. This research helps kindergarten students have school readiness like academic skill, emotional-social skill, and morality through storytelling classically. This experimental study used True-Experimental Postest-Only Design. The two kindergartens were selected through cluster sampling from 100 target populations—the data was collected using the Bender Gestalt Test and observation. The series of storytelling activities as a treatment given towards students proved that the experimental group had school readiness earlier than the controlled group. The experimental group possessed more school readiness than the control group, with the difference was 37% age equivalent to eight years old and 29.6% equal to 7 years old. Other purposes accomplished were developing school readiness skills in vocabulary building, active question-answering, positive attitude towards peers, concern towards social environment, and literacy development.

A comparative study to investigate the level of cognitive impairment among epileptic and psychogenic non-epileptic patients

Objective: To compare cognitive impairment between patients having epileptic seizures and those having psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from May to November 2016 in Jhelum, Pakistan, and comprised epileptic and psychogenic non-epileptic patients who were selected from different psychiatric units of the city. Bender Gestalt Test-II was administered to check the cognitive impairment of participants. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. Results: Of the 125 subjects, 62(49.6%) were epileptic and 63(50.4%) were psychogenic non-epileptic patients. Psychogenic non-epileptic patients performed better compared to epileptic patients (p?.001). The effect size of the finding was 0.42, indicating medium size effect. Conclusion: Epileptic patients were found to have more cognitive impairment than psychogenic non-epileptic patients. Key Words: Cognitive impairment, Epileptic, Psychogenic non-epileptic, Seizures, Continuous...

Uji Validitas Bender-Gestalt Test dengan Menggunakan Nijmeegse Schoolbekwaamheids Test (NST) sebagai Kriteria untuk Mendeteksi Kesiapan Anak Masuk Sekolah Dasar

Artikel ini disusun dengan harapan semakin banyaknya alternatif tes kesiapan masuk sekolah dasar yang dapat dilakukan oleh praktisi psikologi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji vailidtas tes Bender-Gestalt (BG) dengan menggunakan Nijmeegse Schoolbekwaamheids Test (NST) sebagai kriteria. Fokus dalam kajian ini adalah satu variabel, yaitu; kesiapan sekolah dasar. Penelitian bersifat kuantitatif deskriptif dan korelasional, dengan partisipan dalam kajian ini terdiri 397 anak dari tiga sekolah yang tersebar di Sidoarjo, Bangkalan dan Probolinggo. Hasil skor tes BG dengan skor NST (sebagai kriteria) menunjukkan adanya korelasi positif (r=.337, nilai p<0.01). Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa tes BG memiliki validitas konkuren yang baik ketika dibandingkan dengan alat yang menjadi kriterianya yaitu Nijmeegse Schoolbekwaamheids Test (NST).

Mutation Location and Cognitive Impairment in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

ABSTRACT Background: Cognitive impairment is commonly seen in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Few studies have shown a correlation between loss of different isoforms of the DMD gene and cognitive impairment. Objective: The objective of the study was to determine whether correlation exists in the location of mutation in DMD gene or loss of different isoforms and cognitive impairment in children with DMD in the Indian population. Materials and Methods: Ten children were evaluated. Gene mutation analysis was done by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification method. The isoforms affected were inferred from mutation location in each of these patients. Binet Kamat Intelligence Test (BKT) and Bender Gestalt test (BGT) were administered. Results: All male patients were aged between 4 and 9 years. Genetic analysis showed deletion in all patients, with seven having deletion in “hotspot” regions (exon 43–52). Psychometric analysis by BGT and BKT showed mean score of 8.6 and mean IQ score of 85.5, respectively. Comparison between patients with hotspot mutations and mutations in other regions, for mean IQ score and BGT score, was statistically significant (P = 0.132 and P = 0.005, respectively). The difference in the IQ score between patients with isolated Dp427 loss (n = 3) and cumulative Dp427/Dp260/Dp140utr loss (n = 6) was statistically significant (P = 0.011). Visuomotor functioning was more impaired in patients with isolated Dp427 loss. Conclusion: The role of cumulative loss of isoforms along with importance of loss of Dp140pc isoform was seen in our study. One patient with loss of Dp140utr isoform had intellectual impairment which is not commonly seen. Visuomotor functioning is more affected in more upstream mutations as shown in our study.