People with schizophrenia (PSZ) are impaired in attentional prioritization of non-salient but relevant stimuli over salient distractors during visual working memory (VWM) encoding. Conversely, guidance of top–down attention by external predictive cues is intact. Yet, it is unknown whether this preserved ability can help PSZ encode more information in the presence of salient distractors.

We employed a visuospatial change-detection task using four Gabor patches with differing orientations in 66 PSZ and 74 healthy controls (HCS). Two Gabor patches flickered which were designated either as targets or distractors and either a predictive or a non-predictive cue was displayed to manipulate top–down attention, resulting in four conditions.

We observed significant effects of group, salience and cue as well as significant interactions of salience by cue, group by salience and group by cue. Across all conditions, PSZ stored significantly less information in VWM than HCS. PSZ stored significantly less non-flickering than flickering information with a non-predictive cue. However, PSZ stored significantly more flickering and non-flickering information with a predictive cue.

Our findings indicate that control of attentional selection is impaired in schizophrenia. We demonstrate that additional top–down information significantly improves performance in PSZ. The observed deficit in attentional control suggests a disturbance of GABAergic inhibition in early visual areas. Moreover, our findings are indicative of a mechanism for enhancing attentional control in PSZ, which could be utilized by pro-cognitive interventions. Thus, the current paradigm is suitable to reveal both preserved and compromised cognitive component processes in schizophrenia.

Print Knowledge in children starts with recognizing and characterizing printed figures; it is a precursor of other skills like letter knowledge and phonological awareness. The goal was to assess print knowledge components and their predictive value in emerging literacy in a sample of Mexican preschoolers.

60 children (aged 4 to 6 years old; 50% boys and 50% girls) were tested with an analysis of the visual synthesis and the figure copy from the SNBP-MX and the Rey Complex Figure Test (children’s version).

Children with lower performance in the SNBP-MX cannot use visual information to perform correctly at the Rey Complex Figure. They have problems in the reproduction of the figure, and they do not respect the components of the Print Knowledge: 1) figure building characteristics (size, rotation, orientation) and function (relationship with the background and with other figures).

Early visual perception skills impairments are related to the execution of elements from the Print Knowledge. Therefore, it is expected that children with low performance at visoperception and spatial tasks will have difficulties with early literacy. Since visual information is needed for the copy and learning of writing figures, print knowledge could be categorized as a predictor of the early word and letter recognition skills. We thank project PAPIIT IN308219 for sponsoring this research.

No national data on lifetime prevalence and risk factors for DSM–IV psychiatric disorders are available in Mexico.

To present data on lifetime prevalence and projected lifetime risk, age at onset and demographic correlates of DSM–IV psychiatric disorders assessed in the Mexican National Comorbidity Survey.

The survey was based on a multistage area probability sample of non-institutionalised people aged 18–65 years in urban Mexico. The World Mental Health Survey version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview was administered by lay interviewers.

Of those surveyed, 26.1% had experienced at least one psychiatric disorder in their life and 36.4% of Mexicans will eventually experience one of these disorders. Half of the population who present with a psychiatric disorder do so by the age of 21 and younger cohorts are at greater risk for most disorders.

Our results suggest an urgent need to re-evaluate the resources allocated for the detection and treatment of psychiatric illnesses in Mexico.

Little is known about the epidemiology of adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To estimate the prevalence and correlates of DSM-IV adult ADHD in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative.

An ADHD screen was administered to respondents aged 18–44 years in ten countries in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East (n=11422). Masked clinical reappraisal interviews were administered to 154 US respondents to calibrate the screen. Multiple imputation was used to estimate prevalence and correlates based on the assumption of cross-national calibration comparability.

Estimates of ADHD prevalence averaged 3.4% (range 1.2–7.3%), with lower prevalence in lower-income countries (1.9%) compared with higher-income countries (4.2%). Adult ADHD often co-occurs with other DSM-IV disorders and is associated with considerable role disability. Few cases are treated for ADHD, but in many cases treatment is given for comorbid disorders.

Adult ADHD should be considered more seriously in future epidemiological and clinical studies than is currently the case.