Objectives: Patients with bipolar I disorder often show impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER), a key component of social cognition. This study used the Facial Labeling Task, which assesses the ability of Koreans to recognize emotions through facial expressions, to compare FER deficits among euthymic individuals with bipolar I disorder, their first-degree relatives, and healthy controls. Methods: Three groups participated in this study: euthymic bipolar I disorder patients (n=55), first-degree relatives (n=40), and healthy controls (n=52), matched for age, sex, and education. FER performance was assessed using eight standardized facial expressions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, contempt, disgust, surprise, and neutral). Accuracy (commission error rate) and response times for each trial were recorded. Results: There were no significant group differences in demographic characteristics, psychopathology, or neurocognitive measures. FER accuracy did not differ significantly among the three groups. However, the bipolar I disorder group showed delayed response times for sadness (p<0.05) and neutral (p<0.05) expressions, and the first-degree relatives exhibited slower responses to fearful expressions (p<0.05) compared with healthy controls. Conclusions These findings suggest that patients with bipolar I disorder exhibit delayed processing of specific emotional expressions even during the euthymic state. Thus, FER impairments should be considered in the assessment and treatment of bipolar I disorder. However, FER deficits are less likely to represent an endophenotype of bipolar I disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the factors affecting prognosis of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) for chronic refractory Achilles tendinopathy (AT). METHODS: Thirty-six patients (48 consecutive feet) with chronic AT (>6 months) and who underwent ESWT for ‘poor’ or ‘fair’ grade in Roles-Maudsley Score (RMS) after unsuccessful conservative treatment were included in the present study. A maximum of 12 sessions of ESWT were conducted until treatment success: RMS reached ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Termination of ESWT for no response, or ‘poor’ or ‘fair’ grade was regarded as treatment failure. Immediate outcome, long-term outcome (telephone interview after mean 26 months), and factors affecting treatment success were analyzed. RESULTS: Numeric Rating Scale was significantly decreased at immediate and long-term follow-up. Success rate was 71.1% and 90.3%, respectively. Univariate logistic regression identified that immediate treatment success was associated with retrocalcaneal enthesophyte on X-ray (odds ratio [OR], 0.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.01–0.28), pretreatment abnormal ultrasonography echogenicity within Achilles tendon (OR, 18.89; 95% CI, 2.08–171.96), mean duration of ‘post-treatment soreness’ (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.33–0.94), and duration of ‘post-treatment soreness after first ESWT’ (OR, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.01–0.34). The duration of ‘post-treatment soreness after first ESWT’ was found to be the only factor associated with long-term success (OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.10–0.99). CONCLUSION: ESWT appears to be effective in achieving long-term success in chronic refractory AT. Immediate success was associated with absence of retrocalcaneal enthesophyte on X-ray, presence of pretreatment abnormal ultrasonography echogenicity, shorter mean duration of ‘post-treatment soreness’, and shorter duration of ‘post-treatment soreness after first ESWT’. The shorter duration of ‘post-treatment soreness after first ESWT’ was identified as the only positive prognostic parameter in achieving long-term success.
Achilles Tendon ; Follow-Up Studies ; High-Energy Shock Waves ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Prognosis* ; Tendinopathy* ; Treatment Failure ; Treatment Outcome ; Ultrasonography