title: Do better communication skills promote sheltered employment in schizophrenia?
abstract: Alongside various psychopathological symptoms and neurocognitive dysfunctions, communication skill impairments may be considered core feature of schizophrenia. Although many studies examined the relation between employment status and neurocognition in schizophrenia, we still know very little about the role of communication skills in vocational status among people with schizophrenia. The purpose of this study is to identify the most characteristic communication, neurocognitive and social cognition differences which separate the employed schizophrenia outpatients from those who do not work. The study included three groups: 33 schizophrenia outpatients employed in social firms, 29 unemployed schizophrenia outpatients participating in occupational therapy and sex & age matched 31 healthy controls. We assessed communication skills, global cognitive functioning, executive functions, memory, social cognition as well as severity of psychopathology. Our results indicate that the most characteristic differences between employed and unemployed schizophrenia outpatients are associated with selective language and communication skills, i.e. paralinguistic aspects of communication, understanding of discrete meaning of linguistic context and figurative meaning of language. We find no significant differences between both clinical groups with regard to neurocognition and social cognition. Moreover, unemployed group had more severe psychopathology than the employed group, so we re-analyzed results controlling for symptom severity. The only differences that endured were related to general communication skills and explanation of pictured metaphors, but only when controlling solely for positive or negative syndrome. In conclusion, the present study indicates that employment in schizophrenia is associated with better symptomatic remission and communication skills, but not with better neurocognition and social cognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Psychiatry, Chair of Psychiatry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Psychosis Research and Psychotherapy Unit, Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care, Krakow, Poland. Electronic address: przemyslaw.adamczyk@mailplus.pl.
authors.forename: Przemysław
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Adamczyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Psychiatry, Chair of Psychiatry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Psychosis Research and Psychotherapy Unit, Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daren
authors.affiliation: Psychosis Research and Psychotherapy Unit, Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sułecka
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Psychiatry, Chair of Psychiatry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Błądziński
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Psychiatry, Chair of Psychiatry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Łukasz
authors.initials: Ł
authors.lastname: Cichocki
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Psychiatry, Chair of Psychiatry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Aneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalisz
authors.affiliation: II Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Łukasz
authors.initials: Ł
authors.lastname: Gawęda
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Psychiatry, Chair of Psychiatry, Medical College, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Psychosis Research and Psychotherapy Unit, Association for the Development of Psychiatry and Community Care, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cechnicki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003142:Communication; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009788:Occupational Therapy; D010045:Outpatients; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000534:rehabilitation; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D066107:Social Skills
keywords: Communication skills; Neurocognitive functioning; Occupational therapy; Schizophrenia; Sheltered employment; Vocational activity