title: Examining the association between social cognition and functioning in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Social and role functioning are compromised for the majority of individuals at ultra-high risk of psychosis, and it is important to identify factors that contribute to this functional decline. This study aimed to investigate social cognitive abilities, which have previously been linked to functioning in schizophrenia, as potential factors that impact social, role and global functioning in ultra-high risk patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30 ultra-high risk patients were recruited from an established at-risk clinical service in Melbourne, Australia, and completed a battery of social cognitive, neurocognitive, clinical and functioning measures. We examined the relationships between all four core domains of social cognition (emotion recognition, theory of mind, social perception and attributional style), neurocognitive, clinical and demographic variables with three measures of functioning (the Global Functioning Social and Role scales and the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale) using correlational and multiple regression analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Performance on a visual theory of mind task (visual jokes task) was significantly correlated with both concurrent role ( r = 0.425, p = 0.019) and global functioning ( r = 0.540, p = 0.002). In multivariate analyses, it also accounted for unique variance in global, but not role functioning after adjusting for negative symptoms and stress. Social functioning was not associated with performance on any of the social cognition tasks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among specific social cognitive abilities, only a test of theory of mind was associated with functioning in our ultra-high risk sample. Further longitudinal research is needed to examine the impact of social cognitive deficits on long-term functional outcome in the ultra-high risk group. Identifying social cognitive abilities that significantly impact functioning is important to inform the development of targeted intervention programmes for ultra-high risk individuals.
authors.affiliation: 1 Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cotter
authors.affiliation: 2 Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.|3 Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Cali
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartholomeusz
authors.affiliation: 2 Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.|3 Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papas
authors.affiliation: 2 Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.|3 Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Allott
authors.affiliation: 2 Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.|3 Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Barnaby
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: 1 Institute of Brain, Behaviour and Mental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Alison R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Yung
authors.affiliation: 4 Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012306:Risk; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Functioning; prodrome; psychosis; social cognition; theory of mind; ultra-high risk