Verbal memory, negative symptomatology and prediction of psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia

Abstract Negative symptomatology and neurocognitive variables have been considered good predictors of functional outcome in schizophrenia. Specifically, secondary verbal memory has been proposed to be one of the main predictors of psychosocial functioning. In this study, negative symptoms and memory...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychiatry research 2008-02, Vol.158 (1), p.11-17
Main Authors: Puig, Olga, Penadés, Rafael, Gastó, Cristobal, Catalán, Rosa, Torres, Anna, Salamero, Manel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Affect
Biological and medical sciences
Chronic Disease
Chronic schizophrenia
Cognition
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis
Cognition Disorders - epidemiology
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Female
Humans
Intelligence
Male
Medical sciences
Memory Disorders - diagnosis
Memory Disorders - epidemiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Outcome
Predictive Value of Tests
Prevalence
Psychiatry
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - diagnosis
Schizophrenia - epidemiology
Severity of Illness Index
Symptoms
Verbal Behavior
Wechsler Scales
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Summary:Abstract Negative symptomatology and neurocognitive variables have been considered good predictors of functional outcome in schizophrenia. Specifically, secondary verbal memory has been proposed to be one of the main predictors of psychosocial functioning. In this study, negative symptoms and memory performance were analyzed for associations with psychosocial function. Linear regression methods were used to analyze the value of verbal memory and negative symptomatology as predictors of everyday life skills in a sample of 29 DSM-IV schizophrenia outpatients with predominant negative symptoms. We also took into account the role of gender in the analyses. Secondary verbal memory was found to explain 40% of the variance in psychosocial functioning, independently of gender, whereas the negative symptoms predicted 26%. When both variables were combined, the explained variance was about 49%. These results support the hypothesis that cognitive variables are better predictors than symptomatology. Finally, secondary verbal memory is a good predictor of psychosocial functioning in chronic schizophrenia with predominant negative symptomatology.
ISSN:0165-1781
1872-7123
DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2007.04.017