title: Clinical utility of the Multiple Errands Test in schizophrenia: A preliminary assessment.
abstract: Schizophrenia (SZ) is a chronic, severe disease, which results in misperception of reality, major social withdrawal, and cognitive disturbances. One type of cognitive disturbance, known as executive dysfunction, is widely considered as a primary determinant of functional outcome. However, classic neuropsychological measures of executive functioning (EF) poorly represent patients' functional outcome, and thus seem inappropriate for evaluating the real-world functional impact of diseases such as SZ. We hypothesized that the Multiple Errands Test (MET), an ecological assessment of executive function would show greater ability to measure everyday adaptive functioning SZ, compared to conventional EF assessment methods. 100 clinically stable SZ patients were administered the MET, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test - 64 and a paper version of MET. Correlation analyses were performed between each EF measure and functional outcome, as measured by the Social Autonomy Scale (SAS). After adjusting for age, education, IQ and illness duration, SAS was significantly predicted by MET global score. No other EF measure correlated with SAS. Results from this study suggest that MET offers a valuable prediction of daily life functional outcome in this large sample of SZ patients. Therefore, it could be used as a complementary measure to improve the identification of executive dysfunctions prior to psychosocial interventions.
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France; INSERM, U955, Translational Psychiatry, Créteil F94000, France; Fondation FondaMental, Créteil F94000, France. Electronic address: ewa.bulzacka@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ewa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bulzacka
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Gwenaëlle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Delourme
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hutin
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Burban
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Méary
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U955, Translational Psychiatry, Créteil F94000, France; Fondation FondaMental, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lajnef
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France; INSERM, U955, Translational Psychiatry, Créteil F94000, France; Fondation FondaMental, Créteil F94000, France; Université Paris-Est, Faculté de Médecine, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leboyer
authors.affiliation: Pôle de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor, DHU PePSY, AP-HP, Créteil F94000, France; INSERM, U955, Translational Psychiatry, Créteil F94000, France; Fondation FondaMental, Créteil F94000, France; Université Paris-Est, Faculté de Médecine, Créteil F94000, France.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schürhoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognition; Ecological; Executive function; MET; Prognosis