Abnormal Sleep and Memory Consolidation among Schizophrenic Patients (1 CE)

Number of Credits: 1

This course is for:  Clinical Psychologists, Counselors, LMFTs, and Nurses

Course By: Tim Grigsby, PhD

Content By: Manoach, D. S., & Stickgold, R. (2019). Abnormal sleep spindles, memory consolidation, and schizophrenia. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 15, 451-479.

Course Description: Sleep is increasingly recognized as an important correlate of mental health and cognition. More recently, sleep has been implicated as a crucial component in the memory consolidation process. Patients with schizophrenia have deficits in sleep spindles, a defining oscillation of non-rapid eye movement stage 2 sleep. In combination with other processes, such deficits might impair sleep-dependent memory consolidation and exacerbate positive symptoms and abnormal thalamocortical connectivity. The researchers suggest that treating sleep can be important in advancing our understanding, treatment, and prevention of schizophrenia.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia
2. Describe the role of sleep in the memory consolidation process
3. List three potential links between sleep spindle deficits and schizophrenia

Course Outline:

• Read and understand Abnormal sleep spindles, memory consolidation, and schizophrenia
• Review the Course Description and Learning Objectives
• Reflect on the importance of treating sleep disturbances in remediating symptoms of schizophrenia
• Work through the post-test questions; keep in mind that answer selections should be derived from the respective article
• Return to the referenced article for any missed questions and/or to better understand the role of sleep in the memory consolidation process and abnormalities observed in schizophrenic patients.

Implicit biases incorporate an association that occurs outside of conscious awareness that may resultantly lead to a negative patient evaluation derived from irrelevant characteristics; i.e. gender and/or race. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Thirty-five studies identified the existence of implicit bias in healthcare professionals; all correlational studies evidenced a significant positive relationship between implicit bias levels and lower quality of care (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017). Continued research in health care settings, combined with greater method homogeneity, should be employed to examine the occurrence and prevalence of implicit biases in healthcare settings as a strategic approach for mitigating related disparities (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017).

Reference

FitzGerald, C., Hurst, S. (2017). Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: A systematic review. BMC Med Ethics 18, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-017-0179-8

Approvals: