Level of structural integration in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders - applicability and associations with clinical parameters

The variable results of positive-negative research with schizophrenics underscore the importance of well-characterized, standardized measurement techniques. We report on the development and initial standardization of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for typological and dimensional assessment. Based on two established psychiatric rating systems, the 30-item PANSS was conceived as an operationalized, drug-sensitive instrument that provides balanced representation of positive and negative symptoms and gauges their relationship to one another and to global psychopathology. It thus constitutes four scales measuring positive and negative syndromes, their differential, and general severity of illness. Study of 101 schizophrenics found the four scales to be normally distributed and supported their reliability and stability. Positive and negative scores were inversely correlated once their common association with general psychopathology was extracted, suggesting that they represent mutually exclusive constructs. Review of five studies involving the PANSS provided evidence of its criterion-related validity with antecedent, genealogical, and concurrent measures, its predictive validity, its drug sensitivity, and its utility for both typological and dimensional assessment. Show more

Social cognition is strongly associated with functional outcome in schizophrenia, making it an important target for treatment. Our goal was to examine the average magnitude of differences between schizophrenia patients (SCs) and normal comparison (NCs) patients across multiple domains of social cognition recognized by the recent NIMH consensus statement: theory of mind (ToM), social perception, social knowledge, attributional bias, emotion perception, and emotion processing. We conducted a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed studies of social cognition in schizophrenia, published between 1980 and November, 2011. 112 studies reporting results from 3908 SCs and 3570 NCs met our inclusion criteria. SCs performed worse than NCs across all domains, with large effects for social perception (g = 1.04), ToM (g = 0.96), emotion perception (g = 0.89), and emotion processing (g = 0.88). Regression analyses showed that statistically significant heterogeneity in effects within domains was not explained by age, education, or gender. Greater deficits in social and emotion perception were associated with inpatient status, and greater deficits in emotion processing were associated with longer illness duration. Despite the limitations of existing studies, including lack of standardization or psychometric validation of measures, the evidence for deficits across multiple social cognitive domains in schizophrenia is clear. Future research should examine the role of neurobiological and psychosocial factors in models linking various aspects of deficit in schizophrenia, including social cognition, in order to identify targets for intervention. Show more

Meta-analyses have demonstrated the efficacy of various interventions for psychosis, and a small number of studies have compared such interventions. The aim of this study was to provide further insight into the relative efficacy of psychological interventions for psychosis. Forty-eight outcome trials comparing psychological interventions for psychosis were identified. The comparisons included 3,295 participants. Categorization of interventions resulted in six interventions being compared against other interventions pooled. Hedges' g was calculated for all comparisons. Risk of bias was assessed using four items of the Cochrane risk of bias tool, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. Researcher allegiance was assessed, and sensitivity analyses were conducted for robust significant findings. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) was significantly more efficacious than other interventions pooled in reducing positive symptoms (g=0.16). This finding was robust in all sensitivity analyses for risk of bias but lost significance in sensitivity analyses for researcher allegiance, which suffered from low power. Social skills training was significantly more efficacious in reducing negative symptoms (g=0.27). This finding was robust in sensitivity analyses for risk of bias and researcher allegiance. Significant findings for CBT, social skills training, and cognitive remediation for overall symptoms were not robust after sensitivity analyses. CBT was significantly more efficacious when compared directly with befriending for overall symptoms (g=0.42) and supportive counseling for positive symptoms (g=0.23). There are small but reliable differences in efficacy between psychological interventions for psychosis, and they occur in a pattern consistent with the specific factors of particular interventions. Show more