TY - JOUR

T1 - Subjective cognitive complaints in schizophrenia

T2 - relation to antipsychotic medication dose, actual cognitive performance, insight and symptoms

AU - Sellwood, William

AU - Morrison, Anthony P.

AU - Beck, Rosie

AU - Heffernan, Suzanne

AU - Law, Heather

AU - Bentall, Richard P.

N1 - Copyright: 2013 Sellwood et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2013/12/20

Y1 - 2013/12/20

N2 - Background: Subjective cognitive complaints are prevalent in those affected by functional psychoses and a variety of possible associated factors have been investigated. However, few studies have examined these potential factors within single studies or analyses.Methods: Patients with a history of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 115) and a non-clinical comparison group (n = 45) completed the Subjective Scale to Investigate Cognition in Schizophrenia (SSTICS) and the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS). The patient group also completed the Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale (PANSS), the Birchwood Insight Scale (IS), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).Results: The BACS and SSTICS scores were associated in the non-clinical comparison group, but not in the patient group. In the patient group worse subjective cognition was associated positively with good insight, greater dysphoria and greater positive symptoms. Linear regression revealed that, once other variables had been accounted for, dysphoria (HADS anxiety and depression factor) was the only significant predictor of SSTICS scores.Conclusions: Subjective cognitive impairment in patients with psychosis in the absence of formal testing should not be taken as evidence of impaired cognitive functioning. Mood should be investigated when patients present with subjective cognitive complaints.

AB - Background: Subjective cognitive complaints are prevalent in those affected by functional psychoses and a variety of possible associated factors have been investigated. However, few studies have examined these potential factors within single studies or analyses.Methods: Patients with a history of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 115) and a non-clinical comparison group (n = 45) completed the Subjective Scale to Investigate Cognition in Schizophrenia (SSTICS) and the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS). The patient group also completed the Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale (PANSS), the Birchwood Insight Scale (IS), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).Results: The BACS and SSTICS scores were associated in the non-clinical comparison group, but not in the patient group. In the patient group worse subjective cognition was associated positively with good insight, greater dysphoria and greater positive symptoms. Linear regression revealed that, once other variables had been accounted for, dysphoria (HADS anxiety and depression factor) was the only significant predictor of SSTICS scores.Conclusions: Subjective cognitive impairment in patients with psychosis in the absence of formal testing should not be taken as evidence of impaired cognitive functioning. Mood should be investigated when patients present with subjective cognitive complaints.

KW - CALGARY-DEPRESSION-SCALE

KW - ULTRA-HIGH RISK

KW - NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS

KW - OBJECTIVE MEASURES

KW - RATING-SCALE

KW - DYSFUNCTION

KW - BELIEFS

KW - REPLICATION

KW - RELIABILITY

KW - OUTPATIENTS

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0083774

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0083774

M3 - Journal article

VL - 8

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 12

M1 - 83774

ER -