Department of Psychiatry, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Psychiatric Research Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Psychiatry, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Psychiatric Research Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Psychiatr Res. 2022 Nov;155:420-429. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.09.013. Epub 2022 Sep 21.
Social dysfunction, manifested by impaired social cognition, is contributing to poorer prognosis of patients with schizophrenia. Growing evidence indicates that oxytocin acts as a neurotransmitter in the regulation of social cognition. It still lacks a thorough understanding of how oxytocin is linked with deficits in social cognition and social functioning in schizophrenia. To this end, we aimed to study the role of plasma oxytocin levels in the relationship between subdomains of social cognition and social dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia. Social Functioning Scale was administered to measure social dysfunction while Faux Pas Recognition Test was used to assess the Theory of Mind (ToM) in 40 patients with schizophrenia and 40 age-matched healthy controls. Patients with schizophrenia exhibited more deficits in ToM, more severe social dysfunction, and had lower plasma oxytocin levels, relative to healthy controls. A pooled correlation analysis of all participants revealed significant effects of plasma oxytocin levels on the ToM and social dysfunction. In patients with schizophrenia, plasma oxytocin levels were positively correlated with the affective but not cognitive component of the ToM, and the effects of plasma oxytocin levels on social functioning were partially mediated by affective ToM. Our findings underscore the importance of oxytocin as a potential predictor of ToM and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. It may be worthwhile for future studies of oxytocin in schizophrenia to focus on an affected behavioral domain, e.g., social cognition, rather than diagnosis, and the targeted domain should be deconstructed into more detailed subdomains.
社会功能障碍，表现为社会认知受损，是导致精神分裂症患者预后较差的原因之一。越来越多的证据表明，催产素作为一种神经递质，在调节社会认知中发挥作用。然而，人们对于催产素如何与精神分裂症患者的社会认知和社会功能缺陷相关联，仍然缺乏全面的了解。为此，我们旨在研究血浆催产素水平在精神分裂症患者社会认知亚领域与社会功能障碍之间关系中的作用。我们使用社会功能评定量表来评估社会功能障碍，使用错误察觉测验来评估精神分裂症患者和 40 名年龄匹配的健康对照组的心理理论（ToM）。与健康对照组相比，精神分裂症患者的 ToM 更差，社会功能障碍更严重，血浆催产素水平更低。对所有参与者进行的 pooled 相关分析显示，血浆催产素水平与 ToM 和社会功能障碍显著相关。在精神分裂症患者中，血浆催产素水平与情感成分而非认知成分的 ToM 呈正相关，而血浆催产素水平对社会功能的影响部分通过情感 ToM 来介导。我们的研究结果强调了催产素作为精神分裂症患者 ToM 和社会功能潜在预测因子的重要性。未来对精神分裂症中催产素的研究可能值得关注受影响的行为领域，例如社会认知，而不是诊断，并且应该将靶向领域进一步细分为更详细的亚领域。
