From “What” to “How”: The Effort to Fill the Gaps in Understanding Cognitive Processes Underpinning Remission in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Introduction: The accumulation of robust evidence culminated in the establishment of the cognitive deficits as a core symptom of Schizophrenia (SCZ). To date, there has been reliable evidence that cognitive deficits are associated with poor symptomatic outcomes in SCZ. Nevertheless, they have not been incorporated in definitions of remission and a systematic understanding of how cognition contributes to remission is still lacking. Although the standardized remission in SCZ criteria proposed in 2005 has encouraged studies to understand the role of cognitive function in symptomatic remission from SCZ, most investigations were cross-sectional and have studied samples of chronically ill patients. The purpose of the present study was to bring together the efforts of recent follow-up studies in early in earlier stages of the disease to fill the gap in the literature on understanding how cognitive impairment is related to remission.