Perceptions of and Subjective Difficulties with Social Cognition: An Unmet Medical Need in the Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia

A research group led by Prof. Takahiro Nemoto, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Toho University Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. Ryo Okubo, Department of Clinical Data Science, Clinical Research & Education Promotion Division, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, performed an Internet survey as part of a research and development project funded by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).
This survey investigated the perceptions of social cognition (such as the ability to interpret emotions from an individual’s facial expressions and voice inflections and the ability to guess an individual’s intention) and subjective difficulties with social cognition in the real-world settings among patients with schizophrenia.
The results of this survey were published in Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, the official Journal of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, on June 30, 2022.

Key messages from the study:

Patients with schizophrenia often show impairments in social cognition, the ability that is underlying basis for effective interpersonal relationships, which consequently leads to significant challenges in their social lives, including at work and school. There is growing focus on efforts to improve social cognition of patients with schizophrenia.
The results of the survey indicated that only 23.0% of patients with schizophrenia were aware of the term “social cognition,” and only 3.9% had received treatment for impaired social cognition, but 64.8% were aware that social cognition affects social functioning
Compared with healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia experienced greater subjective difficulties with social cognition, and these difficulties were significantly and negatively associated with their social functioning.
This study highlights that the efforts to improve social cognition are an unmet medical need among patients with schizophrenia.

Journal:
Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences

Title:
Perceptions of and subjective difficulties with social cognition in schizophrenia from an internet survey: Knowledge, clinical experiences, and awareness of association with social functioning

Authors:
Takashi Uchino, Ryo Okubo, Youji Takubo, Akiko Aoki, Izumi Wada, Naoki Hashimoto, Satoru Ikezawa, Takahiro Nemoto*（* Corresponding author）

DOI No.
10.1111/pcn.13435

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