Cotter, J., Bartholomeusz, C., Papas, A., Allott, K., Nelson, B., Yung, A. R. and Thompson, Andrew David (2017) Examining the association between social cognition and functioning in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 51 (1). pp. 83-92. doi:10.1177/0004867415622691

PDF WRAP_anzjp_-_document_with_track_changes.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (937Kb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Objective: Social and role functioning are compromised for the majority of individuals at ultra-high risk of psychosis, and it is important to identify factors that contribute to this functional decline. This study aimed to investigate social cognitive abilities, which have previously been linked to functioning in schizophrenia, as potential factors that impact social, role and global functioning in ultra-high risk patients. Method: A total of 30 ultra-high risk patients were recruited from an established at-risk clinical service in Melbourne, Australia, and completed a battery of social cognitive, neurocognitive, clinical and functioning measures. We examined the relationships between all four core domains of social cognition (emotion recognition, theory of mind, social perception and attributional style), neurocognitive, clinical and demographic variables with three measures of functioning (the Global Functioning Social and Role scales and the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale) using correlational and multiple regression analyses. Results: Performance on a visual theory of mind task (visual jokes task) was significantly correlated with both concurrent role (r = 0.425, p = 0.019) and global functioning (r = 0.540, p = 0.002). In multivariate analyses, it also accounted for unique variance in global, but not role functioning after adjusting for negative symptoms and stress. Social functioning was not associated with performance on any of the social cognition tasks. Conclusion: Among specific social cognitive abilities, only a test of theory of mind was associated with functioning in our ultra-high risk sample. Further longitudinal research is needed to examine the impact of social cognitive deficits on long-term functional outcome in the ultra-high risk group. Identifying social cognitive abilities that significantly impact functioning is important to inform the development of targeted intervention programmes for ultra-high risk individuals.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine
Divisions:	Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Mental Health and Wellbeing Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Psychoses -- Risk factors , Social perception , Neuropsychological tests , Philosophy of mind
Journal or Publication Title:	Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
Publisher:	Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN:	0004-8674
Official Date:	1 January 2017
Dates:	Date Event 1 January 2017 Published 23 December 2015 Available
Date of first compliant deposit:	23 January 2017
Volume:	51
Number:	1
Page Range:	pp. 83-92
DOI:	10.1177/0004867415622691
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Pfizer Inc.
Open Access Version:	Publisher

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads