An examination of neurocognition and symptoms as predictors of post-hospital community tenure in treatment resistant schizophrenia.

Neurocognition and psychopathology are robust predictors of community functioning and relapse/rehospitalization in schizophrenia. Existing studies are however limited because they have ignored the most chronic, treatment-resistant patients. Moreover, the prediction of functional outcomes has yet to be extended to the duration of community tenure, an indicator of the capacity of chronically-hospitalized patients to gain traction in the community. The current study examined neurocognition and symptom severity at discharge as potential predictors of community tenure in chronically-hospitalized treatment-resistant patients. The study recruited 90 people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who received services on an inpatient unit. Participants completed measures of psychopathology and neurocognition prior to discharge. Following discharge, participants were tracked at current residences six months and one year post-discharge to assess community tenure. The percentage of individuals who continued to live in the community at 12-month follow-up was 51%. Severe negative symptoms but not neurocognitive impairment or positive symptoms was a significant predictor of shorter post-hospital community tenure. Of the negative symptoms domain, anhedonia-asociality proved to be the most relevant predictor of community tenure in the sample. The capacity to elicit goal-directed behaviors in response to anticipated physical and social rewards may be an important treatment target for sustaining community tenure.

Insight and recovery from psychosis in chronic schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder patients.

Impaired insight is an important contributing factor to poor treatment response and outcome in schizophrenia. Prior studies have attempted to identify the illness characteristics that underlie these deficits, with conflicting results regarding associations with symptoms and neurocognitive deficits. These inconsistencies may be a function of a number of methodological issues, which were addressed in this study. In a prospective, longitudinal study, 50 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder underwent baseline assessments upon discharge from an acute inpatient unit, and again at a 6-month follow-up. Unawareness of positive and negative symptoms were studied separately, with analyses focusing on changes in insight over time as well as associations with disorganized symptoms, depression, and card sorting deficits. Subjects showed greater insight for negative symptoms than for positive symptoms. Insight for positive symptoms improved only slightly over the follow-up period, while negative symptom awareness did not change. Insight for negative symptoms showed modest associations with card sorting deficits, while awareness for positive symptoms showed stronger associations with thought disorder, depression, and card sorting deficits. Awareness for positive symptoms in schizophrenia may be distinct from awareness of negative symptoms. Clinicians should also be aware of the multidetermined nature of impaired insight, and future research should aim to isolate distinct mechanisms that give rise to these deficits.