title: The association of neurocognitive impairment with diminished expression and apathy in schizophrenia.
abstract: Negative symptoms can be grouped into the two dimensions of diminished expression and apathy, which have been shown to be dissociable regarding external validators, such as functional outcome. Here, we investigated whether these two dimensions differentially relate to neurocognitive impairment in schizophrenia. 47 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 33 healthy control participants were subjected to a neurocognitive test battery assessing multiple cognitive domains (processing speed, working memory, verbal fluency, verbal learning and memory, mental planning), which are integrated into a composite cognition score. Negative symptoms in patients were assessed using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale. We found that diminished expression significantly related to neurocognitive impairment, while severity of apathy symptoms was not directly associated with neurocognition. Other assessed clinical variables include chlorpromazine equivalents, positive symptoms, and depressive symptoms and did not influence the results. Our results are in line with a cognitive resource limitation model of diminished expression in schizophrenia and indicate that cognitive remediation therapy might be helpful to ameliorate expressive deficits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: matthias.hartmann@uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Matthias N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Hartmann-Riemer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Oliver M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Hager
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kirschner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bischof
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Agne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kluge
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Erich
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seifritz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaiser
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057565:Apathy / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Amotivation; Flat affect; Neuropsychology; Schizophrenia