title: Deficits in social cognition in first episode psychosis: A review of the literature.
abstract: Individuals with chronic schizophrenia (SCZ) consistently show impairments in social cognition (SC) that are associated with functional decline, and work suggests that similar associations exist in first-episode psychosis (FEP). The goal of the current article is to review and synthesize the current body of work examining SC in FEP. Secondary aims are to examine the relationship between SC and symptoms, and change in SC over time in FEP.
  
  
  
  Literature is reviewed from four key SC domains: emotion processing (EP), theory of mind (ToM), social perception (SP), and attributional style (AS). Targeted searches of PsycINFO and Google Scholar were conducted to identify relevant manuscripts.
  
  
  
  Data from 48 relevant studies (6 longitudinal) were reviewed and integrated.
  
  
  
  (1) FEP individuals show consistent deficits in SC compared to healthy controls, most consistently in EP (particularly, fear and sadness recognition) and ToM compared to SP and AS, (2) individuals with FEP and SCZ show comparable SC deficits, (3) some evidence indicates SC deficits in FEP are associated with negative and positive symptoms, and (4) SC appears to be stable over time in FEP.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States. Electronic address: kmhealey@email.unc.edu.
authors: Kristin M
authors: KM
authors: Healey
authors: Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; The Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Cali F
authors: CF
authors: Bartholomeusz
authors: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors: David L
authors: DL
authors: Penn
mesh_terms: D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Early psychosis; Emotion processing; First episode psychosis; Schizophrenia; Social cognition; Theory of mind