Social cognition, empathy and functional outcome in schizophrenia

Affective empathy in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

“…This finding extends to meta-analyses including tasks to assess emotional perspective-taking (Bora et al, 2009;Savla et al, 2013), and newer literature with more recently developed performance-based tasks assessing emotional perspective-taking provides additional support for deficits in cognitive empathy in people with schizophrenia (Derntl et al, 2012a;Derntl et al, 2012b;Smith et al, 2014). Additional literature further indicates impairments in self-reported cognitive empathy (e.g., see Corbera et al, 2013;Fischer-Shofty et al, 2013;Michaels et al, 2014;Shamay-Tsoory et al, 2007;Singh et al, 2015;Sparks et al, 2010). Some interventions have been designed to foster cognitive empathy in people diagnosed with schizophrenia, such as Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (Lysaker et al, 2007;Lysaker et al, 2010;Van Donkersgoed et al, 2014) and training to enhance understanding of thoughts, behavioral motivations and emotions in video tasks that are often used to assess aspects of cognitive empathy (Kayser et al, 2006).…”

“…For example, Fett and colleagues (2011) found a significant, moderate association between cognitive empathy and community functioning. However, studies examining overall or affective empathy with functioning in this population are disparate and have not been synthesized, with some literature indicating an association between overall or affective empathy and aspects of social functioning (Michaels et al, 2014;Shamay-Tsoory et al, 2007;Smith et al, 2014;Smith et al, 2012) while other studies indicate no relationship (Corbera et al, 2013;Haker and Rössler, 2009;Sparks et al, 2010).…”

“…Several studies have found an association between affective or overall empathy and negative symptoms (Bora et al, 2008;Kucharska-Pietura et al, 2012;Lincoln et al, 2011;Shamay-Tsoory et al, 2007;Smith et al, 2014;Sparks et al, 2010); associations have also been found with positive symptoms (Konstantakopoulos et al, 2014;Lysaker et al, 2013;Smith et al, 2014;Sparks et al, 2010), depression (Abramowitz et al, 2014;Didehbani et al, 2012;Horan et al, 2015), anxiety (Achim et al, 2011), and insight (Didehbani et al, 2012;Lysaker et al, 2013;Pijnenborg et al, 2013). However, though several studies report significant relationships with symptoms, as many studies have reported no association (Corbera et al, 2013;Derntl et al, 2012a;Derntl et al, 2012b;Fresán et al, 2015;Fujino et al, 2014;Fujiwara et al, 2008;Lam et al, 2014;Lehmann et al, 2014;McCormick et al, 2012;Montag et al, 2007).…”

Negative correlation between cerebrospinal fluid oxytocin levels and negative symptoms of male patients with schizophrenia

“…Deficits in social functioning observed in psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia (Couture et al, 2006;Sparks et al, 2010) and mood disorders (Inoue et al, 2004;Montag et al, 2010;Wolkenstein et al, 2011) imply the possible involvement of oxytocin in the pathophysiology of these disorders. Many studies have investigated the possible link between oxytocin and psychiatric disorders.…”

The Role of Personality Functioning in Treatment Outcomes during the Long-Term Treatment with Atypical Antipsychotics in Stable Schizophrenia Patients

“…Further patient-oriented movement is seen in the concept of recovery that focuses on patient's ability to cope with life's challenges and to manage symptoms [7]. During the last years, more and more publications have presented descriptions of the effects of illness management programs, methods of assessment of recovery [8][9][10], and impact of patient's personality on functioning and well-being [11][12][13][14].…”