Theory of mind deficit in adult patients with congenital heart disease

Abstract

This article provides the first assessment of theory of mind, that is, the ability to reason about mental states, in adult patients with congenital heart disease. Patients with congenital heart disease and matched healthy controls were administered classical theory of mind tasks and a semi-structured interview which provides a multidimensional evaluation of theory of mind (Theory of Mind Assessment Scale). The patients with congenital heart disease performed worse than the controls on the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale, whereas they did as well as the control group on the classical theory-of-mind tasks. These findings provide the first evidence that adults with congenital heart disease may display specific impairments in theory of mind.

Mindreading abilities and borderline personality disorder: A comprehensive assessment using the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale

“…The Th.o.m.a.s. has proven to be a useful clinical tool in the assessment of mindreading ability of several populations of adolescent participants , individuals with alcohol use disorder (Bosco et al, 2013), patients with congenital heart disease (Chiavarino et al, 2015), sex offenders (Castellino et al, 2011), nonsuicidal self-injury adolescents (Laghi et al, 2016), adolescents with bulimia (Laghi et al, 2014) and opiate-dependent patients (Gandolphe et al, 2018).…”

Neurodevelopmental outcome after surgery for acyanotic congenital heart disease

“…Social cognition is an infrequent studied domain in children with CHD, aside from parental reports (Brandlistuen et al, 2011b;Spijkerboer, Utens, Bogers, Verhulst, & Helbing, 2008). Communication impairments in 3-year-old children with mild to moderate CHD have been found (Brandlistuen et al, 2011b), and social cognition problems seem to persist into adolescence in cyanotic CHD cohorts (Chiavarino et al, 2013).…”

Psychometric Properties of the Theory of Mind Assessment Scale in a Sample of Adolescents and Adults

“…The questions leave the interviewee free to articulate her thoughts; she is also invited to propose examples taken from her own biography or anyway from the real world, and thus to make her understanding of the mental states both of her own and of the others explicit and to reflect upon them. Th.o.m.a.s has been administered to persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (Bosco et al, 2009 ), sex offenders (Castellino et al, 2011 ), persons suffering from alcohol abuse (Bosco et al, 2014a ), persons with congenital heart disease (Chiavarino et al, 2015 ), and persons with bulimia (Laghi et al, 2014 ). In each of these cases Th.o.m.a.s.…”

“…Th.o.m.a.s. has been used in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (Bosco et al, 2009 ), preadolescents and adolescents (Bosco et al, 2014b ), sex offenders (Castellino et al, 2011 ), persons with alcohol use disorder (Bosco et al, 2014a ), persons with congenital heart disease (Chiavarino et al, 2015 ), and persons with bulimia (Laghi et al, 2014 ). In all these types of subjects Th.o.m.a.s.…”

“…Persons with bulimia showed impairment in third-person ToM in the allocentric perspective and in second-order ToM, but not in third-person ToM in the egocentric perspective or in first-order ToM. Finally, persons with congenital heart diseases showed impairment to third-person ToM, both in the egocentric and the allocentric perspective, but not in first-person or second-order ToM (Chiavarino et al, 2015 ). Globally, these studies testify to the necessity to have a tool able to separately investigate different ToM dimensions in clinical samples.…”