TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying at-risk states beyond positive symptoms
T2 - a brief task assessing how neurocognitive impairments impact on misrepresentation of the social world through blunted emotional appraisal
AU - Galdos, Mariana
AU - Simons, Claudia J P
AU - Wichers, Marieke
AU - Fernandez-Rivas, Aranzazu
AU - Martinez-Azumendi, Oscar
AU - Lataster, Tineke
AU - Amer, Guillermo
AU - Myin-Germeys, Inez
AU - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel
AU - van Os, Jim
PY - 2011/10
Y1 - 2011/10
N2 - OBJECTIVE: Neurocognitive impairments observed in psychotic disorder may impact on emotion recognition and theory of mind, resulting in altered understanding of the social world. Early intervention efforts would be served by further elucidation of this mechanism.METHOD: Patients with a psychotic disorder (n=30) and a reference control group (n=310) were asked to offer emotional appraisals of images of social situations (EASS task). The degree to which case-control differences in appraisals were mediated by neurocognitive alterations was analyzed.RESULTS: The EASS task displayed convergent and discriminant validity. Compared to controls, patients displayed blunted emotional appraisal of social situations (B=0.52, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.74, P<0.001; adjusted for age, sex and number of years of education: B=0.44, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.68, P<0.001), a difference of 0.88 (adjusted: 0.75) standard deviation. After adjustment for neurocognitive variables, the case-control difference was reduced by nearly 75% and was non-significant (B=0.12, 95% CI: -0.14, 0.39, P=0.37).CONCLUSIONS: Neurocognitive impairments observed in patients with psychotic disorder may underlie misrepresentation of the social world, mediated by altered emotion recognition. A task assessing the social impact of cognitive alterations in clinical practice may be useful in detecting key alterations very early in the course of psychotic illness.
AB - OBJECTIVE: Neurocognitive impairments observed in psychotic disorder may impact on emotion recognition and theory of mind, resulting in altered understanding of the social world. Early intervention efforts would be served by further elucidation of this mechanism.METHOD: Patients with a psychotic disorder (n=30) and a reference control group (n=310) were asked to offer emotional appraisals of images of social situations (EASS task). The degree to which case-control differences in appraisals were mediated by neurocognitive alterations was analyzed.RESULTS: The EASS task displayed convergent and discriminant validity. Compared to controls, patients displayed blunted emotional appraisal of social situations (B=0.52, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.74, P<0.001; adjusted for age, sex and number of years of education: B=0.44, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.68, P<0.001), a difference of 0.88 (adjusted: 0.75) standard deviation. After adjustment for neurocognitive variables, the case-control difference was reduced by nearly 75% and was non-significant (B=0.12, 95% CI: -0.14, 0.39, P=0.37).CONCLUSIONS: Neurocognitive impairments observed in patients with psychotic disorder may underlie misrepresentation of the social world, mediated by altered emotion recognition. A task assessing the social impact of cognitive alterations in clinical practice may be useful in detecting key alterations very early in the course of psychotic illness.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adult
KW - Case-Control Studies
KW - Cognition
KW - Early Diagnosis
KW - Educational Status
KW - Emotions
KW - Facial Expression
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Interpersonal Relations
KW - Male
KW - Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
KW - Psychotic Disorders
KW - Recognition (Psychology)
KW - Schizophrenic Psychology
KW - Social Behavior
KW - Young Adult
KW - Journal Article
M3 - Article
C2 - 22286567
SN - 1516-4446
VL - 33 Suppl 2
SP - 175
EP - 196
JO - Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria
JF - Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria
ER -