Woolverton Cindy B, Bell Emily K, Moe Aubrey M, Harrison-Monroe Patricia, Breitborde Nicholas J K
Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Early Psychosis Intervention Center (EPICENTER), Department of Psychiatry, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Early Interv Psychiatry. 2018 Dec;12(6):1151-1156. doi: 10.1111/eip.12432. Epub 2017 Apr 12.
Social functioning deficits greatly affect individuals with psychotic disorders resulting in decreased ability to maintain relationships, jobs and pursuit of educational goals. Deficits in social cognition have been hypothesized to be an important contributor to these deficits in social functioning. In particular, 5 domains of social cognition have been suggested to be relevant in the study of psychotic disorders: (1) attributional style, (2) emotion recognition, (3) social knowledge, (4) social perception and (5) theory of mind. Yet, to date, no study has simultaneously investigated the association between these 5 domains of social cognition and social functioning.
We investigated the cross-section and longitudinal association between social cognition and social functioning among 71 individuals with first-episode psychosis.
We found modest cross-sectional associations between social cognition and social functioning that were often in the unexpected direction (ie, greater social cognition associated with worse social functioning). Social cognition at baseline was not associated with the longitudinal course of social functioning.
These unexpected findings fail to align with previous research that has documented a more robust relationship between these 2 constructs, and raise critical questions with regard to the nature of the association between social cognition and social functioning among individuals with first-episode psychosis.
社会功能缺陷对精神障碍患者有极大影响，导致他们在维持人际关系、工作及追求教育目标方面的能力下降。社会认知缺陷被认为是导致这些社会功能缺陷的一个重要因素。具体而言，社会认知的五个领域被认为与精神障碍研究相关：（1）归因方式，（2）情绪识别，（3）社会知识，（4）社会感知，以及（5）心理理论。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究同时考察这五个社会认知领域与社会功能之间的关联。
我们调查了71例首发精神病患者的社会认知与社会功能之间的横断面及纵向关联。
我们发现社会认知与社会功能之间存在适度的横断面关联，且这些关联往往与预期方向相反（即社会认知越强，社会功能越差）。基线时的社会认知与社会功能的纵向病程无关。
这些意外发现与先前记录这两种结构之间更紧密关系的研究结果不符，并对首发精神病患者社会认知与社会功能之间关联的性质提出了关键问题。
