title: Psychosocial functioning in first-episode psychosis and associations with neurocognition, social cognition, psychotic and affective symptoms.
abstract: Most studies on the determinants of psychosocial functioning in first-episode psychosis used few predictors. This study examines the effects of multiple cognitive domains and multiple symptoms on psychosocial functioning.
  
  
  
  A total of 162 patients with a first-episode psychosis were assessed within 3 months after referral to an early psychosis treatment department. Four psychopathological subdomains (positive and negative symptoms, depression and anxiety) and five subdomains of psychosocial functioning (work/study, relationships, self-care, disturbing behaviour and general psychosocial functioning) were measured. Neurocognitive and social cognitive factors were identified through principal component analyses (PCA) of a 15-measure cognitive battery. Stepwise backward regression models were computed to identify the determinants of psychosocial functioning.
  
  
  
  The three neurocognitive and four social cognitive factors identified through PCA were largely independent of psychopathology. The strongest associations were between cognitive factors and anxiety. Higher levels of negative symptoms, poor general neurocognition and poor general social cognition showed strongest associations with impaired psychosocial functioning, followed by low verbal processing speed and low emotion processing speed. Together, these factors accounted for 39.4% of the variance in psychosocial functioning.
  
  
  
  The results suggest that negative symptoms, impaired neurocognition and poor social cognition are related to psychosocial problems in patients with first-episode psychosis. None of the affective or positive symptoms had a marked impact on psychosocial functioning.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Early Psychosis, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Luyken H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Stouten
authors.affiliation: Centre for Early Psychosis, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Veling
authors.affiliation: Centre for Early Psychosis, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Winfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Laan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Early Psychosis, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mischa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van der Helm
authors.affiliation: Centre for Early Psychosis, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.|Department of Clinical Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.|EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van der Gaag
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D061345:Early Medical Intervention; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011584:Psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D066107:Social Skills; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: first-episode psychosis; neurocognition; psychopathology; psychosocial functioning; social cognition