Assessment of social judgments and complex mental states in the early phases of psychosis.
OBJECTIVE
Social cognition plays an important role in the functioning of individuals with psychosis. In this study, we explored two areas of social cognition not previously investigated early in the course of psychosis.


METHODS
Eighty-eight clinical high risk participants, 26 participants diagnosed with schizophrenia for less than 5 years, and 41 non-clinical control participants completed two measures of social cognition.


RESULTS
Clinical high risk participants demonstrated biased responses to untrustworthy faces compared to both of the other groups. Early schizophrenia participants performed more poorly on an advanced theory of mind task compared to the clinical high risk and control groups.


CONCLUSIONS
There are different patterns of performance on social cognitive tasks in these groups, which require further examination in longitudinal studies.
Couture
Shannon M
SM
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology, CB#3270, Davie hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270, USA. Shannon.Couture@manchester.ac.uk
Penn
David L
DL
Addington
Jean
J
Woods
Scott W
SW
Perkins
Diana O
DO
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D035061:Control Groups; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D013850:Thinking; D014796:Visual Perception