NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Apr 7, 2014) - ProPhase LLC, a specialty services organization focusing on applied measurement in CNS, recently received a prestigious Best Poster Award at the 22nd European Congress of Psychiatry (EPA 2014) for the work titled How to Measure Social Cognition in Schizophrenia? A Comparison of Measurements authored by Anzalee Khan, PhD, Senior Statistician alongside Luka Lucić, PhD, Brian Rothman PhD and Linda Gao. Michael H. Allen, MD, VP of Medical Education at ProPhase noted, "Increasingly, those suffering from schizophrenia are seeking recovery and regulators are stressing functional rather than purely symptomatic outcomes. Dr. Khan's work points toward important advances consistent with these aims for future research."
The poster presented the Dynamic Social Cognition Battery (DSCB), a novel approach to measuring social cognition by comparing a comprehensive kit using dynamic images. Dr. Khan stated, "Social cognition is a target for future pharmacotherapy that has the potential to provide meaningful functional improvements of outcomes in schizophrenia and affective disorders, and has become a high priority for developing future psychosocial and pharmacological treatments."
"The complexity of the concepts involved in social cognition makes it difficult to develop adequate assessment tools and results are needed to address the disorder, specificity of these impairments. Studies examining social cognition have conventionally employed static stimuli in order to assess facial displays of emotion and theory of mind that are dynamic by nature. The ecological validity of such stimuli is debatable. There is growing evidence of specialized brain systems that are preferentially activated by 'biological motion' stimuli (including moving faces), giving further support to the need for dynamic stimuli," added Dr. Khan.
Dr. Mark Opler, CEO and CSO said Dr. Khan's work on social cognition is "crucial to advancing novel treatments in schizophrenia and other mental disorders, going beyond the realm of psychiatric symptoms and side effects. Social cognition forms a critical interface between underlying neurobiological deficits, processing of social information, and real-world functioning. The DSCB exemplifies the innovative approach that Dr. Khan and colleagues at ProPhase bring to this important field."
About ProPhase LLC
ProPhase is a specialty services organization focusing on applied measurement in CNS (psychiatry, neurology, sleep and pain disorders, and rare/orphan diseases). ProPhase offers unparalleled industry experience and support for all measurement-related activities in clinical trials.
www.prophase.com.
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Amrisa Niranjan, M.S.
Digital Content Editor
ProPhase, LLC
646.289.7265