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Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.

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Pre-symptomatic testing for neurodegenerative disorders: Middle- to long-term psychopathological impact

Susana Lêdo1, Ângela Leite4, Teresa Souto2, Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis3 and Jorge Sequeiros1

1 Universidade do Porto (Portugal),
2 Lusophone University of Oporto (Portugal),
3 UFP Energy, Environment and Health Research Unit (FP-ENAS), University Fernando Pessoa (UFP) (Portugal) and
4 Universidade Europeia

Background: Over the past 20 years, studies have revealed that the communication of a pre-symptomatic test (PST) result for late-onset diseases, such as Huntington’s disease (HD), doesn’t cause psychological disturbance. This cross-sectional study investigated the middle- (4 years) to long-term (7 and 10 years) psychological impact of PST for 3 autosomal dominant late-onset diseases: HD, Machado-Joseph disease (DMJ) and familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP). Method: The study included 203 subjects: 170 (84%) agreed to make the PST for FAP, 29 (14%) for HD and 4 (2%) for MJD. They were mostly women (58%) and married (67%). It was considered the cutoffs points: 4 years (middle-term) and 7 and 10 years (long-term) indicating the time after receiving the TPS results. Results: women and widows (oldest) presented the highest mean values for almost all BSI dimensions and the highest values correspond to the obsessive-compulsive dimension. MJD participants presented the highest mean values. No differences were found concerning the PST test results while participants are still asymptomatic. Psychopathology was only present in symptomatic carriers. Conclusions: The onset of the disease seems to assume the trigger for psychological disturbance, regardless the time that has elapsed since the PST result communication or the individual carrier/non-carrier condition.

Pruebas pre-sintomáticas de enfermedades neurodegenerativas: el impacto psicopatológico a largo plazo. Antecedentes: el presente estudio transversal investigó el impacto psicopatológico a medio (4 años) y a largo plazo (7 y 10 años) de la prueba pre-sintomática (PPS) para tres enfermedades autosómicas dominantes de aparición tardía: enfermedad de Huntington EH, la enfermedad de Machado-Joseph (EMJ) y la polineuropatía amiloide familiar (PAF). Método: participaron 203 sujetos: 170 (84 %) realizaron el PPS para PAF, 29 (14 %) para EH y 4 (2 %) para EMJ. La muestra, en su mayoría, estuvo compuesta por mujeres (58 %) y por personas casadas (67 %). Fueron considerados como puntos de corte los 4, 7 y 10 años después de haber recibido el resultado de la PPS. Resultados: las mujeres y los viudos presentan las medias más altas. Los participantes con EMJ presentaron las medias más elevadas. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en lo concerniente a los resultados de PPS. La perturbación psicológica fue escasamente observada en los sujetos portadores que ya evidenciaban síntomas. Conclusiones: la aparición de los primeros síntomas parece constituir el detonante para la existencia de perturbaciones psicológicas, independientemente del intervalo de tiempo sucedido desde la comunicación de los resultados de la PPS o de la condición genética (portador/no portador).

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Impact factor 2022:  JCR WOS 2022:  FI = 3.6 (Q2);  JCI = 1.21 (Q1) / SCOPUS 2022:  SJR = 1.097;  CiteScore = 6.4 (Q1)