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Introduction: Impairments in Social Cognition (SC) in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) were reported exclusively using neurocognitive tests. Aim of this study is (1) to assess subjective experience of SC in FEP adolescent and young adults compared to non-FEP help-seeking peers, (2) to investigate any significant association of SC with psychopathology and functioning in FEP individuals; and (3) to monitor longitudinally the stability of SC after a 2-year follow-up period. Methods: Participants (141 FEP and 98 non-FEP), aged 13-35 years, completed the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS) and the GEOPTE scale of SC for psychosis. Within the FEP group, a multiple linear regression analysis (with GEOPTE total scores as independent variables and CAARMS dimension subscores as dependent variables) was also performed. Results: In comparison with non-FEP, FEP patients showed significantly higher GEOPTE SC scores. After both 12 and 24 months of follow-up, FEP subjects had a significant decrease in severity on GEOPTE SC subscore. In the FEP group, GEOPTE total scores showed significant positive correlations with negative symptoms and general psychopathology. Regression analysis results showed a significant contribution of subjective SC in predicting depression. Conclusions - SC deficits are prominent in FEP patients, where at baseline seems to be associated with negative symptoms and to predict clinical depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Impairments in Social Cognition (SC) in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) were reported exclusively using neurocognitive tests. Aim of this study is (1) to assess subjective experience of SC in FEP adolescent and young adults compared to non-FEP help-seeking peers, (2) to investigate any significant association of SC with psychopathology and functioning in FEP individuals; and (3) to monitor longitudinally the stability of SC after a 2-year follow-up period. Methods: Participants (141 FEP and 98 non-FEP), aged 13-35 years, completed the Comprehensive Assessment of AtRisk Mental States (CAARMS) and the GEOPTE scale of SC for psychosis. Within the FEP group, a multiple linear regression analysis (with GEOPTE total scores as independent variables and CAARMS dimension subscores as dependent variables) was also performed. Results: In comparison with non-FEP, FEP patients showed significantly higher GEOPTE SC scores. After both 12 and 24 months of follow-up, FEP subjects had a significant decrease in severity on GEOPTE SC subscore. In the FEP group, GEOPTE total scores showed significant positive correlations with negative symptoms and general psychopathology. Regression analysis results showed a significant contribution of subjective SC in predicting depression. Conclusions – SC deficits are prominent in FEP patients, where at baseline seems to be associated with negative symptoms and to predict clinical depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. This study aimed to describe and compare socio-demographic, background, treatment history, and service use, psychopathological and psychosocial characteristics of At-Risk Mental States (ARMS) and First-Episode Psychosis (FEP) patients from the Sant Pere Claver-Early Psychosis Program (SPC-EPP) in Barcelona. Methods. 43 ARMS-patients and 40 FEP-patients were assessed with several clinical and psychosocial measures at study baseline. Results. Clinical and psychosocial characteristics of the SPC-EPP sample were comparable to those of previous early psychosis studies. Overall, the socio-demographic and clinical background characteristics appeared to be mostly similar between ARMS and FEP patients. As expected, groups differed on history of previous psychiatric hospitalizations and current psychiatric treatment. The age at onset of both unspecific and prodromal symptoms, and age of first specialized psychiatric/psychological treatment were earlier in ARMS than in FEP-patients. FEP-patients showed higher scores on positive symptoms, cognitive and greater overall symptom severity than ARMS-patients. ARMS-patients showed higher scores on mania, general psychopathology and a slightly lower premorbid functioning since earlyadolescence than FEP-patients. Conclusions. Findings support the notion that ARMSpatients who seek for help can be considered as already highly dysfunctional and in need of treatment, given that they already suffer from multiple mental and functional disturbances. This supports current health care efforts in providing early access to treatment to this population and signals the need to sustain pilot early detection efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objetivo: Explorar la dinámica temporal del deterioro cognitivo en pacientes no medicados en diferentes fases de la esquizofrenia. Antecedentes: El deterioro cognitivo es una característica clínica central en esquizofrenia. Mientras que un estudio reciente indicó que los individuos con esta enfermedad muestran un declive progresivo en algunos dominios cognitivos durante los primeros 10 años de padecer la enfermedad, otros estudios clínicos y de neuroimagen proponen que la mayoría de las deficiencias cognitivas están presentes ya desde el primer episodio de psicosis y permanecen estables a lo largo de la enfermedad, probablemente como resultado de la respuesta a tratamiento. Métodos: Estudiamos 3 grupos de pacientes: 1) individuos en alto riesgo de desarrollar psicosis (ARP, n=87), 2) individuos experimentando un primer episodio psicótico no afectivo (PEP, n=64) y 3) individuos con esquizofrenia crónica (EC, n=40). Los tres grupos eran vírgenes a tratamiento antipsicótico. También incluimos un grupo control de 102 sujetos sanos. La capacidad cognitiva se exploró mediante la batería neuropsicológica MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. Resultados: Tras corregir estadísticamente por género y escolaridad de los padres, todos los grupos clínicos mostraron deterioro cognitivo significativo respecto al grupo control (diferencia media (DM) para ARP=6.12; DM para PEP=16.46; DM para EC=16.37; p<.001 en todos los casos). Adicionalmente, los grupos PEP y EC mostraron peor estado cognitivo que el grupo ARP (DM=10.34 y DM=10.25, p<.001 en ambos casos), y sin diferencias significativas entre estos grupos clínicos. Una interacción significativa entre grupo y dominio cognitivo arrojó deterioro significativo global en todos los grupos clínicos, excepto en Aprendizaje verbal y visual, en los que el grupo ARP mostró desempeños similares al grupo control. En oposición, el grupo ARP mostró un desempeño tan deficiente como el de los otros grupos clínicos en el dominio de Cognición social (Figura 1). Conclusiones: Los pacientes con un PEP muestran afectación cognitiva similar a la de pacientes crónicos, mientras que el deterioro de personas en riesgo es intermedio entre los grupos con psicosis y el sano. Nuestros resultados indican un deterioro cognitivo significativo desde fases en riesgo de la psicosis y enfatizan la relevancia de la detección temprana para prevenir la discapacidad funcional en esta población. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]